Marco Rubio has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star.
He's been featured in countless "Rubio Realizing" images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being "assigned" more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House.
Why it matters: For his 55th birthday on May 28, White House staffers and President Trump gifted Rubio with a gold-framed collage of their 68 favorite "Rubio Realizing" memes.
House Democrats went into the vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act last month groaning that it was all a big Republican set-up. Now they're fuming that the trap has been sprung.
Why it matters: A well-funded Republican group is blanketing the airwaves lauding GOP lawmakers in key swing districts — including some with reputations for prolific stock trading — as champions on the issue.
Why it matters: China once represented a lucrative growth opportunity and manufacturing base for American automakers, but those ties are unraveling as Chinese rivals like BYD and Geely expand their reach around the world.
A federal trade court ruled Thursday that President Trump can block cheap imports — including from Chinese retailers like Temu and Shein — from entering the U.S. tariff-free.
Why it matters: It's a win for the Trump administration's trade agenda after a major legal setback forced officials to find new legal avenues for imposing sweeping tariffs.
OpenAI chief revenue officer Denise Dresser is leaving the company less than a year into the role. OpenAI appointed Dali Rajic, most recently president and COO of Google-owned cybersecurity company Wiz, to replace her.
Why it matters: Dresser's departure comes as co-founder Greg Brockman consolidates more operating responsibility around himself while OpenAI grows its enterprise business to prepare to go public.
Jessica Kleiman took a "very jagged" path from aspiring magazine writer to communications leader, with stops across media, entertainment and technology before making the jump to homebuilding.
The latest: Today, Kleiman is senior vice president of communications at Lennar, one of the nation's largest homebuilders.
AI has become an everyday tool for communicators, but many of the audiences they're trying to reach remain deeply skeptical of how it's being used.
Why it matters: Communicators risk getting stuck in a pro-AI bubble, where the ubiquity of the technology among colleagues and executives makes it easy to overlook the skepticism — and sometimes outright hostility — it generates.
Josh Kushner isn't letting his FIFA folly keep him on the sports sidelines.
Yesterday he stunned the NBA by announcing an agreement to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion from Mark Walter, who only gained club control last October.
There's a lot more to this situation than just rich boys and their toys, so let's dig in:
1789 Capital, the investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, has closed a $1.2 billion real estate development fund.
Why it matters: The fund marks a major expansion for 1789 beyond the core tech, defense and manufacturing investments that have fueled its growth over the past few years.
AGent Energy, a startup that integrates backup generators into the grid during emergencies, raised $11 million in seed funding co-led by Spero Ventures and MassMutual Ventures.
Why it matters: Power demand is rising quickly, straining grids and helping drive up electricity bills.
American Action Network, a top outside group aligned with House GOP leaders, is launching a $22 million ad campaign on Thursday across 41 congressional districts, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Republicans hope a focus on GOP tax cuts and attacks over transgender health care will help them hold on to their narrow House majority in November despite strong headwinds.
CoreWeave's losses doubled, its spending soared and it devoured almost $6 billion more in cash than it generated last quarter. Investors loved it.
Why it matters: Some see CoreWeave, a so-called neocloud that builds data centers and sells AI computing power, as the canary in the coal mine of the AI trade.
After the report, that canary was tweeting and flying high.
The New York Times' Maggie Habermantells me 70% of President Trump's mindshare ("maybe plus or minus 5%") goes to his gilding, construction, renovation, renaming and tribute projects.
"He is spendinga huge amount of energy, mental and otherwise, on these renovation projects, beautification projects around Washington, and then monuments to self," Haberman told me for Axios' "Behind the Curtain" video series. "[T]here is no precedent in U.S. history of a sitting president devising such endeavors in their own name."
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have muscled their way back into AI's elite ranks, defying early obituaries to close the gap on a new generation of Silicon Valley startups.
Why it matters: Recent gains by tech giants SpaceX and Meta — long stuck in AI's second tier — are putting new pressure on a hierarchy dominated by OpenAI and Anthropic.
Pollsters appeared to blow another high-stakes Midwest election Tuesday, as center-left Democrat David Crowley stunned socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's primary for governor.
But on Wednesday, the reasons for the miss seemed clear: Surveys a week before the primary captured only a hint of a rapidly changing roller coaster of a race in which Crowley was gaining fast, and Hong was playing defense.
Driving the news: Two polls had shown Hong up by about 20 points over Crowley. But Crowley wound up winning by half a percentage point in an upset that interrupted a run of primary wins by left-wing Democrats this spring.
