Advisers say President Trump's sole short-term goal for his Russia-Ukraine diplomacy is to get the countries' leaders face-to-face to talk peace, Axios' Marc Caputo writes.

• "Everything else is foreplay," a Trump adviser tells Axios. "Everything is to get to that moment for peace."

Why it matters: Trump was heavily criticized for abruptly abandoning his demand for a ceasefire from Russian President Vladimir Putin during their Alaska summit on Friday.

• Putin has increased the pressure on Ukraine militarily by pressing forward with the invasion. He has intensified missile and drone strikes in the hope of gobbling up more territory, giving him more leverage at the negotiating table.

🖼️ The big picture: White House advisers claim today's crucial meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office (1:15 p.m. ET) is evidence of momentum from the summit with Putin.

• A Trump adviser told Axios: "I'm sure Putin is waiting to see how Monday goes. But it's everybody's expectation — not just the always-rosy Donald Trump, but also [Steve] Witkoff and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio — that Putin will meet" with Zelensky.
• "There's a way to make a deal: Get the buyer and the seller in the same room at the same time discussing it," said one of the Trump advisers familiar with the talks. "What we're trying to figure out is if both sides really want a deal and what the contours look like."

Administration officials describe a three-step process:

1. Get Putin to sit down in a bilateral meeting with the U.S. to agree to steps toward peace.
2. Get Zelensky to sit down in today's bilateral meeting with the U.S. to agree to steps toward peace.
3. Get Putin and Zelensky to sit together to hash it all out in a trilateral meeting that involves the U.S. It's unclear if that will happen.

💥 Friction point: In Alaska, Putin issued maximalist demands when discussing five disputed regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk, where Russia currently controls roughly 75% of the territory.

• Putin wants all of Donetsk — and at one point seemed so firm on his demand that Trump was ready to walk away.
• "If Donetsk is the thing here and if there is no give, we should just not prolong this," Trump recalled saying to Putin, according to a source. Putin then reportedly backed off that demand.
• U.S. intelligence estimates vary on Russia's strength, a source said. One assessment posits that Putin could seize all of Donetsk by October. Another predicts a far harder and inconclusive slog.

The bottom line: Appearing on Sunday shows, Rubio said the war is only getting worse — and that only Trump could score meetings with the leaders of both Ukraine and Russia.

• "20,000 Russian soldiers were killed last month, in July, in this war," Rubio told Margaret Brennan on CBS' "Face the Nation." "That just tells you the price they're willing to pay. ... It's a meat grinder, and [the Russians] just have more meat to grind."

Trump left Anchorage so quickly that a planned working lunch with Putin (filet mignon + halibut) was scrapped. Trump officials left behind the schedule, menu and seating chart on the printer in a hotel business center, NPR reported. (See the eight-page packet.)

• The 12-minute press appearance had been penciled in for an hour.

📡 The public explanations were left to Rubio and Witkoff on Sunday shows. They appeared on seven programs, insisting that an immediate ceasefire wasn't feasible — but that good progress was made with Putin.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is taking a gamble that other potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders aren't: Party voters might reward her — or at least not punish her — for working with President Trump.

• Why it matters: Whitmer's approach is a sharp break from other prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who are defining themselves as anti-Trump warriors, Axios' Alex Isenstadt writes.

🎨 The big picture: Whitmer has visited the White House three times this year — most recently this month, when she met with Trump to discuss tariffs, Medicaid funding and northern Michigan's recovery efforts from a spring ice storm.

• During previous Oval Office meetings, they discussed stationing a fleet of new fighter aircraft at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and a $1 billion federal project aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from damaging invasive carp, sources tell Axios.

Trump has told reporters that Whitmer is a "very good person" who was doing an "excellent job" when she came to the White House in early April.

• When Trump visited Michigan later that month, he called the governor onstage. "I'm not supposed to do that," Trump said. "She's a Democrat. They say, 'Don't do that. Don't have her here.' I said, 'No, she's going to be here.' She's done a very good job."

🔎 The intrigue: Trump shows an affinity for those who are cordial with him, regardless of their party affiliation.

• He's said privately that Whitmer is one of the national Democrats who most impresses him.

