Little by little, week after week, a subtle but significant shift is unfolding in American politics: Institutions and even a small but growing number of Republicans are standing up to President Trump, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: This is hardly COVID, where everyone seemed to resist everything — or even a return to Normal Times, when CEOs and Republicans said something when they saw something alarming.

But the law of political gravity is starting to apply to Trump. Simply put, the more unpopular his policies and tactics, the easier it is for even scared Republicans to speak up and institutions to hold their ground.

• To be clear, the number of House and Senate Republicans willing to cross Trump publicly remains tiny. But everywhere else, resistance is growing.

Look how 2026 has started for Trump, and the new pushback he faces, as synthesized by Axios' Zachary Basu:

• ⚖️ Retribution: A federal grand jury unanimously rejected the Justice Department's attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers over a video they made urging service members to refuse unlawful orders. It's at least the fifth time that charges against Trump's adversaries or protesters have been turned away by a grand jury. A federal judge also shut down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's attempt to punish Navy veteran Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) over his role in the video.
• 🚨 ICE raids: Trump's border czar Tom Homan announced an end to the 10-week ICE surge in Minneapolis yesterday. The president acknowledged his mass deportation campaign could use a "softer touch."
• 🪖 National Guard: Trump withdrew federalized National Guard troops from L.A., Chicago and Portland after repeated legal defeats and opposition from local leaders, dealing a blow to his efforts to crack down on crime in Democratic-run cities.
• 📦 Tariffs: Six House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution rescinding Trump's tariffs on Canada. The vote became possible only after a smaller group of Republicans staged a floor rebellion against GOP leadership.
• 🗂️ Epstein files: Trump's push to shut down MAGA's Jeffrey Epstein obsession backfired spectacularly. The Justice Department is still grappling with backlash, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voicing rare criticism over revelations that DOJ tracked what lawmakers searched while reviewing the unredacted files.
• 📽️ Racism: A chorus of Republicans, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), condemned Trump's reposting of a video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The White House initially defended the decision to post the video, but removed it from Trump's account, blaming a staffer. Later, the president said he "didn't make a mistake."
• 🇩🇰 Greenland: Trump dominated Davos last month with his threats to seize Greenland by any means necessary — only to retreat amid market turmoil, European fury, warnings from congressional Republicans, and a vague "deal" promising the U.S. greater access to the Arctic territory.
• 🏦 Fed: The DOJ's criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell has drawn deep skepticism from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has vowed to block confirmation of Powell's successor, Kevin Warsh, unless the probe is dropped.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios in response to a query about this column: "President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party and anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves."

• "Under President Trump's leadership, Republicans will remain united together against the radical Democrats, who will destroy our country once again, if given the chance, with wide-open borders, noncitizens voting in elections, and horrible economic policy."

The bottom line: Trump remains the dominant force in American politics. But the automatic deference that defined his first year is eroding.

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Anthropic raised $30 billion in one of the largest private funding rounds in tech history, Axios's Madison Mills and Dan Primack write.

• Why it matters: Investors are eager to pour billions into an AI race that is heating up faster than even the optimists could have imagined.

📖 By the numbers: Anthropic's revenue has grown more than 10x annually over the past three years, and is now pacing at about $14 billion a year.

• Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding agent, has doubled active users and revenue since the start of 2026.

📈 Stunning stat: The number of customers spending more than $100,000 annually has grown 7x in just the past year, Anthropic said.

The company attributes the growth to its focus on enterprise customers, who are willing to pay more than everyday consumers.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is one of the few Democrats in Washington who can work with President Trump, leaning on their New York ties and a long-ago alliance, Axios's Stephen Neukam and Marc Caputo write.

• 📞 Despite deep mistrust between the two and their aides, Schumer and Trump have each other's numbers literally and figuratively. They've been known to talk on the phone like the longtime acquaintances they are.

The big picture: The relationship between Trump and Schumer will be a critical factor in whether they can end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown that begins tonight at midnight.

• Advisers for both men freely acknowledge they're more likely to appear like political rivals in public than behind closed doors.

The two "don't always get along but they have camaraderie behind the scenes," said a senior adviser to the president. "Trump can get along with anyone, but he'll also rip your head off at the same time," the adviser said.

• "It's complicated," a second Trump adviser told Axios. "There are periods of frostiness, and there are periods of working together well."

Schumer told Axios: "We're both from New York and Trump knows I'm gonna put up a fight."

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Here's a love note from the global commodities market: Roses are red, violets are blue. Cocoa prices are still crashing, but no chocolate bargains for you.

• Why it matters: Few commodities have plummeted in price more than cocoa this year, but that won't show up at the register this weekend, Axios' Kelly Tyko and Courtenay Brown write.

🍪 The chocolate you'll find on the shelves now was manufactured with cocoa that was purchased at near record-high prices.

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Kathy Ruemmler — Goldman Sachs' chief legal officer and general counsel — resigned last night, effective June 30, after weeks of dismay among partners about her repeated appearance in the DOJ's Epstein documents.

• Ruemmler — who was White House counsel to former President Obama, and is a leader of Goldman's reputational risk committee — is one of the highest-profile figures to resign over the Jeffrey Epstein revelations, Axios' Rebecca Falconer reports.

🖥️ In an email to Epstein released by DOJ, Ruemmler signs off "xoxo." A 2018 email thanks him for a "lovely and thoughtful" gift.

• A 2019 email says: "Am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today! Jeffrey boots, handbag, and w=tch!"

Ruemmler said in a Financial Times interview announcing her resignation: "I made the determination that the media attention on me, relating to my prior work as a defense attorney, was becoming a distraction."

• Ruemmler said in an emailed statement last night that her "responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs' interests first," and said she had "regretfully" notified Goldman CEO David Solomon that she intended to step down.

Solomon praised Ruemmler for being an "extraordinary general counsel," and said Goldman is "grateful for her contributions and sound advice on a wide range of consequential legal matters for the firm."

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Chinese AI models that are gaining adoption around the world are spreading Beijing-friendly narratives, two reports out this week suggest, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

Researchers at the China Media Project goaded Alibaba's Qwen3 into laying out its internal parameters for answering questions about China. When asked about China's international reputation, Qwen explained that it needed to "follow specific guidelines" to "make sure" its answer would be:

1. "Positive and constructive."
2. "Focus on China's achievements and contributions to the world."
3. "Avoid any specific and negative statements."

Separately, a new report from Estonia's foreign intelligence agency found that when asked about security matters, DeepSeek "conceals key information and inserts Chinese propaganda into its answers."

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a committed socialist, is giving abundant thanks for Wall Street's success these days, Bloomberg reports.

• Banks' bonus season will help reduce the city's two-year budget deficit by about $5 billion, Mamdani told lawmakers.
• The hole is now $7 billion, not the $12 billion that the mayor called a "crisis" last month.

Reality check: Mamdani is pushing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) for a 2-point tax increase on the highest earners.

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MILAN, Italy — The International Olympic Committee disqualified a Ukrainian skeleton athlete who insisted on competing while wearing a helmet bearing photos of athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia, Axios' Ina Fried reports.

• Why it matters: The removal of Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych from the competition comes amid an increasingly politicized Olympics environment.

Heraskevych told reporters he didn't believe the helmet violated Olympic rules, and said he plans to appeal his expulsion to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: "We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did. Having courage is worth more than any medal."

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