National

2028

Axios 2028

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is shaking up her team with several departures and new aides, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: The personnel changes come months before the progressive leader will decide whether to launch a presidential campaign. She's also weighing a run for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's seat, which is also up in 2028.

Driving the news: Ocasio Cortez's years-long campaign manager and senior adviser Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben is departing in September, two people familiar with the matter told Axios.

Fiorella Bini, a longtime aide to AOC, took over as interim campaign manager this month.

Aya Saed, Ocasio-Cortez's former legislative director, returned to her operation this spring as a deputy chief of staff in her House office and an adviser to her campaign.

At the same time, Tanushri Shankar-Ross, who left AOC's team in 2023, has come back as a senior adviser, Puck first reported.

AOC's creative director Tyler Evans, who had been with her since 2021 — sometimes in a freelance role — also left this summer, according to his LinkedIn page.

The intrigue: The moves have coincided with the expansion of the portfolio of AOC's chief of staff, Mike Casca, people familiar with her operation said.

Casca, 37, was senior communications adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, and then deputy chief of staff in Sanders' Senate office before joining Ocasio-Cortez's team in late 2023.

The big picture: Ocasio-Cortez has a small, tight-knit team that's relatively young compared to the teams of other potential 2028 presidential candidates. 

But she is close to Sanders and can tap into some of his political infrastructure if she wants to quickly ramp up to a presidential or Senate campaign operation.

Ocasio-Cortez recently appeared in content for More Perfect Union, a progressive media operation aimed at the working class that's led by former Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir.

AOC's campaign already uses the progressive consulting firm Middle Seat, which was founded by former Sanders officials.

Other former Sanders advisers are already working with other potential 2028 presidential contenders.

Several aides from Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns are working with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

Tim Tagaris, a top digital aide for both of Sanders' presidential runs, and his firm Aisle 518 Strategies have helped California Gov. Gavin Newsom — another possible contender for the White House — build his formidable fundraising email list. 

What they're saying: "I never believed I would get to do a job like this let alone walk away from one," Hidalgo-Wohlleben told Axios. "But after running nonstop since the 2020 primaries, I also know it's the right time for me to take a break."

He praised Ocasio-Cortez as "committed to fighting for a better world," and added: "Whatever's next for Alex, she's got my support. Like everyone else, I can't wait to see what's in store."

Scoop: AOC shakes up team ahead of 2028 decision

The personnel changes come months before she'll decide whether to run for president or Senate.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks behind a podium.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) speaks Friday at a "Defend the Vote" rally at the Lincoln Memorial, on the 63rd anniversary of the "March on Washington." Photo: Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images

2020 election

U.S. politics & policy

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

Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media, X said Thursday night.

Why it matters: The U.S. and China are racing to build the world's most advanced AI systems — and it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down. 

Driving the news: The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts "posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy," the team said in a tweet.

The posts included content on how AI strains the electricity grid and increases utility prices and "cartoons that depicted data-center operators enriching themselves at the public's expense."

It's unclear what, if any, action X will take to suspend or delete accounts from the bot farm. 

X, owned by Elon Musk, whose billions rely on data centers to boost his AI enterprises, did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

State of play: Congressional Republicans have been digging into influence campaigns from foreign adversaries designed to stall American AI development.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter in June asking the FBI and White House advisers to brief lawmakers on alleged propaganda campaigns by foreign adversaries, specifically China, Russia and Iran, aimed at hindering U.S. AI development and data center expansion.

The letter cited several reports, including one estimating that opposition campaigns have delayed or obstructed roughly $45.8 billion in data center projects in Virginia alone.

Nonetheless, Democrat and Republican officials alike have increasingly backed data center moratoriums and embraced a not-in-my-backyard stance toward the massive infrastructure projects.

Thought bubble from Axios' Madison Mills: Data center pushback has become a financial liability for the AI buildout.

Several Wall Street banks have recently cited political opposition as a risk to the entire AI sector.

The AI boom relies on expanding data centers because they provide the computing that massive AI companies need to keep growing.

