Axios

President Trump has recorded a robocall in support of Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes' bid for the House seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The special election is tomorrow, and it's the first Congressional election since Trump took office.

Why it matters: The Republican nerves are showing; Kansas' 4th should be safe for the GOP — it's home to Koch Industries and party mega-donor Charles Koch — but they're still pulling in the big guns, including Mike Pence, Ted Cruz and now Trump. Here's what Trump is telling voters:

Ron is going to be helping us, big league... I need Republicans like Ron Estes to help me get the job done.

As Cruz put it at rally today in Wichita, "Today, the eyes of the whole country are on Kansas."

Spicer opened the briefing with a discussion of global reaction to the U.S. missile strike in Syria: "By all measures, the world and domestic reaction was highly laudable of the president's action," said Spicer. He added that, "If you look at the countries that are with us, it speaks pretty loudly. Russia stands with Syria, North Korea and Iran." Other takeaways:

The two tweeting Presidents fought hard to keep their favorite devices in the Oval Office.

Phone choice: In 2009, Obama had to convince his team to let him keep his BlackBerry for emailing, and this year, Trump tweeted from his old Android Galaxy S3 for the first few months of his presidency.

Security: Obama was allowed to use his BlackBerry — a presidential first — only after having the phone secured, changing his contact information and being restricted to communication with a short, pre-approved list of senior staff and close friends. Trump, however, did not have his Android secured against malware or hacking, as far we know, and tweeted at will.

Politico's Shane Goldmacher has a story this morning, in which six White House staff leak to him about a confidential planning meeting that happened last week. Only about 30 staff were in the meeting, led by Trump's communications director Mike Dubke, in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office.

That's a 20% leak rate. Bad!

What it means: The leaks illustrate a dynamic that's defined Trumpworld since the campaign — a stark and persistent division (and distrust) between staff who view themselves as "America First" Trump loyalists, and those who they view as either RNC implants ("Reince's people") or Johnny-come-lately consultants who are more comfortable with the establishment than with populist nationalists.

The lovers, the haters, the bots — Bloomberg's Polly Mosendz did a deep dive on @RealDonaldTrump followers and found:

• "According to a beta content-analysis software used by Social Rank, only 19 percent of Trump's followers are women. Among Trump's 20 most-engaged followers, only two had traditionally female names — and both of those accounts appear to be automated."
• "Egg accounts — named after the logo [of users — often bots] who don't adopt another image ... — make up 7.5 million of @realDonaldTrump's followers, about 28 percent of his total following."

Articles from the Washington Post and Financial Times take a look at the back stories of two of the West Wing's wealthiest and influential members of the White House: Steve Bannon and Reed Cordish.

• Inside the Bannon machine: "Bannon was able to produce more than a dozen conservative documentaries over the past decade by drawing on a network of two dozen nonprofit organizations and private companies." ... "Bannon, who had already made millions on Wall Street, often was paid in multiple ways for each project — a common practice in Hollywood, where he had worked as an entertainment financier."
• Reed Cordish family: FT's Gary Silverman explains how rival-turned friend David Cordish is now the Trump's kind of dealmaker: "David Cordish once made an enemy of Donald Trump over plans to develop two casinos in Florida. But his son is now a senior figure in the White House."
• "The Cordish family's relations with government have grown more complicated now that Reed Cordish, 42, has left the family business ... to serve as Mr. Trump's assistant for intergovernmental and technology initiatives and a member of the White House Office of American Innovation. 'We miss him,' his father says. 'Anytime the president wants to send him back, we'll take him.'"

President Trump's Mar-a-Lago hosting with Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be bearing some fruit, per the FT, which says China has offered the following concessions on trade:

1. A drop on China's ban on U.S. beef, which has been in place since a Mad Cow Disease scare in 2003.
2. Foreign investors will be allowed to hold majority stakes in Chinese investment and securities companies. This concept was discussed during the Obama administration, and a Chinese official told the FT it would have gone through had Obama had a few more months in office.

Why it matters: Trump needs concrete wins on trade, particularly for his heartland voters, and China wants to lock in a bilateral trade deal with the U.S., which it isn't eager to fight in a Trumpian trade war.

It all started Thursday morning, when the President started notifying members of Congress he was considering taking military action in Syria. By 4 pm ET Trump had ordered the strikes, making the call from his "Southern White House."

Here's a breakdown of how it all went down Thursday, including everything from what Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ate for dinner to when he finally revealed the news of the missile strike: