Marco Rubio has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star.
He's been featured in countless "Rubio Realizing" images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being "assigned" more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House.
Why it matters: For his 55th birthday on May 28, White House staffers and President Trump gifted Rubio with a gold-framed collage of their 68 favorite "Rubio Realizing" memes.
President Trump's top political hands had some surprising advice for Senate Republicans last week: Talk more about health care.
Why it matters: Trump and the MAGA base are fixated on the voter-ID and proof-of-citizenship SAVE Act. But Republican message testing from Trump's own pollster suggests candidates are better off focusing elsewhere.
House Democrats went into the vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act last month groaning that it was all a big Republican set-up. Now they're fuming that the trap has been sprung.
Why it matters: A well-funded Republican group is blanketing the airwaves lauding GOP lawmakers in key swing districts — including some with reputations for prolific stock trading — as champions on the issue.
Jared Kushner, President Trump's envoy and son-in-law, is planning to visit Israel next week for talks on the situation in Gaza, according to five sources with knowledge of the plan.
Why it matters: This would be Kushner's first trip to Israel since January. It comes as the White House and Trump's Board of Peace are trying to push forward with the next phase of the Gaza plan, which focuses on disarming Hamas and a potential Israeli withdrawal.
The Kennedy Center board voted Thursday to again add President Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, two anonymous sources told Axios.
Why it matters: The move challenges a federal judge's ruling back in May that only Congress could change the name of the performing arts venue, and that Trump's name must be removed. That process was completed in June.
A federal trade court ruled Thursday that President Trump can block cheap imports — including from Chinese retailers like Temu and Shein — from entering the U.S. tariff-free.
Why it matters: It's a win for the Trump administration's trade agenda after a major legal setback forced officials to find new legal avenues for imposing sweeping tariffs.
A federal judge in Boston dismissed the Trump administration's antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University Thursday.
It's a setback to the White House's monthslong pressure campaign against Harvard.
Why it matters:The ruling removes one legal front in the administration's push to force elite universities like Harvard into settlements over campus antisemitism and diversity policies.
The East Wing is gone, a new helipad is spreading across the lawn, and scaffolding wraps the White House's front columns, but the price tags for President Trump's renovations are far less obvious.
The big picture: The muddled mix of funding streams — whether from private donors, the president himself or taxpayers — has fueled ethical questions about who's footing the ever-rising bill for the HGTV-reminiscent White House redesign.
American Action Network, a top outside group aligned with House GOP leaders, is launching a $22 million ad campaign on Thursday across 41 congressional districts, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Republicans hope a focus on GOP tax cuts and attacks over transgender health care will help them hold on to their narrow House majority in November despite strong headwinds.
The New York Times' Maggie Habermantells me 70% of President Trump's mindshare ("maybe plus or minus 5%") goes to his gilding, construction, renovation, renaming and tribute projects.
"He is spendinga huge amount of energy, mental and otherwise, on these renovation projects, beautification projects around Washington, and then monuments to self," Haberman told me for Axios' "Behind the Curtain" video series. "[T]here is no precedent in U.S. history of a sitting president devising such endeavors in their own name."
Brittany Kelm, one of the White House's senior energy advisers, is leaving to work for Sable Offshore, a small oil company with a big political footprint.
Why it matters: Sable Offshore was at the center of a dispute between California and the Trump administration, which invoked the Defense Production Act in March to cut regulatory red tape to help the company quickly boost oil production.
Pollsters appeared to blow another high-stakes Midwest election Tuesday, as center-left Democrat David Crowley stunned socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's primary for governor.
But on Wednesday, the reasons for the miss seemed clear: Surveys a week before the primary captured only a hint of a rapidly changing roller coaster of a race in which Crowley was gaining fast, and Hong was playing defense.
Driving the news: Two polls had shown Hong up by about 20 points over Crowley. But Crowley wound up winning by half a percentage point in an upset that interrupted a run of primary wins by left-wing Democrats this spring.
More than a quarter of younger Americans (27%) believe they or someone they know has lost a job because their employer replaced them with AI, according to a new Axios-Generation Lab poll of 18- to 34-year-olds.
Why it matters: Research suggests the actual share of job losses from AI is smaller. But the survey reflects the suspicion, mistrust and fatalism in how Gen Zers and young Millennials see the technology — sentiments driving their views on politics, the economy and social interactions.
Forcing companies to pay upwhen powerful AI systems cause harm may be one of the strongest incentives for preventing that harm in the first place.
Why it matters: Liability creates a direct financial incentive to identify risks, test for them and build protections before powerful AI is released — not after someone is harmed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio isn't running for president, but his interview on "The Katie Miller Podcast" this week showcased why so many Republicans want him to.
Why it matters: Rubio consistently ranks among the administration's most popular figures and is also one of its most powerful, serving as both Secretary of State and national security adviser.
