Axios

President Trump pledged Friday to allow farmers and ranchers to process their own meat in a salvo aimed at the industry's four dominant meatpackers, calling them a "nasty Monopoly."

Why it matters: The president is under pressure to help a constituency his own policies have squeezed — increasing farmers' costs while raising prices for consumers on products like beef.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded a $16.7 million contract to a Kentucky-based firm on Thursday to buy electric gloves that can deliver painful shocks.

Why it matters: Some senators pushed back on the purchase, citing public scrutiny over the use of force by some ICE agents.

Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh said Friday that the central bank's leaders have "work to do" if they are not confident that inflation is moving to 2% "clearly and at sufficient speed," implying that interest rate hikes are ahead in the absence of improvement in price pressures.

The big picture: In a much-anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Warsh made clear that he is committed to the Fed's longstanding policy playbook of using interest rate adjustments to try to manage inflation — even as he sees this as a "hinge point in history" with the advent of AI.

• It raises the strong possibility that the Fed's next move will be an interest rate increase, which could put him crosswise with President Trump, who has long sought rate cuts.

Friday marks six months since the U.S. launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

Why it matters: The war is changing global energy markets and domestic politics in all kinds of big and sometimes surprising ways.

Republicans will have some stiff competition for eyeballs when they hold their first-ever midterm convention next month in Dallas — the NFL, American television's undisputed champion of ratings.

Driving the news: The GOP's Sept. 9-10 convention in Dallas will go head-to-head with the two opening games of the NFL season, which are expected to draw huge audiences each night.

A federal judge on Thursday struck down the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, ruling that the government's actions violated Anthropic's constitutional rights.

Why it matters: The ruling marks a major legal victory for Anthropic in its months-long fight with the Trump administration over how the military can use its AI models.

Unhoused people. Criminal justice-impacted individuals. Substance use disorder. Birthing people.

• Several Democrats eyeing 2028 runs for president say the party has a vocabulary problem as much as a messaging one. The left's embrace of "woke" buzzwords alienated working-class voters and drove many of them to Donald Trump, they say.

Why it matters: To get them back, they want more Democrats to start speaking more like ordinary people — and less like progressive politicos or liberal arts professors.

Three Stars and Stripes leaders sued the Pentagon on Thursday, alleging Defense Department officials are threatening to fire them in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Why it matters: The lawsuit escalates a fight over the editorial independence of a military newspaper partially funded through congressional appropriations.

National Democrats and Republicans are pressuring local TV stations to respond in opposite ways to a new federal court ruling on political ad rates, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: How they respond will have a major impact on the fight for control of Congress by deciding which party's ad money goes further in the final stretch of the 2026 midterms.

House Democrats are planning legislation to counteract the executive order President Trump signed Thursday redesignating Lake Ontario as "Lake America," Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Democrats are scrambling to contain the fallout from an escalating economic conflict between the Trump administration and the Canadian government.