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The state of Trump: fake news, Russia and winning

Mike Allen, author of AM

Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) appears with Trump last night. Photo: Brynn Anderson / AP

Trump last night referred to "Crooked Hillary" while talking about gun control, prompting the signature chant of his 2016 rallies: "Lock her up."

Trump: "You've got to speak to Jeff Sessions [former Alabama senator, now attorney general] about that."

Other keepers:

  • "I feel like I'm from Alabama, frankly."
  • "We're going to be like your football teams. We're going to win all the time."
  • Trump said he wants "a see-through wall" at the border, so citizens on the U.S. side can avoid falling sacks of drugs lobbed over by dealers' catapults.
  • "Russia did not help me ... I didn't see too many Russians in Pennsylvania."
  • He said "fake news" wouldn't show the crowd, as CNN and CNN International put him and the crowd in split screen.
  • Pointing to his brain, Trump said he's "very good up here — always."

P.S. "Staff chafes at Kelly's style," by Ashley Parker and Phil Rucker on WashPost A1: "[S]ome staffers complain that [the White House chief of staff] may be growing his mandate too far and that his [militaristic style] stifles the creativity and spontaneity that have been hallmarks of Trump's enterprises."

  • "As one of Kelly's subordinates put it, the chief of staff sometimes becomes 'a one-man choke point.'"
  • "Kelly has required that Ivanka Trump, the president's oldest daughter, go through him first when she wants to speak with her father about anything involving the administration, a requirement she has so far followed."
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Go deeper

Jonathan Swan
51 mins ago - Politics & Policy

U.S. sounds alarm on Ukraine

Conscripts line up at a Russian railway station yesterday before departing for Army service. Photo: Sergei Malgavko/TASS via Getty Images

The Biden administration is "deeply concerned" by new intelligence — detailed for Axios and other outlets — showing Russia stepping up preparations to invade Ukraine as soon as early 2022.

Why it matters: Most of this was known from public sources and satellite imagery, but the administration is sending a stronger signal by releasing specific details from the intelligence community.

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Felix Salmon, author of Capital
1 hour ago - Economy & Business

Philanthropy in the age of crypto

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

The best charities are increasingly effective. That's the clear message sent by Open Philanthropy, the think tank that doubles as the grant-making vehicle for Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna.

Why it matters: With tech and crypto wealth becoming a fast-growing part of the philanthropic pie, there's more of an emphasis than ever on effectiveness — what the newly-divorced Melinda French Gates, in her recent Giving Pledge update, characterizes as giving as "impactfully as possible."

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Caitlin Owens
4 hours ago - Health

Prior coronavirus infections may not protect well against Omicron

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

New data from South Africa suggests the Omicron variant spreads more than twice as quickly as the Delta variant, and that immunity from prior infection doesn't appear to protect a person very well against Omicron variant.

Why it matters: The findings are extremely preliminary, and there are still many open questions about how well vaccines work against the variant. But these initial breadcrumbs of data are helping the world begin to understand what it's up against.

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