Through immigration crackdowns and cultural purges, President Trump is wielding government power to enforce a more rigid, exclusionary definition of what it means to be American.

• Why it matters: The MAGA movement's focus on American identity and Western civilization is shaping federal policy far more than during Trump's first term — fueling a reckoning over who belongs and what history should be remembered, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu report.

In MAGA's telling, America is the heir to ancient European civilizations, built on a Judeo-Christian foundation of white identity, meritocracy and traditional gender roles.

• These tenets are cast as universal truths. "America is an idea" or "diversity is our strength" are dismissed as liberal fictions.

That worldview is increasingly driving government policy:

1. 🏛️ Museums: In an extension of his sprawling DEI crackdown, Trump has ordered the Smithsonian Institution to revise exhibits the administration deems problematic in "tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals."

• A White House official said Trump intends to expand the review of "woke" ideology to other museums.

2. 🌐 Visa screenings: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced this past week it'll screen legal immigration applicants for "anti-American ideologies," including views expressed on social media.

• All 55 million current visa holders will face "continuous vetting" for "any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States."

3. 🇺🇸 Citizenship criteria: USCIS is also expanding the "good moral character" requirement for citizenship applicants, tying the vague standard to an individual's "behavior, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions."

👀 Between the lines: Trump also has leaned into lower-hanging symbolic fights that reinforce MAGA's identity project.

• History: He restored Confederate names to U.S. military bases and ordered the return of certain Confederate monuments, condemning their removal as erasures of "heritage."
• Military: He reimposed the ban on transgender troops, aligning service with traditional gender norms.
• Refugees: He carved out exceptions for white South African farmers even as he slashed refugee admissions from elsewhere.
• Architecture: He ordered new federal buildings to adhere to "classical" styles, tying civic identity to Greco-Roman and European tradition.

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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is working to rally his MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement as a critical constituency for keeping GOP control of Congress in next year's midterms, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports.

• Why it matters: The RFK Jr. coalition draws several slices of voters who otherwise might shun MAGA, including some traditionally Democratic- and independent-leaning suburbanites, women and younger voters.

🥊 Reality check: Mustering President Trump's MAHA support for House, Senate, and governor races could be tough, since voter turnout in midterms is typically light.

• A further impediment to a "MAHA bounce": Some activists who bought into Trump's campaign because of Kennedy's eat-healthy, question-vaccines mantra aren't totally happy with how things are going.

🔬 Zoom in: Kennedy has been praised by many in the movement for his push against synthetic food dyes. They like his vaccine stiff-arming, despite fears of lost medical breakthroughs.

• But many of MAHA's most vocal activists are disappointed the Trump administration isn't following through on its campaign promise to crack down on pesticides.

Kennedy's allies are preparing an aggressive, three-part strategy to try to turn out MAHA voters. The blueprint:

1. 🚌 Put RFK Jr. on the road: Kennedy has visited more than a dozen states since Trump took office — including 2026 battlegrounds North Carolina, Texas and Arizona.
2. 📺 Launch an air war: "We will bring out every last MAHA mom, every health-conscious voter," says Tony Lyons, president of MAHA Action, an RFK-aligned advocacy group that recently launched a seven-figure TV buy.
3. 📍 Go local: RFK allies are pushing state legislatures to pass MAHA-friendly bills, from restricting food dyes and additives to expanding nutrition labels. Nearly three dozen states have passed such bills this year.

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A new paper from a Nobel-prize-winning economist provides an intriguing solution to the puzzle of declining birth rates around the world: more supportive men.

• Why it matters: Low fertility rates in the U.S. and around the globe pose problems for economic growth, and they've increasingly become a political issue, particularly on the right, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

🔎 Zoom in: Men willing to play a bigger role in parenting and housework, lift birthrates, finds Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard who won a Nobel in 2023 for her work on women in the labor market.

• She presented her paper "The Downside of Fertility" at the Jackson Hole Economics Conference in Wyoming on Friday.

The big picture: The birth rate in the U.S. started to fall decades ago as the economy expanded. The advent of the birth control pill aided the decline. Women suddenly had a greater ability to postpone childbearing.

