Axios AM

May 26, 2025
๐บ๐ธ It's Memorial Day, when we honor the brave women and men who made the ultimate sacrifice for America's freedom. Thank you to those heroes and their families.
- Smart Brevityโข count: 1,485 words ... 5ยฝ mins. Thanks to Noah Bressner for orchestrating. Edited by Donica Phifer.
1 big thing: AI cheating surge
Use of generative AI to cheat is rampant in high schools and colleges, but there's no clear consensus on how to fight back, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.
- Why it matters: AI's use and power will only rise.
That means sussing out when students are secretly using it โ and avoiding the temptation for teachers and professors to overuse it themselves.
- Any assignment "that you take home and have time to play around with, there's going to be doubt hanging over it," says Stephen Cicirelli, an English professor at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, N.J.
- Cicirelli captured the zeitgeist with a viral post on X (14.7 million views) about how one of his students got caught submitting an AI-written paper, and apologized with an email that appeared to be written by ChatGPT.
๐งฎ By the numbers: Use is ubiquitous in college. A survey of college students taken in January 2023, just two months after ChatGPT's launch, found that some 90% had already used it on assignments, New York Magazine reports.
- One in four 13- to 17-year-olds say they use ChatGPT for help with schoolwork, according to a recent Pew survey. That's double the rate in 2023.
Zoom in: The proliferation of AI-assisted schoolwork is worrying academic leaders.
- 66% think generative AI will cut into students' attention spans, according to a survey of university presidents and other top administrators by the American Association of Colleges & Universities and Elon University's Imagining the Digital Future Center.
- 59% say cheating has increased on campus.
- 56% say their schools aren't ready to prepare students for the AI era.
๐ฌ Between the lines: The rise of AI is causing unforeseen headaches.
- Teachers run assignments through detectors, which often don't get it right. Students who didn't use AI have had to appeal to their schools or submit proof of their process to avoid getting zeroes, The New York Times reports.
- Instructors are getting caught leaning on ChatGPT, too. One Northeastern senior demanded tuition reimbursement after discovering her professor had used AI to prep lecture notes and slides, according to The Times.
The other side: As much as they're struggling to wrangle AI use, many educators believe it has the potential to help students โ and that schools should be teaching them how to use it.
- American University's business school is launching an AI institute for just that purpose.
- "When 18-year-olds show up here as first-years, we ask them, 'How many of your high school teachers told you not to use AI?' And most of them raise their hand," David Marchick, the dean of American University's Kogod School of Business, told Axios' Megan Morrone. "We say, 'Here, you're using AI, starting today.'"
2. ๐ฐ Trump tariff delay

Two days after threatening to impose a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union, President Trump yesterday paused the levies until July and said talks would start "rapidly," Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.
- Why it matters: The threat of such a large tariff, on goods worth more than $600 billion, sent a chill through markets that feared a sudden re-escalation of the trade war.
On Friday, Trump posted to Truth Social that the EU had been "very difficult to deal with" and that talks were "going nowhere!"
- He said he'd recommend a tariff starting June 1 that was more than double what he'd imposed on "Liberation Day" in early April (but paused a week later).
Trump said yesterday evening he'd received a call from Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, requesting a pause until July 9.
- "(It) was my privilege to do so," he said on Truth Social.

๐ Speaking to reporters yesterday before boarding Air Force One back to D.C. from his New Jersey golf club, Trump said (via Axios' Barak Ravid):
- He might have "good news" on an Iran deal this week.
- He's "not happy with what Putin is doing" after Russia launched one of the largest air attacks of the war yesterday. Trump added on Truth Social hours later: "He has gone absolutely CRAZY!"
- He wants to end the war in Gaza "as quickly as possible," stating publicly what he's been saying privately since his trip to the Middle East earlier this month.
3. ๐๏ธ Trump's Senate slog
Senate fiscal hawks appearing on Sunday shows suggested they're prepared to stall President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" in an attempt to force deeper spending cuts.
- Why it matters: Getting the bill through the House last weekย was far from painless for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who had to thread the needle between rival GOP factions, and has all but begged senators "not to meddle" with the legislation.
๐ Zoom in: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told CNN's "State of the Union" he has enough Senate allies to hold up the legislation, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.
- He wants deeper cuts and has repeatedly called for a return to pre-pandemic spending levels.
- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that the spending cuts included in the House bill "are wimpy and anemic."
๐ง Between the lines: Budget hardliners in the House made noise before ultimately voting for the bill after Trump put pressure on them.
- The process could play out the same way in the Senate.
4. ๐ธ Axios-Harris poll: Prices over politics

Prices โ not politics โ are driving most brands' reputations in this year's Axios-Harris 100 rankings, with the election in the rear-view mirror and tariffs and inflation top of mind, Axios' Margaret Talev writes.
- Why it matters: 8 in 10 consumers tell The Harris Poll that they care more about how brands can keep prices down than their politics.
"We used to get so upset by the culture wars, and now the absolute dominant priority and attention has been focused by the consumer on value," The Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema said.
5. ๐ซ Dem plan: "Speaking with American Men"
Groups of Democratic donors and strategists meeting at fancy hotels are commissioning new projects to win working-class voters "that can read like anthropological studies of people from faraway places," the N.Y. Times' Shane Goldmacher writes.
- A $20 million effort โ code-named SAM, or "Speaking with American Men" โ calls for studying the "syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces."
It recommends advertising in video games and shifting away "from a moralizing tone," among other things, the Times reports.
- Keep reading: "Democrats Are Still Searching for the Path Forward" (gift link).
6. ๐ช Pentagon's big-money recruiting push
The U.S. military spent more than $6 billion over the past three years to recruit and retain service members, in what has been a growing campaign to counter enlistment shortfalls, AP's Lolita C. Baldor writes.
- Why it matters: Additional incentives for enlistment and retention have helped the services bounce back. All but the Navy met recruiting targets last year, and all are expected to do so this year.
The military services have routinely poured money into recruiting and retention bonuses over the years.
- But the totals spiked as Pentagon leaders tried to reverse falling enlistment numbers, particularly as COVID restrictions locked down public events, fairs and school visits that recruiters relied on to meet with young people.
7. ๐ก D.C.'s ultra-luxe mansion boom
If you're one of the lucky few looking to sell or buy a $10 million Washington house with an elevator, a pool, a wine cellar and a golf simulator โ now's the time to do it, agents tell Axios D.C.'s Mimi Montgomery.
- The big picture: President Trump's uber-wealthy Cabinet members are picking up pads in town, as are the high-profile tech titans and CEOs who want proximity to an administration seen as pro-business.
State of play: The D.C.-Maryland-Virginia real estate landscape has become a tale of two markets. While many of the area's standard buyers are worried about federal layoffs, a possible recession, or tariffs, those concerns don't apply to the luxe set.
- Instead, they're worried about finding something in Georgetown, Kalorama, or Massachusetts Avenue Heights that's move-in ready, is on a secure, private lot, and has space to entertain.
"I don't recall having so many [buyers] that just want to do business and don't have roots in the D.C. area," says Washington agent Piper Yerks. "That seems to be motivated by the administration."
8. ๐ฌ 1 film thing: Memorial Day movie record

Monster openings from two early summer blockbusters โย "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission: Impossible โ The Final Reckoning" โ fueled a Memorial Day weekend box office record.
- A Disney live-action remake of "Lilo & Stitch" "blew away all expectations with a record-smashing, four-day domestic debut of $183 million," The Hollywood Reporter writes.

"Mission: Impossible โ The Final Reckoning" brought in $77 million domestically, more than any other movie in the Tom Cruise series.
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