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National

The White House and (almost all) Senate Republicans hope to confirm Mike Pompeo this week as Trump's new Secretary of State. But, according to multiple sources involved in the vote counting, Pompeo's fate is still not entirely certain with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee set to consider his nomination on Monday afternoon.

What we're hearing: Rand Paul remains a hard no, though White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short told me he thinks Paul's vote on Pompeo is still gettable, and refuses to give up trying. Short told me: "I still think it's hard for Rand Paul to explain to Kentucky voters how he voted 'yes' for John Kerry for Secretary of State and 'no' for Mike Pompeo."

Paul's deputy chief of staff Sergio Gor emailed me in response to Short's comment: "Senator Rand Paul remains a strong supporter of President Donald Trump's America First agenda. From cutting taxes to limiting our foreign interventions, there is a lot they both agree on. They remain friends and speak regularly."

Senate Republican leaders and the White House are still unsure whether Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) will vote for Pompeo.

If Paul and Flake vote no, they'll need two red state Democrats to vote yes. They've already got Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Republicans involved tell me they're optimistic about getting Joe Manchin (D-WV), Doug Jones (D-AL), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN).

Bottom line: The Pompeo confirmation process has been revealing — and has shown the White House how difficult it will be for Trump to get anybody confirmed should he fire any more cabinet secretaries. It was only a little over a year ago that the Senate voted 66-32 to confirm Pompeo as CIA chief; and now his vote is down to the wire.

Mike Pompeo's make-or-break week

He'll likely need some help from red state Democrats to be confirmed as Secretary of State.

Politics

Mike Pompeo

Inside Trump's week of European visits

The big topic on his visitors' minds: the Iran nuclear deal.

Photos: Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images; Cuneyt Karadag/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

World

Foreign policy

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

Senior administration officials and senators from both parties on the Veterans Affairs Committee are growing increasingly concerned about Ronny Jackson's prospects to be confirmed as Trump's Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Between the lines: Sources with direct knowledge of the private deliberations on Capitol Hill and inside the White House tell me the White House is well aware of these widespread concerns about Jackson.

In fact, Trump's chief of staff John Kelly thought it was unwise for Trump to nominate Jackson so quickly without going through all the due diligence that a normal cabinet nomination process would involve. Though since then, I'm told Kelly has aggressively defended Jackson.

Jackson is well liked at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in his role as the White House doctor, but some senior officials question whether he has the management experience necessary to run the second largest agency in the federal government.

Why this matters: Jackson has his confirmation hearing this week, and expects to testify before the Veterans Affairs' committee on Wednesday afternoon. Senators from both parties share the skepticism — and that includes some Republicans on the VA Committee.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who sits on the VA Committee, told The Hill this week that Jackson “doesn’t have the experience you’d think would traditionally be required at the VA.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (S.D.), another Republican on the committee, told The Hill that Jackson knows about health care, but "has very limited background in terms of managing groups."

White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short pushed back against these criticisms telling me: "Ronny Jackson is a small town kid who went to medical school, volunteered to serve our nation in uniform, has risen all the way up to Admiral, treated wounded soldiers in combat, has a dad who's a veteran and a son who's a Navy SEAL, has personally served multiple presidents, and yet members of Congress who have never managed a thing outside of their own congressional office have the audacity to say he's not qualified before he even has a hearing."

Veterans groups have mostly declined to give Jackson ringing endorsements; and the White House is also aware of specific concerns about Jackson's professional conduct in the Navy that have been taken to Jon Tester in his capacity as ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

A source briefed on the situation told me the White House is looking into these complaints to see whether they are legitimate or simply politically-motivated slurs on his character.

Behind the scenes: While these concerns about Jackson metastasize on the Hill, administration officials are trying to intensely prepare Jackson for his hearing. They're doing murder board sessions this weekend in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building beside the White House, and sources briefed on these sessions tell me they have been going on pretty aggressively for the last couple of weeks.

White House fears VA secretary will get denied

There are concerns about his management qualifications on Capitol Hill.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Kellyanne Conway has never actually wanted the job of White House communications director, according to sources who've discussed it with her, but Axios has learned that she left many in the White House communications team this week with the impression that she'd be leading the team in some capacity.

