Jim and Mike's Axios AM Executive Briefing — with expertise from Axios tech policy reporters Maria Curi and Ashley Gold — will be out today with a subscriber-only special report on the collision of AI and Washington. Then all four of them will hold a virtual briefing at 2 p.m. ET. Subscribe now to get the report & join the briefing.

The days of AI alarmism are over: The White House is fully embracing the move-fast-and-break-things ethos of Silicon Valley, Axios' Ashley Gold and Maria Curi write.

• Why it matters: Companies now feel they can develop and deploy AI as fast as they want. They're just looking for more of the right signals from government, plus more money and resources.

The GOP, private companies, and many Democrats agree — this is now about beating Beijing. Other fights are pushed aside.

• Most players in the space want two things: land to build out data centers, and less red tape that gets in the way of construction.
• They're also looking for money for AI research and development.
• They want voluntary standards in the U.S. — and for those standards to be what the rest of the world follows, too.
• Plus, they're angling for a federal law to preempt increasingly active states and the AI regulation bills they're passing.

That's the offense. The defense is blocking U.S. technology from reaching China through export controls on companies, and working to close the loophole of China getting U.S. tech through third countries.

Friction point: Elon Musk's DOGE. Republicans want to spend less money and to gut the government.

• But guess what? R&D and setting standards require money and functioning agencies, along with an immigration system that lets the best and brightest minds study and stay in the U.S.

🥊 Reality check: Back in 2023, when OpenAI's Sam Altman came to the Hill, he practically begged for regulation.

• Subscribe to Axios AM Executive Briefing to read the rest of the report & join our virtual briefing today at 2 p.m. ET.

Beyond tariffs and court battles over Trump policies, two pieces of White House palace intrigue emerged yesterday, Axios' Marc Caputo writes.

1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended two top Pentagon officials, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, as part of an investigation into who leaked word of a planned top-secret briefing on China for Elon Musk.
2. Axios learned that Musk or Hegseth didn't just decide to call off that briefing after the leak. President Trump himself ordered staffers to kill it. "What the f**k is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn't go," Trump said, a top official recalled to Axios.

Why it matters: Musk has annoyed several administration officials with his constant presence at the White House, his haphazard social media posts and his slash-and-burn tactics at his Department of Government Efficiency.

• The planned Pentagon briefing, however, got him cross with the boss at the Resolute Desk.
• "POTUS still very much loves Elon, but there are some red lines," the official said. "Elon has a lot of business in China and he has good relations there, and this briefing just wasn't the right thing."

🪖 The intrigue: Musk still attended a briefing at the Pentagon with Hegseth on March 21. But China wasn't discussed.

• In the White House that day, Trump let slip his true feelings about Musk's entanglements with China. "I certainly wouldn't want, you know — Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that," he told reporters. "But it was such a fake story."

Share this story.

The Pentagon placed two top officials on administrative leave yesterday as part of an investigation into leaks at the Defense Department, a DoD official confirmed to Axios.

• The leaks under investigation include Elon Musk's visit to the Pentagon, plus "military operational plans for the Panama Canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea ... and pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine," Politico reports.

Dan Caldwell — a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and one of his closest friends in the building — was escorted out of the Pentagon as part of an "unauthorized disclosure" investigation, Reuters reported.

• Darin Selnick, the Pentagon's deputy chief of staff, was also placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, the Defense Department official told Axios, confirming Politico reporting.

President Trump pitched a path to legal status for "great people" who are undocumented immigrants in an interview with Fox Noticias yesterday.

• Why it matters: Trump's informal proposal would help create a pathway to living in the U.S. legally for people who self-deport and have an employer supporting their return, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes.

The idea was also recently floated at a Cabinet meeting. But it's a sharp pivot from Trump's campaign promises for "mass deportation now" and from the rhetoric and policies his administration has embraced.

• The approach could help industries like farming and hospitality, the president said. Employers could be partly responsible for supporting an immigrant's return.

