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| Presented By Walmart |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Jun 04, 2021 |
| Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,177 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu. ⚡ The number of COVID deaths in the U.S. passes 600,000. (NBC News) |
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| 1 big thing: Trump's new Hillary |
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| Anthony Fauci watches as Kennedy Center honorees speak to the media May 21. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters |
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| President Trump plans to make Anthony Fauci a top target at upcoming rallies, using increased attention to the Wuhan lab-leak theory as a weapon against an official long viewed as more trustworthy. - Why it matters: Trump and conservative media have made Fauci an improbable face of the opposition, trying to give him the cartoon-villain status once accorded to former Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or — in Trump's case — Hillary Clinton.
Trump amped up his longtime Fauci rants yesterday in a statement calling for COVID reparations from China: - "The correspondence between Dr. Fauci and China speaks too loudly for anyone to ignore. China should pay Ten Trillion Dollars to America, and the World, for the death and destruction they have caused!"
What we're hearing: Look for Trump to light into Fauci tomorrow during dinner remarks to North Carolina annual Republican convention, in Greenville — Trump's second big speech, after CPAC, since leaving office. - Jason Miller, Trump's senior adviser, told me the base has a "visceral" reaction to Fauci: "People see Anthony Fauci and they think of shuttered businesses, lost school."
Screenshot: Fox News The big picture: Fox News' prime-time stars are amping up their Fauci rants based on new questions about COVID's origins. - "[A]ll the smirking morons in the American news media changed their view completely overnight," Tucker Carlson said last night, 24 hours after saying Fauci should be criminally investigated.
- "LORD FAUCI EXPOSED," said one Tucker graphic.
- Sean Hannity jumped the gun last night with a graphic calling new revelations "the FALL of FAUCI."
Reality check, from Axios health care editor Sam Baker: The theory most experts still believe to be most likely is that the virus was transmitted from a bat to some other species of animal, then to humans. That's what happened with plenty of other viruses. - But it hasn't been proven. A cadre of experts — and now the Biden administration — are calling for a more thorough investigation into the possibility that the virus infected workers studying it at a Wuhan lab, who then infected others.
What's next: Trump plans a pair of rallies just before July 4. Look for him to try to make Fauci a punching bag. |
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| 2. Exclusive data: Trump's traffic flop |
 Data: NewsWhip. Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios Former President Trump's blog — originally touted as his own social media "platform" — generated engagement on par with top posts from mid-market local newspapers, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes from exclusive data from NewsWhip. - Why it matters: Even with his considerable base of support, Trump was unable to defy the laws of social media physics by getting political followers to change their habits.
Leading up to the launch of "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," Trump's allies teased an upcoming "platform." - When it arrived on May 4, it was promoted with a dramatic video saying: "In a time of silence and lies, a beacon of freedom arises."
After 29 days, the blog was shut down Wednesday. The Washington Post reported that Trump ordered the shutdown after learning of the lousy readership. - Following reports about the site's lowly traffic, Trump called the blog a "very basic site." Jason Miller, his senior adviser, said it was "just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on."
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| 3. 🚨 FBI compares ransomware to 9/11 |
| The FBI is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware as it confronts a rising cyber threat that shares "a lot of parallels" with the challenge posed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the bureau's director Christopher Wray told The Wall Street Journal (subscription). With less than two weeks until President Biden's summit with Vladimir Putin, Wray blamed Russia for providing a safe haven that allows criminal ransomware gangs to run wild: - "[I]f the Russian government wants to show that it's serious about this issue, there's a lot of room for them to demonstrate some real progress that we're not seeing right now."
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| A message from Walmart |
| Walmart is empowering associates to earn their degrees for $1 a day |
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| With 75% of our U.S. store management starting as hourly associates, Walmart is committed to building a ladder of opportunity with programs like Live Better U, their path to a dollar-a-day degree. Why it's important: Walmart promotes an average of 500 U.S. associates every day. |
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| 4. Pic du jour |
| Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images President Biden and first lady Jill Biden, who turned 70 yesterday, took a leisurely ride in Cape Henlopen State Park near Rehoboth Beach, Del. |
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| 5. Small businesses keep online mojo |
 Data: Axios research. Chart: Axios Visuals Tech giants say they saw massive growth in online adoption by small businesses during the pandemic, Axios' Kim Hart and Sara Fischer write: - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January that "more than 200 million businesses — mostly small businesses — use our free tools to reach customers." That number more than doubled since 2019.
