Apple this morning announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. and hire 20,000 people over the next four years, with expansion and construction planned from coast to coast.

• The new jobs will focus on research and development, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.
• Apple plans to greatly expand chip and server manufacturing in the U.S., plus skills development for students and workers across the country.

Why it matters: Apple's announcement — which the company calls its "largest-ever spend commitment" — is precisely the kind of win President Trump has been looking for with his push to move manufacturing back to the U.S.

• Apple's new investment — much of it in red states — lets Trump say to other companies: Apple can do it. Why can't (or won't) you?

📈 Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the announcement: "We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we're proud to build on our longstanding U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country's future."

• "From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund [from $5 billion to $10 billion], to building advanced technology in Texas, we're thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing," Cook added. "And we'll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation."

🔎 The backstory: Trump met with Cook on Thursday in the Oval Office. Then Trump got so excited that he revealed the plans prematurely, saying on-camera while meeting with governors that Cook is "investing hundreds of billions of dollars. I hope he's announced it — I hope I didn't announce it, but what the hell? All I do is tell the truth — that's what he told me. Now he has to do it, right?"

• "He is investing hundreds of billions of dollars and others, too," Trump continued. "We will have a lot of chipmakers coming in, a lot of automakers coming in. They stopped two plants in Mexico that were ... starting construction. They just stopped them — they're going to build them here instead, because they don't want to pay the tariffs. Tariffs are amazing."

State-by-state details ... Read the release.

President Trump named bombastic MAGA podcast star Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director — a role that doesn't request Senate confirmation, and typically goes to a senior agent.

• Why it matters: With loyalist Kash Patel confirmed as FBI director, the bureau can function effectively as Trump's private security force.

Bongino served in the NYPD before joining the Secret Service and working in the Presidential Protective Division during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

• The FBI Agents Association wanted an active-duty agent as deputy. So the pick could intensify "mistrust among the rank-and-file," the N.Y. Times reports.

Announcing the appointment on Truth Social last night, Trump said Patel "will be the best ever Director" and said of Bongino: "Working with our great new United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and Director Patel, Fairness, Justice, Law and Order will be brought back to America, and quickly."

• Talking in 2018 about the confirmation battle for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Bongino said: "My entire life right now is about owning the libs."

Keep reading ... Read a 2021 profile of Bongino by The New Yorker's Evan Osnos, "Dan Bongino and the Big Business of Returning Trump to Power ... The Secret Service agent turned radio host is furious at liberals — so he's trying to build a right-wing media infrastructure."

Friedrich Merz, set to become Germany's next chancellor after his conservative party won the national election yesterday, vowed to help give Europe "real independence" from the U.S. as he prepared to cobble together a government.

• Why it matters: Merz took aim at the U.S. in blunt remarks after his victory, criticizing the "ultimately outrageous" comments flowing from Washington during the campaign, and comparing them to hostile interventions from Russia. He said the U.S. has become "largely indifferent" to Europe's fate.

Merz told a roundtable TV discussion last night that his "absolute priority" would be to "strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the U.S., step by step," BBC reports.

Merz faces complex and lengthy coalition negotiations after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to a historic second place, Reuters reports.

• Mainstream parties rule out working with the AfD, endorsed by Elon Musk.

Go deeper.

With today marking three years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia is making only small-scale advances on the battlefield — but has the upper hand both militarily and diplomatically, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

• Russia has superior manpower and firepower, particularly with U.S. military support in question.

Go deeper: How control of Ukrainian territory has shifted.

The Trump administration's big cuts to the federal government are hitting military veterans particularly hard, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• Why it matters: Many of those who served in the military derive a sense of purpose and belonging from government work — viewing it as a way to serve their country and help their peers outside of active duty.

🖼️ The big picture: It's not yet clear how many military vets have been fired, or will be. Last year, veterans made up 28% of the federal workforce, according to federal data — a far bigger share than the 5% in the private sector.

• About 36% of vets working in civil service, more than 200,000 in total, are disabled or have a serious health condition.

The other side: Interior has carved out an exception for vets, E&E News reports.

• White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said: "President Trump has consistently stood up for our brave men and women in uniform — delivering crucial reforms that improved VA healthcare, decreased veteran homelessness, and enhanced education benefits."

💻 Musk emails: Multiple agencies and unions have told federal workers not to respond to a new email demanding that they account for their work over the last week — despite Elon Musk's threat they'll lose their jobs if they don't.

