Two months into his term, President Trump is growing more defiant, creative and ruthless in his pursuit of a central campaign promise: exacting revenge on his political enemies, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• Why it matters: From Day One, Trump has delighted in settling scores through the stroke of his pen — breathing life into his MAGA mantra: "I am your retribution."

🖼️ The big picture: In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as "the enemies from within."

• As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.
• White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told Axios: "As President Trump has made clear, his only retribution is success — and his historic achievements and soaring approval ratings prove it."

Political opponents

🥊 The Biden administration: Trump has revoked security clearances from former President Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

• The Biden family: On Monday, Trump announced he was terminating Secret Service protection for Biden's son and daughter, Hunter and Ashley, "effective immediately."

Former Trump officials: Trump also revoked Secret Service protection from former national security officials who criticized him: Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook and John Bolton, who have all faced credible assassination threats from Iran.

• Gen. Mark Milley: Trump despises his former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, who called the president "fascist to the core" in 2023. Trump yanked both his security clearance and personal security detail.
• Former Rep. Liz Cheney: Trump claimed this week that Biden's preemptive pardons of Cheney and other members of the Jan. 6 committee are "void" because of Biden's alleged use of an autopen.

Media and entertainment

🗞️ White House Correspondents' Association: The White House took control of the daily makeup of its press pool from WHCA.

• Associated Press: The White House barred the AP from accessing events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One for refusing to use the name "Gulf of America" in its coverage.

CBS, ABC and NBC: Under hard-charging chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC has launched an investigation into alleged "news distortion" during a "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Harris, which CBS denies.

• The FCC also reinstated complaints against ABC for its handling of the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, and NBC for allowing Harris to appear on "Saturday Night Live" without equal time for Trump.

Legal foes and bureaucrats

⚖️ Prosecutors: He fired and demoted federal prosecutors and FBI officials involved in the investigation of the Jan. 6 riot, while pardoning thousands of his supporters who were convicted for breaking into the Capitol.

Big Law: At the start of an extraordinary campaign against private practice law firms, Trump revoked the security clearances of lawyers at Covington & Burling who offered pro bono legal advice to former special counsel Jack Smith.

• Trump then targeted Perkins Coie, stripping security clearances and blacklisting the firm's lawyers because of the firm's commission of the Steele Dossier and other work on behalf of Democrats in 2016.
• Last week, Trump signed an executive order targeting New York firm Paul, Weiss for its former employment of Mark Pomerantz, who was involved in the Manhattan DA's Trump investigation.
• He then withdrew that order yesterday after Paul, Weiss agreed to "dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services" to support the Trump administration on "mutually agreed projects."

Go deeper: Over a dozen more Trump targets.

The Trump administration's attacks on universities have come swiftly and forcefully: grants slashed, thousands of jobs cut and anxiety through the roof, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

Why it matters: Universities produce a great deal of the scientific and technological research that drives America forward.

• Professors and administrators fear that the Trump administration's blunt approach — hitting the brakes on funding to target what it sees as longstanding culture problems on campuses — will set innovation back decades.

🧠 The money quote: "The United States is home to the best collection of research universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America's prosperity, health, and security," Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber wrote in The Atlantic this week.

• "The Trump administration's recent attack on Columbia University puts all of that at risk."

🔬 Zoom in: The Trump administration is pulling multiple levers to squeeze universities. Institutions across the country are watching the administration's moves closely — and wondering if they'll be the next one in the spotlight.

• President Trump's Education Department is investigating dozens of colleges over their response to pro-Palestinian campus protests, their policies regarding trans athletes, DEI initiatives and more.
• Columbia and UPenn have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over these issues. (UPenn says it hasn't received official notice of any cuts.)

Johns Hopkins, the largest recipient of federal research funding, cut 2,200 jobs and lost $800 million in USAID grants when that agency was gutted.

• Changes to NIH policies — which have been temporarily blocked by the courts — could hit research programs at dozens of other schools.

Between the lines: The problems the Trump administration says it's trying to solve on campuses are typically related to student life, athletics or coursework in the humanities. But its moves are largely affecting the cutting-edge scientific and medical research that goes on at these institutions.