Behind the scenes: Senior White House communications official Mercedes Schlapp convened an off-site team-building and planning retreat last week for the White House comms team. They held the session on Thursday at the General Services Administration building a couple blocks from the WH (the same building that once housed the transition). 

About 40 people were in the room, and according to sources who were there:

Conway opened the session by addressing the group and giving what a source in the room described as a "pep talk".

She told the staff that the President had asked her to take a more active role in communications. She didn't directly address any of the communications director speculation but many in the room were left with the impression that she'd be taking a leadership role going forward.

She then asked the group for ideas to take to POTUS.

One suggestion that most in the room agreed with: that Trump should do more local and regional media, which increases his chances of getting more favorable coverage than he's getting in the national media.

But one person asked how to reconcile what the president wants to see versus what actually helps but that he might not notice.

Trump wants to see surrogates defending him on cable TV but the consensus within Trump's own communications team is that getting surrogates out in regional and local markets is a far more effective way of conveying POTUS' messages and accomplishments than appearing on cable TV.

Besides Conway's address to the group — in which the communications director role wasn't directly discussed — there was no other discussion during the session about who would replace Hope Hicks.

Other tidbits: The group, which has been beset by leaks and media reports of infighting, ran team-building exercises on large notepads. One of the questions posed to the group: If somebody was making a documentary about the White House communications team in five years, what would they say?

At one point in the session, Kirk Marshall, Joe Hagin's top deputy for Human Resources, asked the group to explain what they thought the difference was between comms and press.

Somebody asked a question about the standard of the Trump administration's communications work and Brad Rateike, director of cabinet communications, joked: "It's impossible to get fired around here."

Next steps: Kirk Marshall will lead one-on-one interviews with communications staff, soliciting suggestions on how to better improve the White House team and will encourage staff to offer a more candid perspective than they might have in a large group. They then plan to hold another planning retreat.

Kellyanne Conway rises — again

She might be taking control of the White House's comms shop.

Kellyanne Conway

Media

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Travis Reinking, the suspect in a shooting that killed four people at a Nashville Waffle House early this morning, was arrested by the Secret Service in June 2017 for being in a restricted area near the White House, per the AP.

The details: After the White House incident, Reinking was released and questioned by the FBI and local authorities, who seized weapons from him — including the AR-15 used in today's shooting. That gun was  later released to his father, who gave it back to him. Reinking remains at large, according to authorities, who believe that he may still be in possession of two guns.

Video from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department's announcement:

Nashville shooting suspect arrested near White House last year

The suspect, Travis Reinking, is reportedly still at large.

U.S. News

Mass shootings

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is expected to lead the United States' delegation to the inauguration ceremony of the new American embassy in Jerusalem on May 14th, Israeli officials told me.

The big picture: The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's office have started to prepare for the embassy event and for welcoming the delegation. The officials added the Israeli government wants to use the event to give diplomatic boost to U.S.-Israeli relations and to the Israeli efforts to convince other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem. On May 16th, Guatemala is expected to move its embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.

Who's coming: The officials said that, according to the information received at the Foreign Ministry and prime minister's office, another interesting member of the U.S. delegation will be President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who also heads the U.S. "peace team" to the Middle East. While Israeli officials believe that Ivanka Trump will also be there, Axios' Jonathan Swan says that her attendance is not yet guaranteed. Rapahel Ahren reported last week in the Times of Israel that the couple was considering participating in the embassy opening.

According to the Israeli officials, around 250 guests will travel from the U.S. to the embassy's inauguration. They will include around 40 senators and members of the House of Representatives. Other members of the delegation will include Jason Greenblatt, the U.S. special envoy for the peace process, and the heads of Jewish organizations and pro-Israel evangelist organizations.

The White House and Treasury Department didn't respond to questions on the issue, and U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman also refrained from commenting.  

Mnuchin to lead U.S. delegation to Jerusalem embassy opening

The trip next month is also expected to include Jared Kushner.

Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Israel

Axios AM

NewsGuard, a new service that uses trained journalists to rate thousands of news and information sites, will announce that it has launched a secure, encrypted digital and telephone hotline for political candidates and members of the public to report suspected fake news sites.

The big picture: Steven Brill, co-CEO of NewsGuard: “We’ve already seen one case of a candidate citing an endorsement from a bogus site that was created by supporters of that candidate. This is a particularly insidious variety of fake news, because it is aimed directly at unsuspecting voters.”

From a forthcoming release: A "SWAT team of NewsGuard analysts will operate 24/7 to identify suddenly trending news sites that NewsGuard has not yet rated and assure — or warn — internet users about them in real time."

Options for contacting the hotline: "Send a secure, end-to-end encrypted message with Signal or Whatsapp: +1-740-480-1850 ... Send an SMS message to: +1-740-480-1850 ... Call and leave a digital voice message: +1-740-480-1850 ... Email: tips@newsguardtech.com ... Leave a comment."

Get more stories like this by signing up for our daily morning newsletter, Axios AM. 

A fake news campaign hotline

You can flag instances of fake news that you spot online.

President Trump often blasts "fake news" at his campaign-style rallies. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Fake news

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Finish Line

Axios Finish Line

The newfound wealth from San Francisco's tech boom isn't translating to more sophisticated earthquake safety measures, reports the LA Times.

Why it matters: Earthquakes pose the greatest natural threat to northern California's economy and infrastructure, but the Bay Area's cities — once national leaders in safety — are now falling behind their neighbors in southern California.

The vulnerabilities, according to the Times...

"There are an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 brittle concrete buildings in San Francisco — a building type that is one of the deadliest in earthquakes — yet the city does not have a list of where they are located."

"In Oakland, there are nearly 2,000 possibly vulnerable wood-frame apartment buildings at risk of collapse in a seismic event — and there is no law to require them to be fixed."

"The report said 17,000 units in Oakland’s soft-story apartments or condominiums could be declared uninhabitable after a major earthquake — 10% of the city’s housing supply. ... Yet four years later, no proposal for a mandatory retrofit law has been introduced by the City Council."

"San Jose doesn’t even have a list of its more than 1,000 apartment buildings thought to be at risk."

A suggestion: Utilizing the Bay Area's tech wealth to push for a massive retrofitting update — which happened thanks to a series of quakes in populated areas of the state from 1970s to the 1990s — but has stalled since northern California hasn't faced a "big one" since 1989's Loma Prieta quake. 

The Times spoke to structural engineer Janiele Maffei, former board member of the Oakland-based Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, who said: “The minute you start that clock, you’re ahead. The minute you say you’re not going to start that clock for 10 years, you’re behind.”

Bay Area lags on quake safety measures

There's a ton of cash in the Bay Area — and a sense of complacency.

An aerial view of downtown San Francisco. Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Silicon Valley

Business

Future

"If Trump were a less divisive figure, we might ... consider that what looks like incompetence or impertinence on the part of the officeholder could also be evidence that the office itself is broken," John Dickerson, co-anchor of  "CBS This Morning," writes in the cover story of the May issue of The Atlantic.

Why it matters: "Even the most above-it-all president is continuously tempted to privilege the small over the big and the now over the future."

"A president must now be able to jolt the economy like Franklin Roosevelt, tame Congress like Lyndon Johnson, comfort the nation like Ronald Reagan."

The problems with the presidency

John Dickerson tackles the contradictions of the office for The Atlantic.

Axios

Sunday's top stories

Mike Pompeo's make-or-break week

Inside Trump's week of European visits

White House fears VA secretary will get denied

Kellyanne Conway rises — again

Nashville shooting suspect arrested near White House last year

Mnuchin to lead U.S. delegation to Jerusalem embassy opening

A fake news campaign hotline

Bay Area lags on quake safety measures

The problems with the presidency

Big Tech's reprieve may be short

Macron to Trump: "You need allies, we are the ally"

Trump tweets "only time will tell" on North Korea

The states where abortion clinics are in short supply

14 states can't guarantee accurate election results