Donald Trump is stewing because his former press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, hasn't endorsed his 2024 run, Axios' Alex Thompson and Worth Sparkman report.

• Trump asked her personally for an endorsement in a phone call months ago.

Sanders' team had told his campaign she wouldn't make an endorsement until after her first legislative session in Arkansas.

• The session ended in May! And still, no endorsement.

Why it matters: Sanders is among several Republicans with national ambitions who are staying neutral in the presidential primary, despite Trump's huge lead in early polls.

Lots of potential Republican presidential aspirants are yet to endorse:

• These include Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) — along with Govs. Greg Abbott (Texas) and Kristi Noem (S.D.).

🔎 The intrigue: For Trump, Sanders is different. Not only did he help make her famous by naming her White House press secretary, he endorsed her the day she announced for governor.

• Trump denied the N.Y. Times' accurate report in March that he asked for her endorsement, writing on Truth Social: "I give endorsements, I don't generally ask for them. With that being said, nobody has done more for her than I have, with the possible exception of her great father, Mike!"
• Three weeks later, Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, endorsed Trump.

🐊 Sanders has developed a relationship with Trump's rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

• Last year, she attended DeSantis' retreat for top donors.
• Sanders has become close to DeSantis' wife, Casey, since their recent experiences with cancer.

Alexa Henning, Sanders' communications director, praised Trump in a statement — but didn't offer an endorsement.

• "Governor Sanders loves President Trump and believes our country would be much better off under his leadership than President Biden, and that President Trump is the dominant frontrunner and our likely Republican nominee in 2024," Henning told Axios.

Sanders, 40, is the nation's youngest governor, and Arkansas' first woman to hold the office. She has tried to establish a national profile beyond her work for Trump — positioning her for a possible presidential run in 2028 or 2032.

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The Citi Economic Surprise Index — a quick-and-dirty snapshot of how the economy is faring against expectations — just hit its highest level in two years, Axios' Matt Phillips writes.

• Why it matters: Last week's great reports on weakening U.S. consumer inflation, slowing wholesale price increases, falling import prices and lower-than-expected claims for jobless benefits helped send the surprise index to the highest level in two years.

Flashback: It was almost exactly a year ago that the index was blaring alarms that a sharp slowdown was coming, as the Fed aggressively raised rates while inflation stayed stubbornly high.

• Economists ratcheted up recession predictions.
• Now economists are backing off those calls.

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The target letter former President Trump says he received Sunday from special counsel Jack Smith — who's investigating the Jan. 6 attack and efforts to reverse the 2020 election results — mentions three federal statutes, ABC News reports:

1. Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States.
2. Deprivation of rights under color of law.
3. Tampering with a witness, victim or informant.

Also yesterday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 pro-Trump fake electors with forgery and other felonies in an alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election.

• Why it matters: They appear to be the first criminal charges against fake electors, who are accused of submitting false certificates as Trump electors even though Joe Biden won, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.

Those charged include Kathy Berden, national committeewoman of the Republican Party of Michigan, and Meshawn Maddock, the state party's former co-chair.

🖼️ The big picture: Besides Michigan, other states where efforts to distort the 2020 results are under investigation are Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

• Federal prosecutors working for the special counsel have interviewed officials in all seven of those battleground states, which were targeted by Trump and his allies, CNN reports.

Keep reading.

Climate reporters long struggled to find news pegs to describe the inexorable increase in global temperatures, Axios extreme-weather expert Andrew Freedman writes.

• Those days are over.

July has brought a barrage of breaking climate news — including the world's hottest day, which was quickly eclipsed. Then wildfires.

• Records fell.
• Weather dominated front pages worldwide.

💭 Andrew's thought bubble: Scientists have long predicted episodes like this — though some are arriving earlier than anticipated.

🔮 What's next: The heart of hurricane season.

• Go deeper: Historic heat in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

As part of his campaign reset, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a reduced security presence for stops in South Carolina this week.

• Why it matters: It was a notable shift from previous DeSantis appearances, which featured an unusually large private detail — in addition to his Florida security as governor, AP reports.

In a rare interview with the mainstream press, DeSantis told CNN's Jake Tapper:

• 'They have been saying that I have been doing poorly for my whole time as governor, basically. ... During COVID: 'Oh, he has the state open. He's going to lose [releection].' ... So they always want to get there. It never quite works out."

Video from interview ... DeSantis unveils "Mission First" military policy.

Microsoft will charge $30 per user per month for businesses to use its AI-infused copilots to automate work in Office products, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

• Why it matters: That'll add up to a hefty chunk of change — the most significant new revenue opportunity for Microsoft's Office business since it switched to a subscription model, Axios' Ina Fried and Ryan Heath report.

The company announced Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing — along with a business version of GPT-4-powered Bing Chat, which will sell for $5 per user per month, and also will be included in some subscription bundles.

• Bing Chat Enterprise adds protections for business data.

🧮 By the numbers: That could add $5 billion to $16 billion in revenue for Microsoft next year, Ivana Delevska, chief investment officer at asset manager Spear Invest, told Axios. Her estimate assumes 5% to 16% of Office 365 users sign up for Copilot.

• Delevska noted it costs Microsoft on the order of $2 to $5 per hour for the computing capacity needed to provide the service.

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A first-generation iPhone (factory-sealed in the original packaging) sold at auction for $190,373 — nearly 380 times the original price of $499 when the groundbreaking device went for sale in 2007, AP reports.

• LCG Auctions, which hosted Sunday's sale, said the 4GB iPhone model was 20 times rarer than the 8GB model released at the same time for $599. The 4GB model was discontinued two months after launch, given customer preference for the larger memory size.

See the auction listing.

A new restaurant is taking advantage of Minnesota's thriving hemp-derived THC industry by putting the products on the dine-in menu, Axios' Audrey Kennedy reports from Minneapolis.

• Hi Flora! is advertised as "Minnesota's first THC restaurant." Patrons can buy a house-made, five-milligram tincture with their meal, and add it to their food and drinks.
• The vegan eatery, which will hold a grand opening today, is alcohol-free but offers 20+ mocktails.

How it works: In Minnesota, edibles can only be sold in a prepackaged, childproof container — meaning cannabis can't be baked into the dishes served to dine-in customers. The law doesn't apply to beverages.

• But there's nothing against putting a packaged product on the menu that guests can do with as they please, owner Heather Klein told Axios.

Audrey tried the restaurant during its soft opening.

• The tincture, which costs $10 and comes in a three-ounce bottle with a dropper, is blended with beet, juniper, and several other herbs.

Audrey added half to the food and half to her drink. She tells us:

• Though I'm not vegan, the meal stood on its own. The hibiscus tostada ($13) was delicious. The creamy avocado cacao mousse ($15) was better than any chocolate mousse I've had.
• I felt the effects from just the food, but not until the end of the meal. Considering edibles take about an hour to kick in, most guests likely won't experience anything until they're almost finished.

💵 The tab: After the mandatory service fee and tax, two small plates, a drink, a dessert and the tincture ended up being $90+.

🥊 Reality check: A shop across the street sells 10 five-milligram gummies for $20.

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