• To feel comfortable starting a family, Goldin writes, women needed assurances that caring for their children would be a shared responsibility.

🍼 "Why have a child if it means giving up one's future income and security and the child's security," Goldin said in Jackson Hole. "Assuming, if you will, that men can either be dads who will put in the time with their children, or they can be duds," she said, to audience laughter.

• "Not funny," she added.

🧹 By the numbers: The mismatch shows up in the gap in hours men and women spend doing household and care work.

• In the lowest fertility countries, women do much more work at home. In Japan and Italy, women do three hours more housework than men.
• In Sweden, with a moderately higher fertility rate, the difference is 0.8 hours.

Share this story ... Axios' Neil Irwin contributed reporting.

This is a tale that'll be told in campaign schools until the end of time:

• NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani "struggled to execute a single unassisted bench press rep while trying to impress a crowd at the annual Men's Day open streets event in Brooklyn" yesterday, the N.Y. Post reports.

Cheered on by a big crowd with phones a-filming, the 33-year-old democratic socialist needed a big assist to lift what was said to be 135 lbs.

• 30-sec. video ... More pics.

The rollout of ESPN and Fox's new streaming services this week represents a landmark moment for the sports industry, one where fans can finally start to expect a better bang for their buck, Axios' Sara Fischer reports.

• Why it matters: Sports streaming was supposed to make it easier for fans to watch their favorite teams. But over the past two decades, live rights became unwieldy and expensive.

🏀 State of play: On Thursday, ESPN and Fox both unveiled their highly anticipated new direct-to-consumer services, which include all sports currently available to their cable customers.

• Despite their rivalry, the companies will offer consumers a chance to buy ESPN and Fox One together in a $39.99 per month bundle, starting Oct. 2.

ESPN's service includes a slew of new fan-centric features, like an in-app merchandise store powered by Fanatics, data-filled portals linked to ESPN Bet and ESPN Fantasy and a multi-view option that allows fans to watch multiple live games at once.

• Fox One provides multi-view functionality and new features like unlimited storage for livestream recordings and short clips to help users catch up on games.

More on Fox One ... More on ESPN's direct-to-consumer service + enhanced app.

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After years of feeling flush, states are facing budget shortfalls — and that's before the megabill cuts kick in, Axios' Emily Peck reports.

• Why it matters: The blowback will be on everyday Americans. To make up for lost revenue, states can either raise taxes or cut services — on things like public education, healthcare and food assistance.

💰 How it works: Unlike the federal government, states must balance their budgets.

• For the past several years, a hot economy drove bigger tax receipts. Federal money flowed in from Biden-era legislation.

Where it stands: The Biden money tap has run dry. And the Trump administration is pulling back, or holding, funding for education, state health departments and climate projects.

• The larger economic picture is also working against states — the slumping job market, as well as tariffs, are expected to curb revenue growth.

🔮 What's next: "Some state legislators have proposed higher taxes in response to projected shortfalls in federal funding related to President Trump's new tax law," The Wall Street Journal reports.

• "The law also makes deep cuts to funding for such programs as Medicaid, pressuring states to make up some or all of the shortfall.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) calls the GOP's aggressively gerrymandered new congressional lines, which he says he'll swiftly sign, "One Big Beautiful Map."

• Go deeper (Texas Tribune).

As grocery bills keep climbing, a few brands are clinging to nostalgia-priced staples — like Costco's $1.50 hot dog combo and AriZona's 99¢ can of iced tea.

Why it matters: Food prices increased by 23.6% from 2020 to 2024, but companies are keeping these items inflation-proof, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

1. 🍝 Olive Garden is putting its Never Ending Pasta Bowl back on the menu at $13.99 — unchanged for the fourth straight year.
2. 🥤 AriZona founder and chairman Don Vultaggio said Thursday in an interview with NBC's "Today" show that he's committed to keeping the 99¢ price on the cans despite tariffs on aluminum.
3. 🛒 Costco's combo meal has been $1.50 since it was introduced to the food court menu in 1985.

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