👀 What to watch: The next step for universities who've lost money is to negotiate with the Trump administration.

• Up first is Columbia, which has until today to agree to nine far-reaching demands to get its funding back, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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Elon Musk is scheduled to get a Pentagon briefing today on "the U.S. military's plan for any war that might break out with China," the N.Y. Times scoops in a bombshell story with five big bylines.

• Why it matters: Giving Musk access to closely guarded secrets would draw attention to his "conflicts of interest as he ranges widely across the federal bureaucracy while continuing to run businesses that are major government contractors," The Times writes.

🗞️ The Wall Street Journal followed with a report saying Musk will be briefed on "the U.S. military's top-secret war plans for China."

• The Washington Post followed with a tamer account saying Musk will be briefed on the China threat and DOGE's work.
• The briefing now could be dialed back. After the Times story posted, Trump wrote on Truth Social at 11 p.m.: "China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!"

🚀 The big picture: Musk has deep business ties with China through Tesla. SpaceX is a top supplier for the Pentagon.

• The Times says the briefing includes 20-30 slides outlining how the U.S. military would fight China: "It covers the plan beginning with the indications and warning of a threat from China to various options on what Chinese targets to hit, over what time period, that would be presented to Mr. Trump for decisions."

🪖 Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who hadn't responded to an earlier email from The Times, tweeted with a link to the story: "This is 100% Fake News. Just brazenly & maliciously wrong. Elon Musk is a patriot. We are proud to have him at the Pentagon."

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The share of consumers who say they expect unemployment to rise over the next year surged to 66% in March — by far the highest level going back a decade, Axios' Emily Peck writes from University of Michigan data analyzed by Bank of America.

• Why it matters: The unemployment rate is pretty low at the moment. But under the hood, Americans sure are nervous about the job market.

Add rising job anxiety to the growing list of soft indicators that may be signaling trouble ahead.

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An Elon Musk-backed group is offering Wisconsin voters $100 to sign a petition expressing their opposition to "activist judges" — a cause that President Trump is pressing as judges block or delay several parts of his agenda, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports.

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Off embargo 6 a.m. ET: Johnson & Johnson says it'll spend $55 billion in the U.S. over the next four years on manufacturing, research and technology investments, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

• Why it matters: It's the latest in a series of pledges by big American companies, worth around $1 trillion so far, to expand U.S. manufacturing — a core goal of President Trump's trade war.

The company breaks ground today on a manufacturing facility in Wilson, N.C., to make cancer and other medicines.

• It pledged to build three new facilities, at unspecified locations, and expand other existing sites.

Between the lines: J&J said it already has more manufacturing in the U.S. than any other country — a nod to Trump's insistence that big U.S. companies have no reason not to make their products here.

🧮 By the numbers: Other big-ticket spending promises in recent weeks include...

• $500 billion from Apple to expand manufacturing and training.
• "Several hundred billion" from Nvidia in electronics manufacturing.
• $27 billion from Eli Lilly for drug manufacturing.

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Starbucks' big bet on reestablishing its cafes as community coffeehouses is showing early signs of paying off, according to numbers shared exclusively with Axios' Kelly Tyko.

• Why it matters: The Seattle-based coffee giant is trying to reverse a decline in foot traffic and sales by returning to its roots.

For purchasing a drink in a ceramic or glass mug, Starbucks customers can get a free refill on the same visit — to encourage them to stick around.

• Starbucks tells Axios that over the past three weeks, "the number of customers who choose ceramic mugs and glasses to sit and stay in cafes has on average increased by more than 3X in the U.S."

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A New Orleans group is making what it calls the world's largest bowl of pasta con le sarde, Axios New Orleans' Carlie Kollath Wells writes.

• It will have 500 pounds of pasta topped with red gravy, sardines, anchovies, pine nuts and breadcrumbs, The Italian American St. Joseph Society president Peter Gilberti tells Axios.

The society has been making the dish for years as part of the city's festivities for St. Joseph's Day.

• It usually feeds about 400 people with plenty of leftovers, Gilberti said.

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