- Stripe CEO Patrick Collison tweeted yesterday that "more businesses launched on Stripe since the start of 2020 than did in [the 11 years] of Stripe's history before then."
- Etsy: The number of active sellers soared from 2.7 million in 2019 to 4.4 million in 2020, the company said in May.
- GoDaddy: The world's largest internet domain registrar, GoDaddy said last year it added 1.4 million net customers — nearly double the number it added in 2019.
- Snapchat says ad revenues have increased dramatically thanks to more small businesses buying self-serve ads.
Keep reading. |
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| 6. 📊 Jobs data to frame Biden debate |
| Both parties are preparing to seize on today's jobs numbers to argue over President Biden's proposed $4 trillion in infrastructure and social safety net spending, Axios' Hans Nichols reports. - Why it matters: Like early in the Obama administration, Jobs Day is a monthly barometer of the president's economic policies.
May's number will help frame the debate over the effectiveness of Biden's first tranche of spending — and how much more the economy needs. - Economists are estimating an increase of 671,000 jobs, after last month's disappointing 266,000.
- Biden raised expectations with a tweet yesterday that touted the latest weekly jobless data: "Unemployment claims are down 50% and 64% of adults are vaccinated since I took office. That's progress."
Behind the scenes: The jobs report is typically delivered to the president the night before its 8:30 a.m. ET release. A crisp memo by the Council of Economic Advisers highlights trends and flags warning signs. |
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| 7. Never mind: U.S. finds no evidence of alien tech |
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| Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images |
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| "American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft," the N.Y. Times reports (subscription). - But an upcoming government report says "much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge."
- "One possible explanation — that the phenomena could be weather balloons or other research balloons — does not hold up in all cases, ... because of changes in wind speed."
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| 8. 🦇 Fauci urges China to release Wuhan records |
| Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times (subscription) that China should release the medical records of nine people whose illnesses could provide vital clues into whether COVID resulted from a lab leak. - "I have always felt that the overwhelming likelihood — given the experience we have had with SARS, MERS, Ebola, HIV, bird flu, the swine flu pandemic of 2009 — was that the virus jumped species," Fauci said. "But we need to keep on investigating until a possibility is proven."
Fauci dismissed the idea that the NIH might bear any responsibility for the pandemic, telling the FT: "Are you really saying that we are implicated because we gave a multibillion-dollar institution $120,000 a year for bat surveillance?" |
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| 9. Battle over reopening George Floyd Square |
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| Minneapolis municipal workers clear George Floyd Square for traffic yesterday. Photo: Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images |
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| In a surprise move, Minneapolis Public Works and a community group began taking down barriers around George Floyd Square, a sacred space for many in the community, Axios Twin Cities' Nick Halter writes. - Why it matters: Neighbors and business owners have complained that the closure of the intersection has led to gun violence in their neighborhood, and blocked access to their restaurants and stores.
The intersection of 38th and Chicago briefly reopened to traffic, but activists returned later in the day to put barricades back up. - Mayor Jacob Frey said the area will be reopened in phases: "That will take several days in that we recognize that there is still pain associated with this street."
What's next: Activists plan to fight the city on reopening. - "Anything that the city brings in here will not stay by the end of the night, I guarantee you," Leon Lyons of the security company Truth2Enlightenment told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
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| 10. 🐦 1 fun thing: Tweet of the week |
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| A message from Walmart |
| Walmart is igniting a spark of opportunity in their associates |
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Walmart is focusing on associates by creating a ladder of opportunity through: - Promoting approximately 500 associates a day.
- $1/Day College Degree available for U.S. based associates.
- Offering full-time employment to two-thirds of associates.
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