If former President Trump wins in November, top supporters will push him to investigate, prosecute — and even try to imprison — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who won Trump's conviction in the hush-money case, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write.

• "Of course [Bragg] should be — and will be — jailed," Steve Bannon, one of the top voices of the MAGA movement, told us — saying for the record what many Trump supporters are privately plotting.

Why it matters: This column has reported extensively about all the norms Trump plans to shatter if returned to the White House. Nowhere would that be truer than at the Justice Department, which Trump wants to make his fief and retribution arm.

Bannon told us Bragg could be targeted using the 14th Amendment (equal protection) and Fourth Amendment (outlawing unreasonable searches and seizures by the government) "plus scores of other" laws.

• Another Trump insider pointed to a federal civil rights statute, "Conspiracy Against Rights."

How much more aggressive would a second Trump term would be? Bannon pointed to "the evolution of any war — the Revolution," the Civil War, and World Wars I and II: "They only get nastier over time."

• Asked about the signature cry of "lock her up" from Trump rallies in 2016, the former president said this weekend on "Fox & Friends Weekend": "I could have done it. But I felt it would have been a terrible thing. And then this happened to me. And, so I may feel differently about it."

Reality check: Bragg, who's prosecuting Bannon in a separate case scheduled to go to trial in September, is a state official who operates independently of the Justice Department and the federal courts.

🖼️ The big picture: With Trump's conviction, "lawfare" — political warfare involving the courts — is one of the top issues animating the Trump faithful.

• House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Monday told Fox News he wants to "defund the lawfare activities" of state and federal prosecutors leading "politically sensitive investigations," including Bragg, special counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County (Ga.) District Attorney Fani Willis.

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In a 3,000-word story headlined "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping," The Wall Street Journal reports that in meetings with congressional leaders, President Biden "appears slower" and "has both good moments and bad ones."

• Why it matters: Biden's age and acuity are among the GOP's top attack lines. Poll after poll shows Biden's age, 81, is a major concern among voters. Trump, who turns 78 next week, isn't far behind.

"I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I'd go to his house," said former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the article's sole on-record critic of Biden's faculties. "He's not the same person."

• When Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, "his demeanor and command of the details seemed to shift from one day to the next," the Journal says.

🔎 Behind the scenes: "The White House kept close tabs on some of The Wall Street Journal's interviews with Democratic lawmakers," the story says.

• "After the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to the Journal a second time and once again emphasized Biden's strengths."

White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Axios: "It's a little surprising that The Wall Street Journal thought it was breaking news when congressional Republicans told them the same false claims they've spouted on Fox News for years."

• "President Biden inherited an economy in free fall, fraying alliances, and a spiking violent crime rate, and he turned each around with his experience and judgment, delivering the strongest economic growth in the world, making NATO bigger than ever, and forcing violent crime to a near 50-year low."

Free link to Journal opus.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hunter Biden's legal team signaled yesterday that his federal trial on three gun charges won't just be the U.S. v. Biden. It'll also be Biden v. Biden, Axios' Alex Thompson writes.

• Why it matters: With Bidens likely to testify for both the prosecution and the defense, the trial is set to further divide parts of the family that fractured after the death of President Biden's other son, Beau, in 2015.

Hunter's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, are set to testify for the prosecution, according to yesterday's opening statements and court filings.

• Hunter, President Biden's brother James "Jimmy" Biden, and Hunter and Kathleen's daughter Naomi Biden could testify for the defense.
• In his opening argument, Hunter's lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell repeatedly deflected blame toward Hallie, who was romantically involved with Hunter in October 2018.

👓 Being there: Several members of the president's family have sat in court during the trial's first two days, in solidarity with Hunter.

• First Lady Jill Biden, Joe and Jill's daughter Ashley Biden, Hunter's uncle Jack Owens, and Hunter's wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, all were in the audience.

Ashley often wiped tears in the opening hours yesterday before exiting early while the first lady appeared stoic, at one point putting her arm around her daughter.

• Keep reading.

Ahead of tomorrow's 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, candles were lit last night on each tombstone of the Commonwealth war cemetery of Banneville-La-Campagne, Normandy, France.

• President Biden landed in Paris this morning for the ceremonies. Keep reading.

The latest open letter seeking to slow the runaway train of AI development is likely to prove as ineffectual as the last one, writes Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg.

• Why it matters: The argument over AI's long-term dangers has largely lost the interest of tech companies with enormous war chests, which are bent on dominating what they see as their industry's next big platform.

OpenAI employees and ex-employees yesterday posted a new public call for whistleblower protections at leading AI firms.

• The letter followed high-profile departures of leaders from OpenAI's safety team and controversies over exit letters the firm required employees to sign.

🎨 The big picture: Tens of billions of dollars are committed to accelerating AI development.

• This kind of investment tidal wave has come once every 15 years or so in Silicon Valley since the arrival of personal computing around 1980.
• These waves have their own booms and busts. But none of them has ever been stymied.

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A group that includes Wall Street heavyweights BlackRock and Citadel Securities is backing an upstart stock market in Texas to compete with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, The Wall Street Journal reports.

• Why it matters: The new market is betting on attracting companies that want fewer regulations and more company-friendly policies than the New York exchanges.

TXSE, which will have a Dallas headquarters, has raised $120 million and plans to file with the SEC, the company's CEO said on LinkedIn.

• Keep reading (gift link).

President Biden, in a 90-minute interview with TIME published yesterday, sought more credit for domestic and foreign policy gains.

• Asked about Russia's proposal to end the war in Ukraine, Biden responded: "[B]y the way, I don't know why you skip over all that's happened in the meantime. The Russian military has been decimated. You don't write about that. It's been freaking decimated. Number one."

🌐 On the foreign stage: Biden said the U.S. and NATO are "considerably stronger" than before he took office.

• He boasted about organizing military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, and took credit for NATO's recent expansion.

🏗️ When asked about concerns over his age, Biden countered by highlighting the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021.

• Cover story ... Interview transcript.

2024 will be the U.S. restaurant industry's biggest year ever in sales — $1.1 trillion by the end of December, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes from National Restaurant Association estimates.

• Why it matters: The pandemic devastated the restaurant industry, but sales are now far higher than before it started — and climbing.

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