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| Presented By Wells Fargo |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Aug 29, 2022 |
| Good Monday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,175 words ... 4½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. 🚀 Breaking: A two-hour launch window opens this morning at 8:33 a.m. ET for NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket and Orion capsule from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. - The Artemis I mission is a huge milestone in NASA's effort to send people back to the lunar surface in 2025 — for the first time since 1972.
Watch preparations live on NASA TV now (via YouTube). |
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| 1 big thing: Truth Social's ugly truth |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| Truth Social, the app launched by Donald Trump as a free speech platform for conservatives, is facing serious financial and legal stress as it tries to survive, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes. - Why it matters: The app is the former president's biggest business venture since leaving office — and his best effort to create an alternative populist megaphone after being banned from Twitter.
What's happening: For now at least, it's following a chaotic trajectory like so many of Trump's other businesses. - Truth Social owes a vendor — an internet infrastructure company for conservatives, RightForge — $1.6 million, sources tell Axios.
- The situation, first reported by Fox Business, puts Truth Social at risk of losing the cloud hosting it needs to operate.
Beyond financial issues, Truth Social and the blank check company (SPAC) it plans to merge with in order to go public are facing serious legal problems — and regulatory probes — that could derail those plans. - The blank check company, Digital World Acquisition Corp., is under investigation by the SEC for possibly negotiating the deal prior to going public.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused Trump's application for a trademark for "Truth Social." - An investor sued Digital World Acquisition Corp.'s CEO last year, claiming fraud.
The intrigue: It's unclear how many people — or exactly who — are working for Truth Social. Most members of Trump's presidential inner circle aren't involved in Truth Social's day-to-day operations. - Its CEO, former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, makes occasional media appearances to discuss the app. A few people say on LinkedIn that they work for Truth Social.
State of play: The app's problems haven't stopped conservatives from exploring the service, where Trump now posts regularly without fear of being throttled or banned. - As of mid-August, the app had 3 million downloads worldwide across iOS (mostly in the U.S. and a few thousand in the UK), per Data.ai, an app measurement company.
- Truth Social saw a surge of downloads in response to the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search.
🥊 Reality check: Trump has 4 million followers on the app, compared to the 88 million he had on Twitter before being banned last year. - Truth Social isn't available on Android, meaning that around 44% of smartphone users in the U.S. can't download it.
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| 2. 🗳️ Banner year for House insurgents |
 Data: Sabato's Crystal Ball. Chart: Skye Witley/Axios 2022 has seen the second-highest number of primary losses for House members since 1948, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. - Why it matters: Rising populism is weakening the shield of incumbency.
🧮 By the numbers: 14 House incumbents have failed to secure their party's nominations this cycle. - 2020 saw the most successful primary challenges in a non-redistricting year since 1974. That suggests this is a trend.
🖼️ The big picture: The only year since the 1940s that saw more House primary losses than 2022 was 1992, when 19 incumbents lost renomination, according to data from Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball. - Many factors were at play in '92: The presidential election swept Bill Clinton to power. Redistricting. The House bank scandal. And recession backwash.
Between the lines: Aside from redistricting, the bulk of this year's losses can be attributed to two major clashes: - Former President Trump's effort to purge enemies — especially those who voted for his impeachment, including Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.). All lost.
- The struggle between progressive Democrats and the establishment. Moderates, including Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), and progressives, including Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), lost to ideological foes.
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| 3. 📺 First look: House GOP offense |
Screenshot: Congressional Leadership Fund ad House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's leadership PAC has reserved another $37 million in TV time for the last two months before midterms — with $9 of every $10 targeting seats carried by President Biden in 2020, Axios' Hans Nichols and Sophia Cai have learned. What's happening: Democrats hope to harness voter energy around protecting abortion rights to motivate their base and appeal to independents in an election Republicans had hoped would focus on economic anxiety. - Republicans remain confident they can retake the House. CLF is doubling down on offensive spending, even in places where Biden won by double digits two years ago.
🕶️ What we're watching: Biden's approval ratings are still low, but show signs of creeping up after Democratic legislative wins on clean energy, prescription-drug prices, manufacturing, semiconductors and veterans. - Inflation remains a big worry, but the pace has slowed. And Americans got some late-summer relief on gas prices.
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| A message from Wells Fargo |
| Supporting small business recovery |
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| Wells Fargo's roughly $420 million Open for Business Fund has provided over 200 CDFIs and nonprofits with resources to help a projected 152,000 small business owners. Why it's important: These grants also help small businesses access capital and preserve an estimated 255,000 jobs. Learn more. |
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| 4. 📷 1,000 words |
| Photo: Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images On the outskirts of New Delhi, these two never occupied "Twin Towers" high-rise apartments were leveled yesterday in a controlled demolition after India's top court declared they violated fire-safety regulations. |
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| 5. Charted: Big Tech's bigness |
 Data: YCharts. Chart: Simran Parwani/Axios As Axios Login begins a weeklong deep dive into Big Tech competition, this chart shows the upward march of the value of tech's big 5. - Go deeper: Read managing editor Scott Rosenberg's opening piece, "Tech's competition game change."
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| 6. 🔎 Apple headset clues |
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| Screenshot: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office |
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| Trademark filings suggest Apple is staking claim to names for a mixed-reality headset, part of the company's push into its first new product category in years, reports Bloomberg's Apple scoop machine, Mark Gurman. - Applications have been filed in the U.S., E.U., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay for the names "Reality One," "Reality Pro" and "Reality Processor."
Though the filings aren't by Apple, they follow past company patterns — including relying on law firms Apple has previously used to lock down brands, Gurman writes. |
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| 7. 🐦 Tweet du jour |
| Twitter's Room Rater — which critiques talking heads on the COVID-era home backdrops for their cable-news hits — cheekily graded President Biden after he tweeted this photo yesterday. - Room Rater has a new book, "How to Zoom Your Room."
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| 8. ⚾ Record for sports collectible |
| Photo: LM Otero/AP A mint-condition Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million yesterday, blasting into the record books as the most ever paid for sports memorabilia, AP reports. - Why it matters: The market has grown exponentially more lucrative in recent years.
⚽ The rare Mantle card eclipsed the record posted just a few months ago — $9.3 million for the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the contentious "Hand of God" goal in soccer's 1986 World Cup. - That easily surpassed the $7.25 million for a century-old Honus Wagner baseball card recently sold in a private sale.
Just last month, the heavyweight boxing belt reclaimed by Muhammad Ali during 1974's "Rumble in the Jungle" sold for nearly $6.2 million. |
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| A message from Wells Fargo |
| Expanded support for diverse students |
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| Wells Fargo has provided $107 million in scholarships and programming to help students at 25 HBCUs and minority-serving institutions realize their dreams of attending college. The goal: Wells Fargo is committed to creating equitable educational opportunities. Learn more about the impact. |
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| 📬 Invite your friends to sign up to get their daily essentials — Axios AM, PM and Finish Line. |
 | | Are you a fan of this email format? It's called Smart Brevity®. Over 300 orgs use it — in a tool called Axios HQ — to drive productivity with clearer workplace communications. | | |
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