Republican officials are rendering an unequivocal verdict: They want to cement former President Trump's politics and policies into the foundation of the GOP for many years to come.

• Why it matters: The debate over Trump's post-election hold on the GOP is over — it has gotten stronger since the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

The evidence is overwhelming: 

• House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, a Trump critic, is expected to get booted from leadership next week for saying Trump's claims of an illegitimate Biden victory are destructive lies.
• Trumpian voting restrictions like Georgia's are now being debated in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Iowa and other states.
• The Trump positions on trade and immigration — both of which broke with Bush-era orthodoxy — are now the Republican positions.
• The 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 violence have gone mostly silent, and in at least one case turned on Cheney. 
• The entire House GOP leadership will soon be full-throated Trumpers. 
• House Rs expect Trump-backed candidates to crush his critics in contested primaries. 
• State-level Republican leaders are often as — or more — Trumpian than national leaders, and in many cases will control redistricting.

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller tells me Trump rallies are likely to "start as soon as late spring or early summer."

• Miller said Trump "has already begun to vet and endorse candidates for 2022, with an eye toward electing not just Republican candidates, but America First Republican candidates."
• "His endorsement lifts candidates above the pack and often clears the primary field," Miller said. "The general election endorsement provides access to 'Trump voters' not normally accessible to Republicans."

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Today's jobs report is expected to show monstrous gains. But it would be even bigger if employers could find all the workers they need.

• "Some businesses are forgoing work, such as not bidding on a project, delivering parts more slowly or keeping a section of the restaurant closed," The Wall Street Journal reports.
• "Other companies are raising wages to attract employees, which could inflate prices for customers or reduce profit margins for owners."

With 8 million Americans out of work, why are companies having trouble? Some of the big factors, via Reuters:

1. Parents — particularly mothers — can't work because of closures or shortened hours at schools and daycare.
2. Would-be workers remain concerned about health risks.
3. Stock-market gains have given some older workers the cushion to retire.
4. Some younger workers are finding jobs in new fields, shrinking the labor pool for the industries they left behind.
5. Many employers need to fill jobs requiring skills that sidelined workers may not have.
6. Employers complain that enhanced unemployment benefits and other government aid are keeping workers on the sidelines.

Epic's lawsuit against Apple is costing the company dearly, but the game developer has its eye on a valuable long-term goal: prying tomorrow's virtual worlds loose from the grip of the app store proprietors, Axios chief tech correspondent Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: Epic, maker of Fortnite, is planning for a future of creating virtual universes via augmented and virtual reality — without having to send a big chunk to Apple or Google.

Epic added its own in-app payment system to the Android and iOS versions of Fortnite last year, knowing that it was likely to be kicked out of Google and Apple's respective app stores.

• Keep reading.

COVID has caused twice as many deaths around the world as have been reported, Axios World editor Dave Lawler writes from an analysis by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

• The U.S. has undercounted by over 300,000 deaths, according to the analysis. Death tolls in India and Mexico — second and third on IMHE's list — were found to be nearly three times the official numbers.

What's happening: "Many deaths from COVID-19 go unreported because countries only report deaths that occur in hospitals or in patients with a confirmed infection," the study says.

• Many countries have weak health reporting systems, and some — including Russia — have narrow definitions of what they call a COVID death.

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The head of U.S. Africa Command is warning that a growing threat from China may come not just from the Pacific but also from the Atlantic, AP's Lolita Baldor writes:

• Army Gen. Stephen Townsend said in an interview that Beijing is working to establish a large navy port capable of hosting submarines or aircraft carriers on Africa's western coast.

Why it matters: That would let China base, rearm and repair its expanding Navy's warships in the Atlantic as well as Pacific.

• Townsend said China has approached countries stretching from Mauritania to south of Namibia, intent on establishing a naval facility.
• "The Chinese are outmaneuvering the U.S. in select countries in Africa," Townsend said.

Deana Lawson is upending the racist legacy of photography — long "wielded as a weapon to control the image and distort the humanity of Black people" — and "transforming a colonialist lens into a liberating one," Jenna Wortham writes in the N.Y. Times Magazine:

Lawson gravitates toward domestic spaces that tend to be cluttered with life: family photos, food containers, toys, sleeping babies, Bibles, shoe boxes, towering piles of laundry. Occasionally, images of people outside will surface: a man lying elegantly across the hood of a car; two motorbike riders traveling along a dirt road; a family of three posing in a wooded area, the beads in their hair mirroring the lush wall of ivy behind them.

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Victoria Bailey — executive director of TDF, the nonprofit which oversees the TKTS ticket-selling booth in Times Square — to the N.Y. Times on Broadway's full-capacity reopening beginning Sept. 14:

• "The last time the theater industry opened from a pandemic, Shakespeare was still writing new plays."

P.S. "Phantom of the Opera," Broadway's longest-running show, announced it'll resume performances Oct. 22.

A potentially revolutionary collision of tech and finance: Government digital currencies will let you deposit directly with a central bank, bypassing conventional banks, The Economist writes (subscription):

• "These 'govcoins' ... promise to make finance work better but also to shift power from individuals to the state."

What's happening: "Over 50 monetary authorities, representing the bulk of global GDP, are exploring digital currencies."

Studios and agencies are hiring "rage coaches" to take on powerful jerks and bullies who were romanticized but are now being exposed, The Hollywood Reporter writes:

Randy Spelling, a former actor and the son of late TV producer Aaron Spelling, became a coach 14 years ago and has worked with industry executives on skills like reading the room. ...

[F]or those inclined to roll their eyes at the prospect, Spelling reminds them of what they stand to lose. ... "Do you want to trade places with Harvey Weinstein?"

The WNBA's 25th season tips off a week from today, commemorated by a "Count It" logo (above) celebrating "the impact the WNBA has made on sports and society, and on generations of young and diverse athletes."

Since the 1997 tip-off season, when some questioned whether a women's league could survive, the WNBA has gone from trial balloon to TV ratings hit, Reuters' Amy Tennery reports:

• The inaugural game was June 21, 1997, between the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks at the Great Western Forum, then home of the Los Angeles Lakers. (Video)

In 1997, WNBA players earned a base salary of $15,000, at a time when even low-ranking NBA players made six figures.

• Today's top WNBA players can earn upwards of $500,000. Last year, a landmark collective bargaining agreement guaranteed new maternity benefits and better travel conditions.

Go deeper: Watch "Count It" YouTube. ... Schedule highlights.