• The Pentagon told employees that only DoD is responsible for "reviewing the performance of its personnel," and it will undertake employee reviews "in accordance with its own procedures." Employees were told to disregard the Office of Personnel Management email.
• New FBI director Kash Patel told employees not to answer the email. (NBC)
• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard instructed employees of the nation's spy agencies to ignore the email, citing the agencies' sensitive and classified work. (WashPost)
• State Department employees were also told not to respond. (N.Y. Times)

Keep reading.

A hot startup that grew overnight into a billion-dollar behemoth is racing with established tech giants for supremacy in a new market that everyone expects will unlock a future of abundance and profit.

• That sounds like a description of OpenAI vs Google et al., Axios managing editor Scott Rosenberg writes.
• But it's actually an account of the "browser wars" at the dawn of the web 30 years ago — when Netscape vied with Microsoft to control the software people would use to access the internet.

Why it matters: In 1996 or 1997, a couple of years after forward-looking tech leaders first realized that "owning" the web browser would be a prize, Google — the company that ultimately won the race — didn't even exist.

• Today, as AI giants and challengers vie to build a better chatbot and seize mindshare and market share, there's a good possibility that the winning bot (assuming there's only one) hasn't yet been invented — and the company that will make it has yet to be founded.

👓 Between the lines: That's why tech's superpowers, despite their immense wealth and influence, have been running scared.

• It's also why VCs continue to pour money into new startups, including Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence.

Keep reading ... Get Axios AI+.

Hackers with ties to the Chinese government obtained access to internal communications from the Republican National Committee for three months last year, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes in his new book "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power," coming March 18.

• Why it matters: The Chinese breach — which hasn't been reported — was part of an intense barrage of cyber espionage attacks targeting top Trump and Republican Party officials during the campaign.

🔬 Zoom in: The "Revenge" passage, reported by The Wall Street Journal this morning, reveals that Trump campaign and RNC officials didn't inform the FBI of the hack over fears that agents would leak news of the hack.

• Microsoft informed the campaign of the Chinese breach just before the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pa., and the Republican convention in July.
• GOP officials "believed the Chinese wanted to find out if the party's platform would express support for Taiwan." The document, which was shortened to 16 pages from 58 in 2016, didn't end up mentioning the island.

📝 Between the lines: Around the same time, the campaign was targeted by hackers from Iran who gained access to the computer of co-campaign manager Susie Wiles (now White House chief of staff) and Trump ally Roger Stone, Isenstadt reports.

• "The hacking concerns spread from there. [Trump co-campaign manager Chris] LaCivita heard from law enforcement that the Iranians were trying to bust into his iPhone.
• "The FBI called [Trump campaign communications director] Steven Cheung to tell him his device was under intense assault by multiple foreign adversaries. Trump attorney Lindsey Halligan was also targeted."

Keep reading (gift link).

Two MAGA-friendly government relations firms are forming an alliance:

• Miller Strategies, one of the lobbying firms closest to the White House, is partnering with Checkmate Government Relations and Public Affairs, which has state and local muscle, and strong Trump relationships.

Why it matters: The firms together have deep experience in federal and state government, GOP politics and campaigns, and high-level government relations and public affairs.

Jeff Miller is CEO of Miller Strategies, one of the most powerful firms in Trump-dominated Washington.

• Ches McDowell, who's close to Don Jr., is managing partner of Checkmate, which was founded in North Carolina and opened a federal practice in Washington after the election. His brother, Rep. Addison McDowell (R-N.C.) — who was endorsed by President Trump — flipped a Democratic seat in November and is one of the youngest members of Congress.

Chris LaCivita, co-campaign manager of the Trump campaign, said: "Love to see friends Jeff Miller and Ches McDowell working together." LaCivita's son, Chris LaCivita Jr., based in Richmond, Va., is Checkmate's public affairs director.

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Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and Dina Powell McCormick, a business exec and Trump 1.0 national security official, will be out April 1 with "Who Believed in You?" — a new book designed to "kickstart a national mentoring movement."

• Why it matters: COVID shattered the ability of young workers and college students to build meaningful relationships with colleagues and mentors.

The book features interviews with major business and political leaders — including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, fashion legend Tory Burch, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and hit producer Brian Grazer — who share how mentors changed their lives.

• "During the COVID lockdowns, we watched as many Americans — including our six teenage daughters — were left feeling devoid of human connection and without the advice and guidance of mentors," the McCormicks write.
• "As two grateful beneficiaries of the American dream, we hope this book will inspire Americans to invest in someone and help us change the world."

More on the book.