| | | | | | | Presented By Amazon | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·May 17, 2021 | | 💰 Good Monday morning. It's Tax Day. - Smart Brevity™ count: 1,482 words ... 5½ minutes.
| | | | | | 1 big thing: Trump vs. the generals |  | | | Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images | | | | In a new episode of their "Off the rails" investigative series about the final days of the Trump presidency, Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu report on his war with his own generals: President Trump had a deep fascination with military rank and prestige. He initially held an image of both Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as unreconstructed 1940s generals. - Trump based this almost entirely on their appearance — "straight out of central casting," Trump would say — and in Mattis' case, his ill-fitting nickname, "Mad Dog."
- In reality, these two four-star generals disagreed with Trump on everything from the morality of torture to the wisdom of sending active-duty troops onto American streets.
In conversations with friends, SecDef Mark Esper — Mattis' successor — compared his experience of working for Trump to walking across a frozen pond. Small cracks in their relationship were appearing by the day. - The defining crack came when Esper publicly split with the president at a press conference on June 3, 2020. He said he did not know that Trump would pose for a photo op at St. John's Church after law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square.
The Lafayette episode was a turning point for both men. Esper concluded that Trump was willing to use the military to advance his election prospects and was concerned there were no boundaries. Trump concluded that his SecDef was weak. - Esper did his best to stay away from the White House through the rest of 2020.
Trump fired Esper on Nov. 9. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows called Esper to give him a heads-up just minutes before a presidential tweet named the low-profile Christopher Miller as the successor. - A request by the commander in chief to lead the Pentagon was not something that Miller, a U.S. Army veteran, felt he could turn down, despite pleas from his family and friends.
- Miller told associates he had three goals for the final weeks of the Trump administration: #1: No major war. #2: No military coup. #3: No troops fighting citizens on the streets.
Go deeper: Read the full episode. ... Read the series. - 🎧 Hear Jonathan Swan on Axios' investigative podcast series, "How it happened: Trump's last stand."
|     | | | | | | 2. 👀 Trump talks to Swan — again |  | | | This portrait of President Trump in the National Portrait Gallery — a photo by Pari Dukovic — went on display to the public for the first time Friday, as Smithsonian buildings reopen. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images | | | | For this episode of "Off the rails," Jonathan Swan interviewed former President Trump, who criticized former Defense Secretary Mark Esper for writing what he described as a "very woke" message to the military. - A June 2020 memo from Esper focused on efforts for "Improving Diversity and Inclusion" at the Pentagon.
Why it matters: Trump snapped whenever he saw his Pentagon leaders take actions he perceived as weak or politically correct. On leaving Afghanistan, Trump said in the interview that he had concerns about leaving behind billions of dollars of equipment during a rushed, logistically complex withdrawal. - "You remember those scenes [in Vietnam] with the helicopters, right, with people grabbing onto the gear? You don't want that. And I wouldn't have that," he said.
Still, Trump had signed an extraordinary "withdrawal in eight weeks" order — without consulting national security officials — to get all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan before President Biden took office. - Trump's top advisers, aligned against the plan, talked him out of it by painting a vivid picture of Kabul falling to the Taliban if U.S. forces withdrew precipitously.
Go deeper: Read the full episode. ... Read the series. - 🎧 Hear Jonathan Swan on Axios' investigative podcast series, "How it happened: Trump's last stand."
| | | | | | | | 3. The new digital extortion |  | | | Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | If you run a hospital, a bank, a utility or a city, chances are you'll be hit with a ransomware attack. Given the choice between losing your precious data or paying up, chances are you'll pay, Kim Hart writes in her new weekly column, "Tech Agenda." - Why it matters: Paying the hackers is the clear short-term answer for most organizations hit with these devastating attacks. But it's a long-term societal disaster, encouraging hackers to continue their lucrative extortion schemes.
Colonial Pipeline paid hackers almost $5 million in ransom to restore its systems and get gasoline flowing again after a ransomware attack held the country's largest pipeline hostage. - "This creates a collective-action problem — the bad guys win so they'll go out and hit someone else," said Betsy Cooper, director of Aspen Tech Policy Hub at the Aspen Institute.
Payments to ransomware attackers rose 337% from 2019 to 2020, reaching more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to figures just released by Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company. - The average ransom payment rose from $12,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to $54,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | A message from Amazon | | Watch what happened when Amazon raised their starting wage to $15/hr | | |  | | | | Amazon saw the need to do more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. In 2018, they established a $15/hour starting wage, and they've seen the positive impact it's had on their employees and their families first-hand. Learn more about the company's benefits. | | | | | | 4. Franklin Graham on "Axios on HBO": Trump may be too old to run '24 |  | | | Photo: "Axios on HBO" | | | | During my "Axios on HBO" interview at his office in North Wilkesboro, N.C., the Rev. Franklin Graham said a 2024 run by his friend Donald Trump would be "very tough." - Why it matters: Graham — president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and of Samaritan's Purse, which fought COVID around the world — was among Trump's top evangelical defenders.
