Axios AM

May 01, 2024
🐫 Hello, Wednesday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,315 words ... 5 mins. Thanks to Noah Bressner for orchestrating. Copy edited by Bryan McBournie.
🚨 Breaking: Riot police arrived early today at UCLA, where violence broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters. Get the latest.
1 big thing: Listen to Trump
Cover: Time
What would a second Trump term really look like? You no longer need to guess:
- Former President Trump has laid out, publicly and unambiguously, designs to stretch traditions, norms and accepted law in historic ways, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write.
Why it matters: We've written for months that Trump allies privately are plotting loyalty tests and policy proposals to vastly expand presidential power and punish critics.
- Trump himself is now saying the quiet part out loud. You should listen.
You might like this or loathe it. But, based on two interviews with TIME magazine totaling more than 80 minutes, you can no longer ignore Trump's intentions:
- On whether states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion that violates a ban (say, after 15 weeks of pregnancy): "I think they might do that. Again, you'll have to speak to the individual states." (President Biden tweeted about that quote: "This is reprehensible.")
- On political violence in connection with the upcoming election: "I don't think we're going to have that. I think we're going to win. And if we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election."
- On using the military to deport migrants who cross illegally: "Well, these aren't civilians. These are people that aren't legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country."
- On launching the largest deportation operation in American history: "Because we have no choice. I don't believe this is sustainable for a country, what's happening to us."
- On using the military against protesters: "I would use certainly the National Guard, if the police were unable to stop. I would absolutely use the National Guard." He then mentioned an executive order he signed to encourage prosecution of anyone who desecrates national monuments.
- On using Schedule F power to fire civil servants: "You have some people that are protected that shouldn't be protected. And you have some people you almost want to protect because they do such a good job."
- On pardoning every one of the people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol: "I would consider that, yes. ... Yes, absolutely."
- On whether he might fire a U.S. attorney who didn't prosecute someone on his orders: "It would depend on the situation. Yeah."
- On "anti-white racism" protections: "I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country, and that can't be allowed."
- On disbanding the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established under President Biden: "I think I would. ... I think it sounds good politically, but I think it's a very expensive solution."
Between the lines: TIME, in the cover story going on sale May 17, calls Trump's responses "the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world."
- Asked by the magazine about his statement on Fox News in December that he'd be a dictator just for Day 1 of his presidency, Trump said: "I think a lot of people like it."
The bottom line: President Biden has been vaguer about his second-term plans. But voters now have a clear policy, philosophical and stylistic choice.
- Go deeper: Transcript of the interviews ... Fact check ... Share this column.
2. 🎓 Riot police clear Ivy hall

NYPD officers in riot gear climbed through a second-story window at the Ivy League's Columbia University last night to clear a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters.
- The Manhattan school's tent encampment — which helped inspire coast-to-coast protests over the war in Gaza — was also cleared, Axios' Sareen Habeshian and Andrew Childers write.

🔎 Zoom in: Police arrested dozens in and around Hamilton Hall, the occupied administration building.
- Columbia President Minouche Shafik asked the NYPD to remain on campus until May 17, two days after commencement, "to maintain order and ensure encampments are not reestablished."
🧮 By the numbers: There have been at least 1,200 arrests at 31 college campuses nationwide, according to an Axios tally.

Above: The Columbia student newspaper's front page on April 30, 1968 — 56 years to the day before yesterday's raid.
- Police broke up a similar occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
3. 🏛️ Dems fear protest backlash


Anxiety among House and Senate Democrats is spiking as pro-Palestinian protests rise on campuses coast to coast, Axios' Andrew Solender and Stephen Neukam write.
- Photos and videos of these campus protests made the rounds among horrified Democratic lawmakers yesterday morning.
"The longer they continue, and the worse that they get, the worse it's going to be for the election," a House Democrat told Axios.
- The demonstrations, the lawmaker warned, are "bringing out [the public's] most conservative side."
4. 📈 Charted: California population picks up


California's population is growing again, ending a three-year trend of population decline that had dogged the nation's most popular state since the pandemic began.
- The state gained 67,000 people last year — the first increase since 2019, the state Department of Finance said yesterday.
5. 🗺️ Biden's Middle East hope

President Biden has been personally involved in intense efforts to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.
- Why it matters: The president's senior advisers say the deal on the table is the only conceivable path to a ceasefire in Gaza and to possibly ending a war that has sparked sharp criticism of Biden ahead of the presidential election.
White House spokesperson John Kirby admitted yesterday that Biden is putting all his focus on the hostage deal.
- "There just has to be a deal," he said when asked about a Plan B if negotiations aren't successful.
6. 🌿 Marijuana industry gets green light

The Biden administration's move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug is huge news for the budding weed industry, Axios' Emily Peck, Felix Salmon and Dan Primack write.
- Why it matters: The industry has been held back by the drug's squishy legal status. Shares of Canopy Growth — one of the largest publicly traded cannabis companies — rose 82% yesterday on the news.
💡 How it works: Though dozens of states have legalized or decriminalized marijuana, at the federal level it's classified as Schedule 1 — drugs with high potential for abuse and no medical use.
- That's made it difficult for the industry to operate across state lines and access banking services.
- It also means cannabis companies can't deduct business expenses on their federal taxes. The result: Profit margins are low.
7. 📊 Asian Americans fear rising hate crime


Four years after the pandemic when the nation saw surges in anti-Asian hate, Asian Americans still feel they're targets, Axios' Niala Boodhoo writes from a survey released at the start of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
- Why it matters: 1 out of 3 Asian Americans in the poll say they've been called a racial or ethnic slur, or been physically threatened with violence.
🧮 By the numbers: Americans in the survey believe hate has increased the most toward Black Americans (42%), followed by Asian Americans (33%) or Hispanics (25%), according to the STAATUS Index (Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.).
- In stark contrast, 61% of Asian Americans feel hate toward them has increased.
8. 🪩 1 fun thing: Bingo raves

Bingo is taking the urban nightlife scene by storm, vaulting from a stodgy Rotary Club favorite to the centerpiece of alcohol-and-nacho-fueled dance parties, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes.
- Why it matters: "Eatertainment" is a hot new restaurant trend.
Bingo-themed nightclubs, raves and pop-up parties are showing up in cities nationwide, strewing confetti on partygoers as they giddily dot their bingo boards ("B15!").
- Restaurateurs say they make more per customer if they offer darts, pickleball and golf along with burgers, beer and wings.
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