MAGA media is seizing on its new influence in Washington — staffing up, enjoying unprecedented access to power, and making market splashes, Axios' Tal Axelrod and Sara Fischer report.

• Why it matters: Corporate America has typically shunned right-wing media. But expanded exposure to Washington's powerbrokers is helping MAGA outlets and personalities establish themselves as key media players.

These outlets are landing bigger advertising deals and distribution contracts, and developing stronger talent networks.

• And investors are taking notice.

💡 The backstory: "Conservatives were exiled from the establishment, legacy media platforms where most Americans used to get their news," Andrew Kolvet, a top adviser for Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, tells Axios.

• "This forced entrepreneurial creators out into the media wilderness to hone their skills and either sink or swim based on talent. ... Real talent rose to the top and built massive, durable audiences of increasing size and influence."

🎧 Zoom in: Fox Corp.'s acquisition in February of Red Seat Ventures, the production company that manages shows from Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, served as an early market signal of the commercial power of pro-Trump voices with digital platforms.

• Kelly — the fastest-growing right-wing podcaster in the fourth quarter of last year, per The Righting — announced in March that she'll launch her own podcast network, MK Media.

📺 Fox News, which has a straight-news daytime operation and more overtly conservative programming in primetime, raked in 160+ new advertisers between November 2024 and April 2025, according to iSpot data provided to Axios. A Fox spokesperson said there have been 200 new advertisers since the election.

• The Daily Wire's valuation tops $1 billion, Axios reported in December.
• Rumble and Newsmax are each publicly trading at values exceeding $2 billion, despite earning just $30 million and $171 million in revenue last year. Truth Social's parent company is currently valued at more than $5 billion on the public market, despite earning $3.6 million in 2024.

🥊 Reality check: Because most MAGA-affiliated outlets are privately held startups, data on their financial growth is scant.

🎤 Zoom out: Beyond the cash flow, these outlets are experiencing unprecedented access to the White House, which reinforces the image they seek as media heavy-hitters.

• Reporters and podcasters like The National Pulse's Raheem Kassam, The Daily Wire's Mary Margaret Olohan and Jack Posobiec have been invited on foreign trips with Cabinet officials.

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President Trump plans to announce today that Washington will host the 2027 NFL Draft, with the aim of holding it on the National Mall, Axios' Hans Nichols, Marc Caputo and Cuneyt Dil report.

• The announcement is expected to be made with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris in the Oval Office at 1 p.m. ET, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios.

🏟️ It comes days after the Commanders and D.C. officials announced a plan to bring the team back to the city with a new domed stadium on the site of the old RFK Stadium.

• The new stadium is tentatively scheduled to open in 2030, but needs to be approved by the D.C. Council. It would be part of a massive $3.7 billion redevelopment project that would include the 65,000-seat domed stadium, 6,000 homes and an entertainment district.

The intrigue: If the D.C. Council kills the project, the Trump administration hypothetically could pick it up.

• Congress gave D.C. long-term authority over the federally owned RFK site last December. Lawmakers could take it back if Trump were personally invested in getting a stadium done.

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President Trump disowned the U.S. economy as one still shaped by his predecessor's policies last week.

• Less than 48 hours later, he touted strong employment and said the administration was "just getting started!!!"

Why it matters: The economy didn't change, but the data did. The tricky presidential balance of owning the economy — in the good and bad — is not new. But it has perhaps never been more on display than with Trump, Axios' Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown report.

• "I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he's done a terrible job," the president said plainly in an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" yesterday.

💰 What's going on:

• Trump has repeatedly called on Fed chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates — accusing him of being "Too Late" — a move that sets the central banker up as the "fall man" should the economy weaken.
• Trump pointed the finger at Biden for the stock market's drop in recent weeks, even after taking credit for the stock market rally months earlier.

💡 Reality check: In normal times, Trump and his advisers would be right. The economy is a mighty tanker ship, slow to turn.

• The exception is when they take sweeping, rapid action on a massive scale. Both Biden and Trump have done that, resulting in economic data that can be directly mapped to policy choices.

State of play: Economic conditions are being shaped almost entirely by Trump, who quickly ripped up the longstanding global trade playbook, leaving businesses and consumers scrambling.

• Trump shrugged off the GDP report that showed the economy shrinking for the first time in two years in the first quarter: "That's Biden — that's not Trump," he said.

👀 But there's a flip-flop in the messaging when indicators suggest the economy is in good shape.

• Just 15 minutes after the release of Friday's better-than-expected jobs report, Trump said the economy was "in a transition stage" — though he bragged about the slew of good economic news under his watch.

For the record: A White House official said it's not completely Trump's economy yet, and noted that it'll take more time to pass Trump's tax bill, negotiate trade deals and deregulate the economy. "There remain lingering Bidenomics problems," the official said.

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More than 200 CEOs signed a letter urging state leaders to mandate AI and computer science classes as a high school graduation requirement, our Axios AI+ newsletter reports.

• Why it matters: "High schools offering high-quality [computer science] courses raise students' likelihood of being employed by 2.6 percentage points and annual earnings by about eight percent," Brookings found. [Editor's note: This version corrects Brookings finding.]

Read the open letter.

The South Texas home of Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company is now an official city with a galactic name: Starbase.

• A vote over the weekend to formally organize Starbase — the area around SpaceX's facility and launch site — as a city of its own was approved by the small group of voters who live there and are mostly Musk's employees, AP reports.

Friction point: "Some locals fear the move will give SpaceX more power across the Rio Grande Valley. They worry the approximately 280 people living in Starbase and eligible to vote will make decisions that affect a broad number of people nearby," The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).

• For example, state legislators have floated giving Starbase powers to temporarily close beaches during weekdays to carry our rocket operations.

President Trump said on Truth Social last evening that he's directing federal departments to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz, California's prison-turned-tourist-attraction, "to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders."

• Alcatraz was closed as a prison in 1963 because it was expensive to run, and the U.S. government "found that it was more cost-effective to build a new institution" than to keep it open, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons history of "The Rock."

• Keep reading.

🎬 Also in Trump's last evening's Truth Social feed: tariffs on movies.

• The president said he's ordering administration officials to start the process of imposing a "100% Tariff" on any movie produced outside the U.S.

Between the lines: Trump's trade war has thus far been mostly about industry, like steel, aluminum and cars, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes.

• Escalating to intellectual property, in a world where it's common for productions to shoot in multiple countries, could create deep complications for industries that don't usually have to concern themselves with international trade policy.

Keep reading.

The S&P 500 may be rebounding from recent tariff drama. But it still can't hold a candle to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

• The S&P is down about 3% for the year, while Berkshire is up about 20%.

If that gap holds, it'd be Buffett's best year against the index since 2007.

• Go deeper: How Warren Buffett changed the way investors think about investing, via N.Y. Times (gift link).

Summer begins early in Hollywood — on the first weekend in May. It can make or break that pivotal 123-day corridor that has historically accounted for around 40% of the annual box office.

• Disney kicked it off this past weekend with "Thunderbolts." The high-octane adventure — starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Sebastian Stan raked — in $76 million, making it 2025's third-biggest debut.

Memorial Day weekend could be big at the box office with the live-action "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" storming theaters, AP reports.

• With a new "Jurassic World," a live-action "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Superman" also on the schedule through June and July, this summer has the potential to be the biggest in the post-COVID era.

Week-by-week list of summer releases.