Latest from Barak Ravid: President Trump is giving Iran's warring factions a short window to unify behind a coherent counteroffer — or the ceasefire he extended yesterday ends, three U.S. officials tell Axios.

• "Trump is willing to give another three to five days of ceasefire to allow the Iranians to get their shit together," a U.S. source briefed on the matter told Axios. "It is not going to be open-ended."

Why it matters: Trump's negotiators believe a deal to end the war and address what's left of Iran's nuclear program is still achievable. But they also worry they may not have anyone in Tehran empowered to say yes.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is barely communicating. The IRGC generals now in control of the country and Iran's civilian negotiators are openly at odds over strategy.

• "We saw that there is an absolute fracture inside Iran between the negotiators and the military — with neither side having access to the supreme leader, who is not responsive," a U.S. official said.

🔎 Behind the scenes: U.S. officials first began to see the divisions after the first round of Islamabad talks, when it became clear IRGC commander Gen. Ahmad Vahidi and his deputies had rejected much of what Iran's own negotiators had discussed.

• The split broke into the open last Friday. When Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC refused to implement it — and began publicly attacking him.

⏱️ The last 48 hours have been extremely frustrating for the White House — particularly for Vice President Vance, who had his suitcases packed for Islamabad to lead a second round of peace talks.

• Instead, he found himself waiting for the IRGC generals now in control of Iran to let parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Araghchi travel to Pakistan to meet him.

Yesterday afternoon, Trump huddled with his national security team: Vance, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other top officials.

• Going in, some of Trump's own advisers didn't know which way he was leaning: a massive strike on Iran's energy infrastructure, or more time for diplomacy. He chose the latter.

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Virginia voters' narrow approval (51.5% to 48.6%) of a plan to redraw the state's congressional map has swung the nationwide redistricting fight that President Trump provoked in Dems' favor for now, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

• Why it matters: Virginia's congressional delegation is expected to shift from a 6–5 Democratic edge to roughly 10–1, in a state Trump lost by less than 6 points in the 2024 election.

Democrats gambled on an aggressive reworking of the map in a purple state — and won. Four Republican incumbents in Congress now face the prospect of running in Democratic-friendly districts designed to retire them this November.

• ⛳ Former Virginia Gov. Terry "Macker" McAuliffe (D) told Hans that Trump "may get away with cheating in golf … but here in Virginia we crushed his midterm cheating scheme."
• Republicans are vowing to appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.

🐘 Reality check: Some Republicans privately worry the Texas map they redrew may yield only two or three new seats, not five. Trump's approval has tanked since Texas' redraw, and polls suggest Republicans' 2024 gains among Latino voters have evaporated.

• In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is considering new maps that could net Republicans an additional two to five seats.

🥊 Where redistricting fights stand in 13 states: Florida, Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Indiana, Kansas and Illinois.

The AI buildout is the new, powerful force widening America's trade gap, Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin write for Axios Macro.

• Why it matters: Shrinking the trade deficit and winning the AI race rank high on President Trump's economic agenda — but those aims are pulling in opposite directions, as AI-related products get a lighter tariff treatment.

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Wall Street is adjusting to a new reality where a single well-timed post from President Trump can drive stocks and oil prices, Axios' Emily Peck and Erin Davis write.

• Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon joked yesterday that a big change in economic outlook is "only one tweet away."

Two occasions over the past month when Trump's posts on the Iran war appeared to drive stocks sharply higher (charted above):

1. On March 23, some two hours before the U.S. market opened, Trump posted that the U.S. and Iran had "very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of hostilities."
2. On April 17, stock prices were falling, but minutes before the market opened, Trump posted: "The Strait of Hormuz is completely open and ready for business and full passage, but the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect."

It happened again yesterday when Trump posted he would extend the ceasefire as stocks slumped over worries that the U.S. and Iran would not negotiate a resolution.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information.

• The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white-supremacist and other extremist groups.

The SPLC said its informant program was used to monitor threats of violence, and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.

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OpenAI has been briefing federal agencies, state governments and Five Eyes allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. — on the capabilities of its new cyber product over the past week, Axios' Sam Sabin has learned.

• Why it matters: Companies, countries and federal agencies are clamoring for the latest AI tools.

🏛️ OpenAI held an event in D.C. yesterday for approximately 50 cyberdefense practitioners across the federal government to demo the capabilities of its new GPT-5.4-Cyber model, which it rolled out under a tiered access program last week.

• Keep reading.

Steak 'n Shake — the chain that proudly cooks its fries in "100% beef tallow" — has just named a chief "Make America Healthy Again" officer, Axios' Tina Reed writes.

• The chain is the first to make MAHA part of its corporate structure.

🥩 The role will be filled by Michael Boes, former senior adviser in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health, who'll "lead a comprehensive review of the company's ingredient sourcing, nutritional standards, and preparation practices," the company said.

• Read the announcement ... Get Axios Vitals.

Axios' Ina Fried put ChatGPT's new image engine — released yesterday — to the test:

ChatGPT Images 2.0, which is live in the app now, includes better typography, access to the web and an ability to reason.

• Why it matters: Past image engines have proved initially popular with consumers, but had enough flaws to prevent broader use in business.

🔭 Zoom in: A friend asked me to make a memorial image of her recently deceased cat, along with two favorite toys. It crafted an image that looked like a highly personalized sympathy card.

• My colleagues suggested a poster for a fictional event. I decided to create a mythical Mike Allen lookalike contest in Washington Square Park this Sunday. (Pictured above.)

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