Axios AM

May 31, 2024
Happy Friday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,293 words ... 5 mins. Thanks to Noah Bressner for orchestrating. Copy edited by Bryan McBournie.
1 big thing: Right plots revenge

A profound sense of rage — and an insatiable thirst for revenge — is permeating virtually every corner of the Republican Party following former President Trump's historic conviction, Axios' Zachary Basu and Sophia Cai write.
- Why it matters: No one knows how the verdict will affect the outcome of the election. But the immediate impact is undeniable: America's political fabric has been fundamentally altered.
🖼️ The big picture: Beyond the broad indignation, Trump's conviction on all 34 felony counts in his New York hush-money case has triggered two types of responses among his supporters:
1. Republican power players are seeking to channel the conservative frenzy into fundraising, activism and a commitment to vote President Biden out of office in November.
- "Don't just get angry about this travesty, get even!" Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) posted alongside a fundraising link.
- "There is now only one issue in this election: whether the American people will stand for the USA becoming a Banana Republic," tweeted tech investor David Sacks.
2. Among hardline conservatives and Trump loyalists, the verdict has raised existential questions — and triggered a menacing response.
- Potential attorney general pick Mike Davis told Axios he wants GOP prosecutors in Georgia and Florida to open criminal probes into Democrats for conspiring to interfere in the election by indicting Trump.
- "This won't stop Trump," tweeted Tucker Carlson. "He'll win the election if he's not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family."


🥊 "I'm a very innocent man," Trump said to news cameras awaiting him in the courthouse hallway.
- "The real verdict is gonna be Nov. 5, by the people. ... We'll fight to the end, and we'll win."
The other side: Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House Counsel's Office, said: "We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment."
The bottom line: "We've entered new political & legal territory as a Nation, said historian Tim Naftali.
2. 🏛️ Lawmakers fear violence

Members of Congress in both parties said they're worried the guilty verdict could touch off unrest or attempts at political reprisals, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.
- Why it matters: It's a concern that has lingered since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and often resurfaces in the aftermath of major legal developments in the ex-president's criminal cases.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who's running for Senate, urged "all Americans to respect the verdict."
- Hogan's comments drew a rebuke from Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita: "Your campaign is over."
3. ✂️ Trump's conviction scrapbook
Covers: John Cuneo for The New Yorker, Edel Rodriguez for TIME
The New Yorker and TIME had covers ready to go.
- Go deeper: New Yorker Editor David Remnick calls November's election "a matter of emergency."

At 5:09 p.m. ET, AP's bulletin:
- NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is convicted of all 34 counts in his New York hush money trial.


Above: Ivanka Trump, who has stayed away from her father's trial, posted this image on Instagram.
- Don Jr. was a courthouse regular.
4. 💰 Trump donor rush
Screenshot: Trump campaign
Within an hour of the verdict, the Trump campaign's donation page had this image up (left) — and at times crashed from all the traffic (right).
- Why it matters: The former president's team instantly began sending a stream of fundraising appeals.
WinRed, the fundraising platform used by the Trump campaign, was hit by an outage as Google searches for "Donald Trump donation," "Donald Trump donation site" and other related searches spiked, Axios' Rebecca Falconer writes.
5. 📝 Inside the courtroom

Judge Juan Merchan had told the courtroom he planned to send the jury home at 4:30 p.m.
- Trump looked upbeat, chatting animatedly with his lawyers, AP reports.
Then, unexpectedly, the judge was back on the bench. There was a note from the jury, signed at 4:20 p.m.: "We the jury have reached a verdict."
- The jurors asked for 30 minutes to fill out the verdict form. The broadcast networks broke into afternoon programs.
As the minutes passed, defense lawyer Todd Blanche whispered to Trump, who was stone-faced, arms crossed. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, entered the courtroom and sat with aides in the gallery.
- Just before 5 p.m., the judge returned to the bench. He instructed court officers to bring the jury into the courtroom.
- Most of the 12 jurors — seven men, five women — looked straight ahead as they walked past Trump.
"How say you to the first count of the indictment, charging Donald J. Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree?" a court staffer asked.
- "Guilty," the foreperson, whose name has not been publicly released, said — then repeated "guilty" again and again and again.
Trump showed little emotion, shaking his head at one point as the counts were read.
- He stood as jurors left, appearing to look at them one by one as they passed in front of him.
In the hallway outside the 15th-floor courtroom, cheering could be heard from the street below, where Trump fans and detractors were gathered.
6. 📊 What the polling says

N.Y. Times polling guru Nate Cohn writes that although Donald Trump has proved impervious to plenty of controversies that would have doomed other politicians, he has one specific vulnerability after being convicted:
- "He depends on the support of many young and nonwhite voters who haven't voted for him in the past, and who might not prove as loyal as those who have stood by his side from the start."
Why it matters: Beyond the MAGA diehards, Trump's "strength in the polls increasingly depends on surprising strength among voters from traditionally Democratic constituencies," Nate notes.
🧮 By the numbers: In a New York Times/Siena College poll of six battleground states in October, around 7% of Trump's supporters said they'd switch to President Biden if Trump were found guilty.
- "This may not seem like a huge number," Nate writes, "but anything like it would be decisive in our era of close elections."
Keep reading (gift link).
7. 🔮 What happens next

Former President Trump will deliver remarks to reporters at 11 a.m. ET today at Trump Tower.
- Other moments to watch, from Axios' Sareen Habeshian:
1. Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 — four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee.
- His defense attorney, Todd Blanche, indicated last night that they plan to appeal "as soon as we can."
2. Potential jail time: The 34 charges are all Class E felonies — the least severe level in New York. They each carry the possibility of up to four years in prison.
- But the judge can also decide to sentence Trump to probation without prison time. That would require the former president to report to a probation officer (awkward for swing-state travel).
- Legal pundits said that since Trump is a first-time offender, and based on typical sentences for these offenses, they don't expect Trump to be jailed.
3. Trump can still run: There's nothing in the Constitution that bans felons from seeking the presidency.
8. 🐝 1 for the road: Spelling bee champ

Bruhat Soma, 12, of Tampa, Fla., won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night with a furious tie-breaking round where he flew through a record 29 words in 90 seconds.
- His opponent, sixth-grader Faizan Zaki, correctly spelled 20.
Soma's victory extended a stunning three-bee winning streak.
- His last loss was in September, when he missed on "Gloucester," a cheese named for the city in England.
Go deeper: Watch Soma's mesmerizing spell-off.
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