Trump, by contrast, frequently blasts Newsom, whom he derides as "Newscum," and Pritzker, whom he calls "probably the worst" governor in the country.

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The Trump administration is undermining — or has stopped collecting — key data that kept the public informed about the state of the nation, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

• Why it matters: From Congress to city halls to boardrooms, critical decisions rely on accurate government data and public trust in that data. Without it, leaders risk making costly mistakes that could affect millions.

💵 Economy: President Trump blasted the July jobs report — and fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

🏭 Environment: The EPA says it will no longer update a database hundreds of U.S. companies use to calculate their greenhouse gas emissions, The New York Times reports.

🩺 Health care: Data of all kinds is evaporating because of staffing cuts and orders to eliminate DEI references, The Washington Post reports.

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National Guardsmen stand outside the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall on Saturday.

A tour bus passes members of the D.C. National Guard yesterday.

• Get the latest: Moped driver arrested ... White House reaction ... D.C. protests.

So far, AI is predominantly replacing outsourced, offshore workers, Axios' Madison Mills writes from MIT's State of AI in Business 2025 report.

• Rather than replacing U.S. workers with AI, companies have so far canceled contracts that involve outsourced labor, a strategy that's leading to financial gains.
• One company studied saved $8 million a year by spending $8,000 on an AI tool.

🧮 By the numbers: 3% of jobs could be replaced by AI in the short term, but nearly 27% of jobs could be replaced by AI in the longer term, the researchers found.

• Industries that are considered advanced adopters of AI — primarily tech and media — face the fastest labor impact.

Over 80% of executives surveyed in tech and media anticipate reduced hiring over the next two years.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi, criticized within MAGA world and beyond over the Jeffrey Epstein files, "appears to have retained the backing that matters most" — President Trump's, Washington Post alumnus Ruth Marcus writes in a 12-page Bondi profile in The New Yorker, "Power Play."

• A prominent conservative lawyer and Justice Department veteran told Marcus that in Bondi, "Trump has the Attorney General he always wanted."

Marcus, a Harvard Law grad, "asked to speak to Susie Wiles, the President's chief of staff. Wiles, who has known Bondi since she ran for Florida attorney general in 2010, called that very night, and praised her in terms I hadn't expected":

"You know, she looks like Barbie. She's blond and beautiful, and I think people will underestimate her because of how she looks. But she's got nerves of steel, and she has stood up to some withering situations with a fair amount of grace." About Bondi's relationship with Trump, Wiles was succinct. "I have a long one," she said. "Hers is longer."

The big picture: "During the past six months," Marcus writes, "Bondi has presided over the most convulsive transition of power in the Justice Department since the Watergate era, and perhaps in the hundred-and-fifty-five-year history of the department."

• "No Attorney General has been as aggressive in reversing policies or firing personnel. None has been as willing to cede the department's traditional independence from the White House."

Keep reading.

Sam Altman says OpenAI is strongly considering adding encryption to ChatGPT, likely starting with temporary chats, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Why it matters: Users are sharing sensitive data with ChatGPT. But those conversations lack the legal confidentiality of a doctor or lawyer.

Altman said the issue wasn't originally on his radar, but has become a priority now that so much sensitive data is being shared with ChatGPT.

• "People pour their heart out about their most sensitive medical issues or whatever to ChatGPT," Altman said. "It has radicalized me into thinking that AI privilege is a very important thing to pursue."

Keep reading ... Get Axios AI+.

Advance tickets went on sale for a 40th anniversary showing of the coming-of-age classic "The Breakfast Club," returning for just two days, Sept. 7 and 10.

• Why it matters: "The Breakfast Club," which opened in 1985, "became a box office hit and cultural sensation after striking a generational chord with its portrayal of identity and the desire to be seen," says The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news.

The 97-minute film — directed by John Hughes and set in suburban Chicago — stars Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy as five teenagers from vastly different cliques who spend a life-altering Saturday in detention in their high school library.

• "The Breakfast Club" launched the careers of its young ensemble cast and ushered in the Brat Pack era.

Watch a 9-min. preview ... Read a 1985 review ... Get tickets here.