President Biden's team recently split with the Democratic Party's longtime lawyer, Marc Elias, because of disagreements with Elias' legal strategies and strained personal relationships, Axios' Alex Thompson and Hans Nichols report.

• Why it matters: The divorce has created a divide in the party’s legal apparatus going into the 2024 election. Elias is representing Democrats' committees for House, Senate and state legislative races. Biden's campaign and the DNC mostly get legal help elsewhere.

🖼️ The big picture: The split between Biden's team and Elias — who had represented the DNC since 2009 — reflects a larger fight within the party on the best legal approach to expand and protect voting rules.

• Elias argues Democrats should be fighting on every possible front — filing a flurry of lawsuits and exerting public pressure through the media.
• Biden’s team, long guided by lawyer Bob Bauer, is concerned that while Elias' approach may be emotionally satisfying and make for good headlines, it could backfire with the current conservative makeup of the judiciary.
• The president's team wants to be more selective in picking legal fights, especially going into a 2024 election that could be especially litigious.

🔎 The intrigue: Beyond philosophical disagreements, Biden's team got fed up with Elias during the first two years of the administration.

• Elias often didn't consult the DNC or White House before filing lawsuits affecting voting rights and election laws in key states, Democrats familiar with the internal deliberations said.

Biden officials sometimes found out Elias had filed some lawsuits only when he announced them — often on MSNBC or Twitter.

• "Marc was the DNC’s counsel, and he was consistently giving them and the president’s team the middle finger," a person familiar with the tensions told Axios.

Tensions between Biden's team and Elias also stem from the complicated relationship between Elias and Bauer, who is married to Biden senior adviser Anita Dunn.

• Bauer prefers to operate behind the scenes. Elias has embraced being a public figure, with TV appearances and an active Twitter account.

💭 Elias told Axios that his legal tactics reflect Biden's stated goals.

• "When I see the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States saying this is 'Jim Crow 2.0,' and the people living under it are saying, 'Please, people help us' — that is powerful support," he said.

Ron Klain — Biden's former chief of staff, who is involved in the president's re-election campaign — told Axios that "relations between Marc Elias and Biden world remain good."

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As the 2024 campaign heats up, AI image generators have advanced from novelties to powerful tools able to generate photorealistic images.

• Why it matters: As more fake images appear in political ads, the onus will be on voters to spot phony content.

Can you tell the difference between real and AI-generated images?

1. Former President Trump sits with his legal team during his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

• Which image is an AI-generated fake — left or right?

Giving you this line of text, then the spoiler!

YES ... Left is fake.

• Clues include: The camera lens in the back of the room faces the wall.

2. Then-Speaker Pelosi shakes hands with President Trump ... or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?

• Which is fake — left or right?

Giving you this line of text, then the spoiler!

YES ... Right is fake.

• Clues include: Pelosi and DeSantis' hands don't quite meet ... Pelosi has an extra thumb ... Airbrushed texture: Pelosi and DeSantis' hair and face have a painterly quality common in AI-generated photos.

Credits: Axios' Will Chase, Jared Whalen, Brendan Lynch, Shoshana Gordon, Annelise Capossela, Aïda Amer, Sarah Grillo, Lindsey Bailey, Danielle Alberti, Scott Rosenberg and Sheryl Miller.

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Clues this is an AI-generated fake:

• Vice President Harris is signing blank papers.
• Her left middle finger is larger than the other fingers.

Clues this post is an AI fake:

• Shared by a random person, not an organization.
• No verified source.
• A sensational event like this would be reported by many sources.

Share the quiz.

More evidence that the American consumer is in pretty good shape:

• Real personal spending — that is, adjusted for inflation — hit another new high in June, Axios business editor Kate Marino reports.

Why it matters: If people are worried about losing their jobs, they tend to be a little more cautious about their spending. Instead, consumers are propelling the economy forward.

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Former President Trump crushes his GOP rivals — leading DeSantis by a landslide 37 points nationally among likely primary voters — in the first N.Y. Times/Siena College poll of the 2024 campaign.

• Trump gets 54% ... DeSantis has 17% ... everyone else is 3% or less.

🥊 Reality check: "In the half century of modern presidential primaries, no candidate who led his or her nearest rival by at least 20 points at this stage has ever lost a party nomination," Times chief political analyst Nate Cohn writes in his newsletter, The Tilt.

• In the new poll, Trump's lead over DeSantis is nearly twice as large.

Though "it might be a mistake to call Mr. Trump 'inevitable,'" Cohn adds, "the Times/Siena data suggests that he commands a seemingly unshakable base of loyal supporters, representing more than one-third of the Republican electorate."

• Go deeper: See the poll's toplines and crosstabs.

President Trump created a legal defense fund, the Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc., to help pay the bills of associates who face charges or questioning by prosecutors.

• A statement to Axios from Trump's campaign blames the "weaponized Department of Justice," and says the fund aims to "protect these innocent people from financial ruin."

Why it matters: Trump's PAC, Save America, spent more than $40 million on legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend Trump and his associates.

• "The creation of the legal-defense fund could ease some of the financial pressure on Save America, which was severe enough that it requested a refund of the $60 million it had transferred to a pro-Trump super PAC late last year," the N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher report.

🥊 A statement by DeSantis communications director Andrew Romeo said:

"Trump has spent over $60 million this year on two things: falsely attacking Ron DeSantis and paying his own legal fees."

Go deeper: Six threads in the Fulton County, Ga., probe of efforts by Trump and allies to overturn the 2020 election. District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in coming weeks.

The rare two-film juggernaut of "Barbie" + "Oppenheimer" surged past $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales — a touchstone cultural moment.

• "Barbie" earned $93 million in North American theaters this weekend, marking one of the most successful second-weekend performances for any movie in history, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer reports.

Why it matters: The continued momentum is giving theaters a lifeline as they stare down possible strike-inducted movie delays this fall.

State of play: Movie studios are already starting to consider delaying top films.

• Sony said it'll delay the Aug. 11 premiere of its racing video-game adaption, "Gran Turismo," to Aug. 25, due to strikes. Sony made a slew of changes to its upcoming movie release schedule, including taking its next major Spider-Man installation off its spring 2024 calendar.
• Disney is reportedly considering similar measures.

🧮 By the numbers: "Barbie" has earned nearly $775 million globally, making it one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

• "Oppenheimer" took the second spot on the global box office charts this past weekend, passing $400 million in gross sales.

👀 What to watch: "Barbie" has triggered a push for more toy-inspired movies from Mattel, which manufactures Barbie dolls.

• Mattel has 45 films in development based on its toys — including Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels and Thomas & Friends.

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Look at the reflexes of this young fan (face at glove) as the Milwaukee Brewers' Joey Wiemer misses a deep fly ball against the Braves in Atlanta's Truist Park on Saturday.