"[E]verything will depend on his health at that time," said Graham, who recently visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago. "If he still has energy and strength like he does. I don't." - "You know the guy does not eat well, you know, and it's amazing the energy that he has."
Graham also told "Axios on HBO" he'd be happy to work with President Biden to encourage evangelicals to get COVID vaccines. - "I would work with the Biden administration. I would work with the CDC. I would work with all of 'em to try to help save life," he said.
Why it matters: An AP/NORC poll in March found that 40% of white evangelicals are unlikely to get vaccinated, a much higher hesitancy number than other Christian groups. - Graham said he doesn't know whether a PSA by Donald Trump would help. But he said he might suggest it to him.
Watch 2 clips of Graham urging Christians to get vaccinated. | | | | | | | | 5. Merger opens door to new Jeff Zucker era |  | | | Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios | | | | Friends tell me Jeff Zucker may drop his plan to depart at year's end and instead remain head of CNN, as a result of the massive merger of AT&T-Discovery media assets to be announced as soon as today. - I'm told that nothing has been decided. But absent this tectonic media shift, Zucker — who's chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports, and president of CNN Worldwide — was gone.
- Now, the door is open for him to stay.
Why it matters: Zucker is one of the world's most experienced media executives, running a global machine with an unmatched reach and footprint. And CNN.com is the largest news-organization website. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who's golfing/Hamptons buddies with Zucker, will run the new company, Axios is told. - Zucker, 56, relishes his news and sports roles, and runs CNN with a producer's passion and eye for detail. He also could have a political career in his future.
 Data: Company filings. Chart: Axios Visuals The companies' combined assets will be a stronger competitor for Disney and Netflix in the streaming wars, Axios Sara Fischer writes. - AT&T and Discovery have both launched general entertainment streaming platforms in the past year — HBO Max and Discovery+.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 6. Israel escalates bombing as calls mount for ceasefire | | Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City early today as Israeli warplanes target the Palestinian enclave. Photo: Anas Baba/AFP via Getty Images Israel unleashed another wave of airstrikes this morning, the heaviest since the violence broke out a week ago, AP reports. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 3,100 rockets into Israel. - At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, including 55 children and 33 women. Eight people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks launched from Gaza, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.
📷 In photos: Israel-Hamas aerial bombardments enter second week. | | | | | | | | 7. Cameo creates a "whole new set of stars," CEO tells "Axios on HBO" |  | | | Photo: "Axios on HBO" | | | | Cameo — the app that lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities — is valued at over $1 billion, following its unprecedented success during the pandemic, when many Hollywood stars were out of work. CEO Steven Galanis tells Sara Fischer for "Axios on HBO" that Cameo has made over 2.5 million videos: - "The talent set their own price. ... We have data and analytics where we can help them price themselves, because we are a business that makes money when the talent make money."
Watch a clip about Cameo's new stars. Watch a clip about Cameo and politics. | | | | | | | | 8. Sneak peek: Secret Service exposé |  | | | Cover: Random House | | | | Carol Leonnig, a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post, is getting rave reviews for her shocking insider account, "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service," out tomorrow. - One Trump administration official, who oversaw the agency and studied the Service's vulnerability up close, told Leonnig: "[T]hey have to modernize ... Technology is the first thing. If anyone has seen the television show '24,' they would die if they saw what the Secret Service has. It's a joke. They would die."
- The Service, Leonnig writes, is "spread dangerously thin."
Read an excerpt. | | | | | | | | 9. Gates acknowledges affair in 2000 | | Bill and Melinda Gates at an event for their foundation in Seattle in 2000, the year of the affair. Photo: Reuters Microsoft's board decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from the board in 2020 amid an investigation into his "prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate," The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription). - A spokeswoman for Gates told The Journal: "There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably." She said his "decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier."
| | | | | | | | 10. Fashion adapts for post-pandemic lifestyle |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Handbag designers are still making compartments for hand sanitizer — and will probably continue to, Axios' Hope King and Kadia Goba write. - Camille Wright of Style Consortium, an apparel showroom, said women "cannot get enough dresses ... Everyone wants to wear a dress right now. They want to be pretty. ... Not a lot of suits and almost anything without a zipper or buttons."
- Men's purchases also suggest they're heading back to the office: They're buying a ton of tops but fewer button-ups. "Everything is kind of comfortable and kind of stretchy," says Christine Alcalay, owner and operator of Kiwi, a women's store, and Fig, a men's retailer.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | A message from Amazon | | It's time to raise the federal minimum wage | | |  | | | | The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Amazon raised their starting wage to at least $15 an hour in 2018 because it is good for workers, good for business and good for communities. That is why Amazon supports raising the federal minimum wage. | | | | 📬 Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM. | |
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