President Trump made the case for his deal with Iran during an hourlong press conference yesterday, while seeming to lower his own bar for success and warning he could bomb Iran again if nuclear talks fail, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

Why it matters: For two months, Trump has been seeking a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and stabilize global energy markets.

• This deal should achieve that. But some of Trump's critics argue that making concessions just to return to status quo ante shows the war itself was a costly mistake.

🖼️ The big picture: Before the war and as it got underway, Trump laid out highly ambitious parameters for any successful resolution with Iran.

• That included "total surrender" and the full dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program. No enrichment, no ballistic missiles, no funding for proxies. Trump even wanted a say in picking the supreme leader.
• The memorandum of understanding (MOU) — which Trump signed yesterday and senior administration officials finally unveiled on a call with reporters — is a much more modest agreement.

Breaking it down: Iran gets sanctions relief to sell oil, the strait reopens, the blockade lifts.

• The parties also give themselves 60 days to negotiate a nuclear deal. Iran could see all sanctions lifted and receive billions in frozen funds and investments, if it agrees to limit its nuclear program and "dispose of" its stockpile.
• Trump and his team acknowledge a final deal may never happen. But he claimed yesterday that "if it doesn't get done in 60 days, we go back to bombing." (He later said the deadline could shift.)
• Uncharacteristically, Trump downplayed the deal somewhat, noting that it was just a memorandum. He further enraged hawks by expressing sympathy for Iran's desire to possess missiles and pursue nuclear energy.

💥 Friction point: There's plenty in the deal for critics to sink their teeth into.

• It only calls on Iran to open the strait without restrictions for 60 days, leaving open the possibility of tolls after that. A senior U.S. official told reporters that wouldn't happen, because Gulf countries wouldn't sign up to any deal that allowed it.
• The MOU calls for a plan to establish a $300 billion fund to rebuild Iran. Trump denied that the U.S. would contribute money to such a fund.
• The text makes clear that Iran will receive sanctions waivers to sell oil freely as long as negotiations are ongoing.
• The MOU says nothing about Iran's ballistic missiles or support for terrorist organizations and militias in the region, despite Trump's insistence — dating back to his first term — that any deal with Iran would have to cover those issues.

📱 Watch the White House's 35-second video of Trump signing the Iran memo of understanding at Versailles.

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Silicon Valley stars David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan have been key architects of White House AI policy. With Sacks stepping back and Krishnan preparing to leave, here are current AI power players, via Axios' Maria Curi:

1. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signed the letter leading to the takedown of Anthropic's Fable model (still unavailable this morning).
2. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was the contact when Amazon raised concerns about Anthropic safety issues.
3. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was receptive to Bessent's concerns about how Mythos could hit the financial sector, helping reopen communication with the company.
4. National Economic Council's Ryan Baasch is said to be carrying the torch for Sacks and Krishnan, having worked alongside them to push federal preemption of state AI laws.

Share this story ... Marc Caputo contributed.

President Trump won't let go of the SAVE America Act voting bill, no matter how many times Senate Republicans make it known it's never going to happen, Axios' Mike Zapler writes.

• Why it matters: Trump's refusal to relent on his voter ID/proof of citizenship plan shows how far removed he is from the vote-counting realities of Congress — and how that disconnect is starting to carry real consequences.

Trump dropped a bombshell Truth Social post early yesterday, declaring he wouldn't allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to be renewed until the SAVE America Act passes as well.

• The move means Bill Pulte, a Trump bulldog with no national security or intelligence experience, will likely take the helm as acting director of national intelligence tomorrow.
• Senators had been eager to prevent that by quickly confirming Trump nominee Jay Clayton — the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — in the intelligence job.

Keep reading.

President Trump and top administration officials discussed a U.S.-led effort to coordinate global AI standards at a meeting with the CEOs of leading AI companies at the G7 summit in France, Axios' Ashley Gold writes.

• Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, participated in the "working lunch."
• OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google's Demis Hassabis and Anthropic's Dario Amodei were among the participants.
• Meta's Alexandr Wang, Mistral AI's Arthur Mensch, Cohere's Aidan Gomez and Salesforce's Marc Benioff also attended. Keep reading.

🏛️ Situational awareness: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund overseen by an independent commission and financed through a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies.

• Sanders estimates that the fund would be worth nearly $7 trillion. Go deeper.

💰 Get Axios Pro Rata for more insight on the bill from Dan Primack.

Marc Thiessen, a prominent pro-Trump commentator who's critical of President Trump's Iran deal, branded it the "Vance peace deal." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who voiced misgivings about the pact, called Vice President Vance "the architect of the deal."

• Why it matters: Vance allies relish the idea of the VP being "blamed" for helping end an unpopular war.

Between the lines: Vance had well-known reservations about the war. But he loyally defended it, and aggressively sold the deal this week during marathon media appearances for his new book about faith, "Communion."

🥊 A Republican operative supportive of Trump/Vance efforts to end the war told me: "The people attempting to hurt Vance, by trying to brand the deal to end the war around him, must either be morons who don't know how to read polling, or secret allies purposely trying to help his future political prospects. Frankly, if I were the Vice President, I'd send [neocons] flowers for their gracious help in making him the face of ending this war."

The U.S. wind sector was already lagging behind solar before the second Trump administration began piling on new restrictions, Axios' Ben Geman writes.

• Headwinds in recent years have included high interest rates, not enough power lines to carry electricity where it's needed, supply chain snags and stiff competition from solar and gas.
• Trump is now squeezing the industry on multiple fronts. That includes the Pentagon allegedly stalling once-routine reviews that wind projects need for FAA approval.

Get Axios Future of Energy.

JPMorgan Chase is doubling down on geopolitical analysis due to a "huge appetite" from clients who are inundated with news but "need the color commentary," Derek Chollet, who directs the bank's Center for Geopolitics, tells Axios' Dave Lawler.

• "Geopolitics affects everything. It affects supply chains, capital allocation, technology strategy, energy costs," said Chollet, who held senior roles at the Pentagon and State Department under President Biden.
• "There's not really a line between geopolitics and economics or finance right now. It's all blended together."

👓 Between the lines: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told us earlier this year that there's now "more geopolitical risk than we've seen since World War II."

• Go deeper: The bank distilled its first year of analysis into a 100-page book, "Brink."

The NYPD will deploy more than 10,000 officers to protect the ticker-tape parade for the Knicks in Lower Manhattan this morning — the largest number ever assigned for a planned event.

• The deployment, "roughly as large as one-third of the total uniformed force, will far exceed that of recent major events, including New Year's Eve at Times Square," the N.Y. Times notes.
• The parade route — along the "Canyon of Heroes" — starts at Bowling Green in the Financial District and continues to City Hall.

🏀 Stunning stats: New Yorkers are paying line sitters as much as $950 to hold their place at the parade. (Bloomberg)

• The New York Post, on a page branded KNICK YORK POST, reports that more than 1.25 tons of confetti (2,500+ pounds) will be dumped. Keep reading.