Joe Gebbia — a co-founder of Airbnb who was named by President Trump this week to be the first U.S. chief design officer — tells Mike that he wants to update federal websites to an "Apple Store-like experience."

• "That means it's beautifully designed," Gebbia told us, "has great user experience, and it runs on modern software" — three strikes when it comes to dealing with today's government.

Why it matters: Airbnb — which over 17 years has become a ubiquitous verb for what used to be a classified-ad section at the back of the newspaper — applied those same three principles to renting a vacation home. "There's no reason why the government can't have that, too," Gebbia said.

• And Trump is making it a legacy project.

🚪 Gebbia points out that mobile apps and websites are the "front door to the government" for most Americans. It's "an injustice that our interfaces are horribly out of date," he said. "There's no reason why our government can't be a standard for great design."

• He's determined to bring Airbnb's simplicity ethos to making government websites more usable. "I'm in the camp of: The best part is no part," he said in the interview. "The exercise of designers is: You delete unnecessary parts."

Gebbia, who turned 44 on Thursday, said "spending an hour with POTUS talking about design was probably the greatest birthday present I've ever gotten." He said he and Trump — who's stamping his showy Mar-a-Lago vibe on the White House by gilding the Oval Office, paving the Rose Garden and building a sprawling ballroom — "both care about details at a pretty intense level."

• "It's the same way a hotelier anticipates the needs of their guests," Gebbia added. "As two hospitality guys, we have a mindset for that. ... This is like hospitality design for our nation."

📖 The backstory: Gebbia, based in Austin, is a billionaire entrepreneur who's one of three Airbnb co-founders — he and Brian Chesky hosted the first guests in 2007. Gebbia is also on Tesla's board. But he started as an artist, including studying at the storied Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

• He joined DOGE in February to simplify and modernize the archaic, paper-intensive process for federal retirement. (Gebbia hasn't been involved in Airbnb operations since 2022 but is on the board. His administration role is unconnected to Airbnb.)
• Gebbia told Axios he has "very successfully solved" the retirement mess, with an announcement soon. He's moving full-time into design, although he echoed his friend Elon Musk's assertion that DOGE "is a way of life, like Buddhism."

The bottom line: Heads of agencies are supposed to produce their initial design revamps by July 4, 2026 — America's 250th birthday, which Trump the showman is leaning into with grand festivities.

• Share this story ... Sneak peek at new websites: America by Design ... National Design Studio.

Four big milestones Americans have historically associated with growing up are moving out of your parents' house, getting a job, getting married and having kids.

• In 1975, about half of America's 25– to 34–year–olds had done those things. Fifty years later, less than a quarter have, according to a census working paper out this month.

💡 Zoom in: The way young people think about marriage and family is changing. It used to be the first step of adulthood, with financial security and an established career potentially coming after a wedding.

• Now, it's more commonly the last step. Young people want to find work, pay off debt and live alone before looking for a partner — and these goals are harder to hit than they were for previous generations.

Case in point: In 1975, only 6% of 25- to 34-year-olds lived independently, held jobs, but were unmarried and without kids. By contrast, 22% had moved out, were married with children, but were not employed.

• Today, priorities have flipped. In 2024, 28% of young adults lived on their own with jobs. But the combination of moving out, marrying, and having kids no longer ranks among the top five most common milestone patterns.

The number of people in immigrant detention has jumped more than 50% — to a record — since President Trump took office, Axios' Brittany Gibson and Russell Contreras report.

• 60,000 immigrants are now officially in long-term detention, according to the latest government data, up from 39,000 or so who were behind bars at the end of the Biden administration.

🔎 The tally doesn't include thousands more detainees who aren't in the administration's official count. That includes people in new facilities such Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz," spaces designated as short-term "holding rooms," and military bases.

• About 700 people were at the Everglades facility after it opened in July, according to news reports.

The latest: A federal judge ruled Thursday that "Alligator Alcatraz" could no longer accept migrants and should close. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told Fox News he plans to appeal the decision, which came after activists claimed the facility's environmental impacts weren't studied properly.

• DHS is charging forward with plans for more state-run facilities nationwide.

Read on.

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton arrives at his house in Bethesda, Md., yesterday following its search by the FBI.

• Get the latest.

Chipmaker Intel has agreed to sell around a 10% equity stake to the U.S. government, President Trump told reporters yesterday. Intel confirmed the deal after market close.

• Why it matters: This is part of Trump's new era of pay-me capitalism, Axios' Dan Primack reports.

Trump said in the Oval Office yesterday of his Intel conversations: "I said, 'I think you should pay us 10% of the company,' and they said yes." (WSJ)

⚙️ Zoom in: The U.S. government will invest a total of $11.1 billion into Intel for a 9.9% stake.

• That includes $5.7 billion of CHIPS Act grants that had been awarded but not yet paid to the company, $2.2 billion of grants that Intel already received, plus $3.2 billion previously awarded through another program.
• The government will have no board representation with Intel, or other governance or information rights. It also agreed to vote with the company's board on most matters requiring shareholder approval.

🔭 What to watch: If the White House puts any pressure on Big Tech to utilize Intel's floundering foundry business. Trump didn't comment on that, nor was he asked, although it's something that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently poured cold water on.

• Share this story.

Go deeper ... "Corporate America's Newest Activist Investor: Donald Trump" (NYT gift link).

Dining rooms are missing from new floor plans, Axios' Sami Sparber writes.

• What was once a must-have feature is now getting cut as builders and buyers look to save money.

The big picture: Home designs are shrinking due to higher building costs, including for labor and materials. And high mortgage rates are squeezing buyer budgets.

• A median-priced new home ($459,826) is out of reach for roughly 75% of U.S. households.

🏠 Flex rooms that serve multiple roles, including office and bedroom, are replacing dining areas, according to a report by John Burns Research and Consulting and Pro Builder magazine.

• Kitchens might also gain a bit more space or a bigger island to make everyday meals easier.

Reality check: Dining rooms might stick around in some regions, like the Southeast, where buyers still value these formal spaces, the report notes.

• Read on.

This fall's top new books range from a fairy tale newly told ... to memoirs about a famous writer's indomitable mother ... and life after marriage to a famous rock star.

• Some books were a decade or more in the making, while former Vice President Kamala Harris' "107 Days" was finished in a matter of months, AP's Hillel Italie reports. 10 titles to watch for:

1. "Hansel and Gretel," by Stephen King.
2. "Mother Mary Comes to Me," by Arundhati Roy.
3. "The Wilderness," by Angela Flournoy.
4. "107 Days," by Kamala Harris.
5. "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," by Kiran Desai.
6. "Softly, As I Leave You," by Priscilla Presley.
7. "We Love You, Bunny," by Mona Awad.
8. "The Impossible Fortune," by Richard Osman.
9. "Shadow Ticket," by Thomas Pynchon.
10. "Unfettered," by Sen. John Fetterman.

• More on each book ... Kamala Harris tour.

Pokémon packs and sports cards aren't just for kids and collectors anymore — they're fueling a retail boom, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Why it matters: Trading cards are billion-dollar businesses for mass retailers like Target.

📈 The big picture: Some 1 in 5 adults reported buying Pokémon cards for themselves, though only a quarter actually play the game — most are collecting or investing, per Circana.

• It's like the bobblehead boom or the recent Labubu toy craze.

Zoom in: Walmart saw trading card sales soar 200% between February 2024 and June 2025, the world's largest retailer told Axios.

• Target officials said Wednesday that trading card sales are up nearly 70% this year and on track to surpass $1 billion in 2025.
• eBay officials said in July that trading card sales have now surged for 10 straight quarters.

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