Trump told Fox News' Rachel Campos-Duffy: "We're going to give them a stipend, we're going to give them some money and a plane ticket, and then we're going to work with them if they're good."

• Keep reading ... Watch the interview.

A Trump administration official referred New York Attorney General Letitia James for potential criminal prosecution for instances of alleged mortgage fraud, the New York Post reports.

• Why it matters: James brought a civil fraud lawsuit against President Trump and his company for routinely inflating the value of real estate assets. A judge fined Trump $355 million.

A letter sent by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's director, Bill Pulte, to the Justice Department alleged James "falsified records" to get home loans for a property in Virginia that she claimed was her principal residence in 2023 — while still serving as a New York state prosecutor, the Post reports.

• Her office told the Post: "Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies — no matter who they are."

Keep reading.

President Trump has vowed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — but inside his national security team, there's a divide over the best way to do it, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: This isn't a theoretical debate. Trump has dispatched negotiators to try to get a deal, and B-2 bombers and aircraft carriers for Plan B.

Trump convened his top advisers for a Situation Room meeting on Iran on Monday, including officials on both sides of the policy divide.

👀 Behind the scenes: One camp, unofficially led by Vice President Vance, believes a diplomatic solution is both preferable and possible and that the U.S. should be ready to make compromises in order to make it happen.

• Vance is highly involved in the Iran policy discussions, the U.S. official said.
• This camp also includes Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff — who represented the U.S. at the first round of Iran talks on Saturday — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It also gets outside support from MAGA influencer and Trump whisperer Tucker Carlson.
• This group is concerned that striking Iran's nuclear facilities would put U.S. soldiers in the region in harm's way when Iran strikes back. These officials also argue a strike would send oil prices skyrocketing at a sensitive time for the U.S. economy.

The other side: The other camp, which includes national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is highly suspicious of Iran and extremely skeptical of the chances of a deal that significantly rolls back Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials say.

• This camp believes Iran is weaker than ever — and therefore the U.S. shouldn't compromise, but insist Tehran fully dismantle its nuclear program.

Share this story.

Harvard's decision to push back against President Trump's pressure tactics shows other institutions targeted by his administration that there's an alternative to swift capitulation, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

• Why it matters: Harvard is an international brand with a $53 billion endowment — a rare institution with the resources and willpower to withstand an onslaught of funding cuts and investigations from the government.

🖼️ The big picture: In the last few weeks, American institutions have steadily buckled under pressure from the Trump administration.

• Columbia ceded control of an academic department and expanded campus police powers to try to unfreeze federal funding.
• The University of Michigan shut down its expansive DEI program.
• Several Big Law firms offered nearly $1 billion in pro bono work to get on the administration's good side.

🔬 Zoom in: Support for Harvard — and resistance to the Trump administration — is bubbling at other universities.

• 60 current and former university presidents co-signed an op-ed in Fortune backing Harvard.
• Stanford, which faces funding threats itself, came out in support of Harvard.

🥊 The other side: Trump's allies are vowing to hold the line against Harvard, the nation's wealthiest university, The Wall Street Journal reports (gift link).

• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who graduated with honors from Harvard in 2006, told The Journal that Harvard officials "don't realize ... the level of seriousness — it is dead serious."
• On X, she wrote: "It is time to totally cut off U.S. taxpayer funding to this institution ... Defund Harvard."

Share this story.

The craft brewing market is in the tank, Axios Denver's John Frank writes from new data released by the Brewers Association.

• Why it matters: The once-thriving industry's struggles are driven by market saturation and shifts in alcohol consumption, particularly among younger drinkers.

🧮 By the numbers: Craft beer production hit 23.1 million barrels in 2024 — a 4% decline compared to the previous year and the largest drop in industry history outside the pandemic.

• The number of small, independent breweries operating in the U.S. decreased for the first time in 20 years with 501 closures compared to 434 openings.

Keep reading.