Former President Trump, in a new book, plans to reveal 150 private letters sent to him — including one from Oprah Winfrey in 2000 in which she says: "Too bad we're not running for office. What a team!"

• It's called "Letters to Trump."
• Trump writes that he still considers Winfrey "amazing" — but admits it's not mutual: "Sadly, once I announced for President, she never spoke to me again."

Why it matters: Trump's book is a flashback to the days when famous people frequently wrote chatty letters to each other — and when Trump was the toast of many bold-face names.

The exchange with Winfrey is part of a book coming April 25 from Winning Team Publishing, which last year published Trump's coffee-table photo book, "Our Journey Together."

• That book grossed $20 million in sales in the first two months.

Behind the scenes: Trump's new book includes letters — from presidents, royals, celebrities and business titans — that he chose from thousands he saved over 40+ years, and stashed at his various properties.

• For each, Trump adds a photo and his own commentary about the author — and, for tough handwriting, some transcripts.

The book includes letters from Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, North Korea's Kim Jong-un, Mario Cuomo, Arnold Palmer, Jay Leno, Liza Minnelli, Regis Philbin (salutation: "My Dear Trumpster") and many more.

Winfrey wrote to Trump after he sent her a book excerpt, apparently from his 2000 book, "The America We Deserve," in which he wrote that his "first choice for vice president would be Oprah Winfrey."

• "Americans respect and admire Oprah for her intelligence and caring," he wrote. "She has provided inspiration for millions of women to improve their lives, go back to school, learn to read, and take responsibility for themselves. If I can't get Oprah, I'd like someone like her."

On letterhead that says simply "Oprah," she replies: "I have to tell you your comments made me a little weepy."

• "It's one thing to try and live a life of integrity — still another to have people like yourself notice."

Sergio Gor — president and co-founder (with Donald Trump Jr.) of Winning Team Publishing — told me: "Long before entering politics, Donald Trump lived an extraordinary life. No book highlights his iconic relationships like 'Letters to Trump.'"

• The book sells for $99, or $399 for a signed edition.

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President Biden today will propose a series of tax increases for wealthy Americans and large corporations, Bloomberg reported and Axios confirmed.

• The budget, which he's releasing this afternoon in Philadelphia, includes a 25% minimum tax on the richest 0.01% of Americans.

The budget would close a loophole that allows some wealthy investors with "passthrough businesses" to avoid paying tax on their investments, Axios' Sareen Habeshian and Hans Nichols report.

• It also would increase the top tax rate for Americans making $400,000 a year to 39.6% from 37%, reversing a Trump-era tax bill.

The budget sets the corporate tax rate at 28% — still well below the 35% rate that prevailed prior to the 2017 tax law, a White House official said.

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Budget preview: What's inside Biden’s Medicare proposal (White House fact sheet) ... Cap insulin ... Expand child-care funding ... Cut deficit $3T over 10 years.

Average winter temperatures across the U.S. have increased 3.2°F since 1970, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes from an analysis from Climate Central, a nonpartisan research group.

• By comparison, average summer temperatures have increased by 2.3°F in that time.

Why it matters: Warm winters can exacerbate drought (because there's less snowmelt in the spring), wreak havoc on crops and gardens, and spell disaster for towns built around skiing, snowboarding, and similar pursuits.

🔎 Between the lines: Not only are winters warming overall, but cold snaps are becoming less severe and shorter in duration.

• That's partly because the Arctic is warming at three to four times the rate of the rest of the world.

The bottom line: Over the coming years, most of us can expect to feel climate change's effects more acutely during winter.

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Democracy declined around the world for the 17th consecutive year, Axios World author Dave Lawler writes from a new report by Freedom House.

• But the pace of that decline has slowed and we could be approaching a "turning point," the report says.

Why it matters: The rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of democracy have been among the most notable global trends of the past decade.

🖼️ The big picture: The scores of 35 countries declined; 34 improved.

• That's the narrowest gap since the global democratic downturn began in 2005.

🔎 Zoom in: Finland, Norway and Sweden all received perfect scores. The least free countries and regions were North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, South Sudan, Syria and Tibet.

• The report ranks China and Saudi Arabia among the "worst of the worst."

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New software warns air traffic controllers if an inbound aircraft may be lining up to land on a taxiway rather than a runway.

• It has been installed at 43 major airports nationwide, the FAA tells Axios What's Next editor Alex Fitzpatrick, a pilot.

Why it matters: Landing on a taxiway — essentially roads for aircraft that connect runways with terminals — can be a major safety hazard.

There were 1,641 so-called "wrong surface events" between October 2016 and the end of last year, the FAA says. Almost all (83%) involved general aviation (private) aircraft, not commercial planes.

• The software has "helped prevent more than 50 wrong-surface taxiway landings since its first implementation at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in 2018," the FAA said.

🥊 Reality check: None of the most recent headline-grabbing aviation safety incidents in recent months had to do with wrong-surface landings.

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Construction job openings plunged nearly 50% — down 240,000, to 248,000 — from December to January, Matt Phillips writes in Axios Markets.

• Why it matters: It was the largest-ever monthly decline in construction job openings in the data series that stretches back roughly 20 years.

🥊 Reality check: Overall job openings dipped only slightly in January, suggesting the overall economy remains strong.

🧠 What's happening: The Fed has signaled it's prepared to keep raising interest rates at a relatively rapid clip because inflation hasn't cooled as much as policymakers had hoped.

• But there's a risk that rate hikes already enacted — 4.5 percentage points over the last 12 months — haven't had their full economic impact yet.

💬 Our thought bubble: Economist Milton Friedman famously wrote that monetary policy works with "long and variable lags," which means it can take years for Fed interest rate changes to work their way through the economy.

• The sharp, sudden drop in construction job openings — combined with the downturn in investment in residential construction and other measures of housing activity — suggests the economy is still adjusting to the big rate hikes of last year, even as the Fed considers doing a lot more.

The bottom line: That could set the stage for the Fed to accidentally over-hike, generating the hard economic landing many had been hoping to avoid.

"Smart Brevity" — by Axios co-founders Jim VandeHei, Roy Schwartz and Mike Allen — was recommended in last weekend's New York Times Book Review as a "master class in everyday business writing."

• "Short, not shallow, they like to say: 'Think of smart brevity as a straitjacket on your worst instincts or habits,'" Judith Newman writes in her roundup of new books on writing (subscription).
• "They are funny, and they are right — and if you adopt even a portion of their stylistic suggestions, you will win the email/newsletter/shareholder-letter writing game."

CNBC recommended "Smart Brevity" as one of the "5 non-fiction books everyone should be reading about work in 2023":

• "The co-founders of Axios teach readers how to communicate in a clear, concise and compelling way both online and in person. Their guiding principle? 'Brevity is confidence. Length is fear.'"

Get "Smart Brevity."

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are getting the vegan treatment:

• The Hershey Co. announced Reese's Plant Based Peanut Butter Cups, which go on sale this month, will be its first vegan chocolates sold nationally, AP reports.
• A second plant-based offering, Hershey's Plant Based Extra Creamy with Almonds and Sea Salt, will follow in April.

The chocolates are made with oats instead of milk.

🥊 Reality check: Ditching dairy won't cut calories. Hershey didn't release all the nutritional facts. But the 1.4-ounce package of plant-based Reese's Cups has 210 calories — the same as a 1.5-ounce package of traditional Reese's Cups.

💲 The plant-based versions will also cost more:

• Rite Aid lists a 1.4-ounce package of two plant-based Reese's Cups at $2.49 — about $1 more than a regular package.