President Trump and MAGA spent years lampooning censorship, discrimination against conservatives, and progressive "cancel culture."

• Now in power — and riding an outpouring of grief and fury over Charlie Kirk's tragic killing — they're enforcing speech codes to punish ideological opponents, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

Why it matters: Backed by the Trump administration, digital vigilantes are demanding arrests, firings and deportations for anti-Kirk posts and remarks.

🔭 Zoom in: Any person who celebrates or mocks Kirk's death — or even criticizes his right-wing views — is being cast as complicit in political violence.

• The Charlie Kirk Data Foundation — an anonymous website initially branded as "Expose Charlie's Murderers" — claims to have received more than 60,000 submissions.
• Hundreds of people, if not more, have been fired or suspended for social media activity related to last week's shooting, including federal workers and military members named and shamed by Trump Cabinet secretaries.

Between the lines: Conservatives say companies, hospitals, universities and certainly the government deserve to know whether their employees support "terrorism."

• People who disavowed violence but criticized Kirk's conservative worldview — or simply posted his controversial quotes on race, gender, abortion and other issues — have also been targeted by MAGA influencers.

🏈 Six NFL teams drew conservative backlash for declining to hold a moment of silence for Kirk during Sunday's games.

• Some localities and businesses were targeted for not lowering their flags to half-staff to honor Kirk, as Trump had ordered.

The intrigue: Elon Musk — who in 2023 offered to pay the legal bills of anyone fired for their posts on X — has backed the efforts to punish people who celebrated Kirk's death.

• So, too, has Vice President Vance, who said yesterday while guest-hosting a memorial edition of "The Charlie Kirk Show": "When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer."
• House Republicans yesterday introduced resolutions to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from her committees for critical comments she made about Kirk in the wake of his killing.

👀 Behind the scenes: The calculus changed for Republicans with Kirk's killing. It's personal for the White House and leaders of the MAGA movement who counted Kirk as a close friend.

• And Kirk was assassinated for his political speech at one of his events designed to highlight the importance of free speech and debate without violence.
• Conservative author and commentator Kurt Schlichter said Saturday on X: "This situation is fundamentally different (not for people who do politics all the time because we already knew it) because it's very clear that a substantial number of Democrats want to literally murder us."

Share this story ... Axios' Marc Caputo contributed.

The Israeli military launched its ground offensive to occupy Gaza City, which the Netanyahu government says is aimed at rooting out Hamas, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• Why it matters: The operation is an escalation in the war that has been going on for almost two years and is expected to increase the death toll and exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.

A senior Israel Defense Forces official said IDF ground forces entered Gaza City yesterday and more forces will join them in the coming days.

• Get the latest.

President Trump was a key booster of a series of grisly TV ads portraying the dangers of fentanyl — commercials that are now drenching the airwaves in several U.S. cities, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

• Why it matters: A multimillion-dollar campaign by a Trump-aligned group is running the ads in areas hit hard by the fentanyl epidemic — including West Virginia, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. — and is part of the White House's latest anti-drug push.

The backstory: Trump told his team after the 2024 election that he wanted to develop ads combating the fentanyl crisis. A person involved in the effort told Axios that Trump wanted the ads to be visceral, not like a PSA.

• An inspiration for the ads appears to have been an anti-fentanyl campaign run by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Trump privately has complimented Sheinbaum's effort.

Share this story.

Summer temperatures are hanging around longer nationwide compared to the early 1970s, a new analysis finds, as climate change affects the four seasons, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

• Why it matters: Temperatures staying relatively high for longer periods can make life miserable for teachers and students in classrooms without A/C, mess with farmers' growing seasons, and elevate the risk of wildfires.

🧮 By the numbers: Summer temperatures are lingering compared to 1970 in over 90% of the 246 U.S. cities analyzed in a new report from Climate Central, a climate research group.

• Keep reading.

President Trump suggested yesterday that U.S. public companies should be required to report earnings on a six-month schedule instead of quarterly, Axios Markets author Madison Mills writes.

• Why it matters: The potential shift could have huge implications for Wall Street, financial markets, traders and companies.

🔬 Zoom in: The case for less frequent quarterly reports has some prominent fans. Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett co-wrote an op-ed about short-term earnings "harming the economy" in 2018.

• Many CEOs would prefer not to deal with analysts and investors four times a year. Public markets could benefit, according to Dimon and Buffett, who argued that the pressure of quarterly earnings discourages firms from going public sooner.
• Keep reading.

⚡ Situational awareness: Two major stories on the Fed broke within 15 minutes last night.

1. An appeals court ruled that Fed governor Lisa Cook can continue to serve while Trump's attempt to fire her is litigated.
2. The Senate confirmed Stephen Miran — chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers — to be a Fed governor. Miran will remain in his position at the White House.

President Trump signed an order yesterday to deploy the National Guard to Memphis in what he said would be a "replica" of his D.C. crime crackdown, Axios' Rebecca Falconer writes.

• Why it matters: Trump said Chicago is "probably next," and mentioned St. Louis and New Orleans could be future destinations.

The move to send National Guard troops to Memphis is supported by Tennessee's Republican governor and senators, but fiercely opposed by the city's Democratic mayor.

• Keep reading.

🇻🇪 Trump said that for the second time, the U.S. military targeted a boat suspected of drug smuggling off Venezuela. Three aboard the vessel were killed.

• He hinted that U.S. military strikes targeting alleged drug smugglers at sea could be expanded to land. Go deeper.

Jack Clark — co-founder of Anthropic, which developed the AI assistant Claude — told me at Union Station yesterday that during his past visits to D.C., some policymakers conflated AI with 5G.

• Now, Clark's being asked about machine sentience, loss of control of AI systems, competition with China and the energy impacts of AI systems.
• "A few years ago, I'd come to D.C. and be in a room with 50 chairs and five attendees," he said. Yesterday's Anthropic Futures Forum, including demos, drew 420+ people to Union Station.

Clark and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who'll be interviewed onstage by Axios CEO Jim VandeHei tomorrow at our Axios AI+ DC summit, are meeting this week with GOP and Democratic Senate leadership offices, along with several House members and Senate Republican chairs.

• Amodei said at yesterday's forum that with decades of innovation being compressed into years, we need to consider both AI's benefits and risks, including jobs. "There are two ways to react to the exponential," he said. "You're either too early or you're too late."

Explore state-by-state data (image above) in the "Anthropic Economic Index: Understanding AI's effects on the economy."

• Join the waitlist for Axios AI+ DC.

More than 7.4 million people watched the Emmy Awards on CBS, making it the most-watched Emmys since 2021, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.

• Sunday's program, hosted by comedian Nate Bargatze, saw an 8% increase in viewers over last year's broadcast on ABC.

Keep reading.