Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s team is bucking Democratic Party tradition by selling campaign merchandise not made in America or by union labor, Axios' Alex Thompson found.

• Why it matters: The move is out of step with Kennedy's stated commitment to labor unions. That, along with his vocal anti-vaccine views, could complicate his longshot primary challenge to President Biden.

For generations, a rule for Democratic campaigns has been that as many materials as possible — shirts, stickers, placards, lawn signs, even campaign buses — should be made by union shops in America, as a sign of the party's commitment to labor and the working class.

• "It's Politics 101," Ray Buckley, chair of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire, told Axios.
• Biden's campaign merchandise is labeled as union-made, with a union logo clearly visible on T-shirts and other products.

"Kennedy 2024" T-shirts sold by Kennedy's campaign are "Assembled in Honduras," according to the tag on a shirt purchased by Axios.

• The shirts come from Bella + Canvas, a U.S.-based clothing manufacturer that isn't unionized.

A campaign sticker sold by Kennedy's campaign didn't include a union label. Other materials on the campaign's website lack union labels.

• At least one Kennedy campaign item — the placards at his presidential announcement rally in April — were union made, according to photos reviewed by Axios.
• Kennedy's campaign didn't respond to several requests for comment.

Context: After he announced in May, Kennedy called for more unionization.

🥊 The N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman reported last week that "FARMERS FOR TRUMP" hats, which he tossed at a rally, were made in Bangladesh.

• Share this story.

A number of wealthy donors are supporting both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leading Democratic challenger to President Biden, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

• The donors backing both are "kind of like the super-rich Joe Rogan crowd," said Republican strategist Alex Conant, referring to the podcast host who has praised DeSantis and interviewed Kennedy.

🔎 Between the lines: The dual donations — by executives in banking, venture capital, hedge funds and tech — look like an effort to thwart former President Trump, while complicating Biden's re-election path.

• But those behind the movement say it's driven more by lingering dissatisfaction with COVID-era restrictions — plus Trump-Biden fatigue in the donor class.

🔭 Zoom in: Entrepreneur and investor David Sacks hosted fundraisers for both DeSantis and Kennedy. Sacks sees the two candidates as part of a growing coalition that is anti-censorship, anti-war and pro-liberty, according to a person familiar with Sacks' thinking.

• Omeed Malik, a former Democrat who founded Farvahar Partners, a boutique merchant bank, has donated the maximum $6,600 to the DeSantis and Kennedy campaigns.
• Joe Voboril — co-founder and managing partner of Farvahar Partners — is another DeSantis-Kennedy donor. He tells Axios he's an "orphaned Democrat."

Elon Musk hosted separate Twitter Spaces events for DeSantis and Kennedy.

• He has said he leans toward backing DeSantis for president.

Share this story.

Small-business owners remain pretty pessimistic. But the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index ticked up in June to the highest level this year, Axios' Kate Marino reports.

• Why it matters: Small businesses often feel an economic slowdown more quickly or sharply than large corporations — they have less scale, less margin for error, less access to capital markets.

🕶️ The share of companies planning capital expenditures in the next 3-6 months went up to 25% in May — and held steady in June.

• The percentage of owners expecting better business conditions in the next six months improved by 10 points in June — to the best reading since February 2022. Still, more owners are negative than positive.

Explore the data.

Catastrophic flooding hit picturesque downtown Montpelier, Vermont's state capital. People navigated the submerged streets in canoes, as flooding reached the windows of businesses and the tops of cars. (Reuters)

• A storm dumped up to two months of rain in two days, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage across the state. (Boston Globe)

Republicans are hoping to keep Speaker Kevin McCarthy's majority in 2024 by recruiting more women, minorities and veterans to run in flippable blue districts, Axios' Stef Kight reports.

• Why it matters: Republicans — touting an anti-"woke" agenda and praising the end of affirmative action — see a winning strategy in pulling together a slate of diverse candidates for the most competitive seats.

Prasanth Reddy, an Indian American immigrant and military officer, this morning launches his campaign for the seat of Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.).

• Mayra Flores, who is Latina, yesterday announced her comeback bid in South Texas.
• Veteran and former state senator Tom Barrett will run again in Lansing, Mich., he announced Monday. The same day, Orlando Sonza, an Asian American veteran, announced he's running in a district centered in Cincinnati. Both districts are considered tossups by Cook Political Report
• Former Rep. Yvette Herrell, a Cherokee Nation citizen, is running again in New Mexico. Maria Montero, a Latina, has filed paperwork to run in a highly competitive district in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.

Context: Over the past several years, Republicans have tried to target more minority voters amid sweeping demographic changes in the U.S.

• "When candidates' backgrounds and experiences reflect the same challenges and life stories of their voters, Republicans can win in any district," NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (N.C.) told Axios.

Share this story.

A federal judge in San Francisco handed Microsoft a major victory by declining to block its $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard.

• Why it matters: The decision means Microsoft can close the merger ahead of a July 18 deadline everywhere except for the U.K.

Between the lines: The decision is a setback for the FTC's heightened scrutiny of Big Tech under Chair Lina Khan, who was installed by President Biden because of her tough stance on monopolies, AP notes.

🎮 Catch up quick: Microsoft, which makes Xbox, said the big Activision prize was the company's mobile gaming know-how — including its King studios responsible for Candy Crush Saga, Axios' Stephen Totilo reports.

• The fate of Call of Duty swiftly became the focus of skeptical regulators in the U.K., Europe and the U.S.

🔮 What's next: Microsoft says Activision Blizzard games will be made available everywhere, including the cloud.

• Go deeper.

MSNBC's Ari Melber took a stab at a "second draft of history" with a special edition of his 6 p.m. ET show, airing extensive excerpts of Bob Woodward's 20 (!) interviews with then-President Trump.

• The 8+ hours are collected in a book and audio archive, "The Trump Tapes: The Historical Record."

Why it matters: With Trump running again, his botched handling of COVID will be newly scrutinized.

Woodward says it's the first time in 50+ years of reporting that he has disclosed raw interviews.

• We hear Trump blurt "No!" when Woodward asks him — in March 2020 — if there had been a moment in the last two months when he said: "Ah! This is the leadership test of a lifetime."

💡 Woodward told Melber: "[T]he great lesson of government is not only do you have to listen to people, but you have to take them seriously. You have to understand their advice."

• "I think the independent counsel is going to expand his investigation — he's going to make it more serious," Woodward added. "And so we're going to have a debate about the law and the responsibility. I mean, this is what presidential elections are about: Who is this person? ... There it is."

Trump is suing Woodward over "The Trump Tapes," arguing the author didn't have permission to publish the audio. Woodward disputes that.

• 1-min. sample of "The Trump Tapes" ... 30-sec. MSNBC video ... 42-min. MSNBC video.

AI is a key plot point in Tom Cruise's stunt-studded "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," opening today:

• "The villain is the very au courant artificial intelligence, here called the Entity," the N.Y. Times review says. Cruise, as agent Ethan Hunt, "receives his usual mysterious directives that, this time, have been recorded on a cassette tape, an amusing touch for a movie about the threat posed to the material world by a godlike digital power."

The Entity is "a frighteningly self-aware robo-weapon powerful enough to bring data systems, economies and entire nations to their knees," the L.A. Times review adds.

• Cruise's action tour de force includes the ominous warning: "Whoever controls the Entity controls the truth."

Watch the final trailer.