The other side: "The 'All In' chattering class 'Chinese psyop' thing is worrying and frustrating," Jim Prosser, a Silicon Valley communications consultant and former Twitter head of corporate communications, told Axios.

He noted that this is the new messaging Big Tech wants to use to change the conversation on data centers.

"If you can get both Greg Abbott and Kathy Hochul agreeing on something, it's probably not a Chinese psyop, it's probably not a mass delusion people are having on these issues."

"It's about touching grass and actually being somewhere. If you're a [venture capitalist] in Atherton or Menlo Park opining about how somebody in Ohio should feel, and you've never been to Ohio, that's a problem."

By the numbers: Whatever role foreign influence campaigns may play, organic opposition to data centers is very real.

Sixty-one percent of Americans oppose building new data centers in their area, according to an early August University of Pennsylvania survey. That's up 12 percentage points from a previous UPenn survey conducted in February and March.

That squares with a YouGov survey released Tuesday that found only 24% of Americans say building new data centers is very or somewhat good for the country. 47% say it's bad.

Flashback: OpenAI disrupted two Chinese-linked covert networks using ChatGPT to create fake content to influence U.S. debates on AI energy consumption and tech tariffs, the company said in a June report.

The campaigns failed to catch on, but they signaled an active push by foreign adversaries to exploit American economic anxieties.

Yes, but: It doesn't take much social media scrolling to see real videos of real people showing up in droves to local council meetings to fight back against data centers.

China is secretly fueling America's data center rage

Polling shows that the opposition is already widespread.

Illustration of a computer keyboard with a red return key resembling China's flag 

AI & machine learning

Big Tech

China

Geopolitics & international conflict

Tech company 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

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

World

A federal judge again declined to erase President Trump's hush money conviction on Friday, noting that the president's arguments were "neither new nor legally sufficient."

Why it matters: The loss is another blow to the president, who has sought to get the conviction of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records thrown out after the Supreme Court ruled presidents have immunity for "official acts."

What they're saying: "There is no way that discussions regarding hush money payments to cover up the President's relations with Stormy Daniels could be an official act," Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote in a 35-page filing published Friday.

Catch up quick: Trump was convicted in May 2024 on all counts of falsifying business records, making him the first U.S. president to become a convicted felon.

The jury found that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment his then-fixer Michael Cohen made to Daniels days before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Zoom in: Trump sought to move the state case to federal court following a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that allowed former presidents immunity for certain acts done in their constitutional scope of office.

The judge ruled that Trump delayed seeking federal review while testing his immunity arguments in state court, putting his request outside the typical deadlines for removing a criminal case to federal court.

"Trump seeks a 'second bite at the apple,' a result the law disfavors," Hellerstein wrote. 

Zoom out: Hellerstein also determined that SCOTUS' immunity ruling didn't protect the president from the state's case. Nor did testimony given during the trial by former White House Press Secretary Hope Hicks, staffer Madeleine Westerhout, or Cohen violate his immunity.

"[A]n affair, or a cover-up of an affair, is not within the 'outer perimeter' of the President's official responsibilities." Hellerstein wrote. 

What they're saying: "The Supreme Court's historic decision on Immunity, the Federal and New York State Constitutions, and other established legal precedent mandate that the Witch Hunt perpetrated by the Manhattan DA be removed to federal court, and immediately overturned and dismissed," a spokesman for President Trump's Legal Team told Axios in an emailed statement.

"President Trump has already prevailed in this case at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and today's baseless and lawless decision contradicts that correct ruling. President Trump will be filing a powerful appeal, and will continue defeating Democrat weaponization at every turn."

Go deeper: Trump appeals felony conviction citing Supreme Court immunity

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information throughout. 

Trump loses longshot bid to erase hush money conviction

The judge rejected Trump's attempt to use presidential immunity to undo the case.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. Judge Juan Merchan gave the jury instructions, and deliberations are entering their second day. 

President  Trump appears in court for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024. Photo: Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Donald Trump

Supreme Court & legal decisions

Macro

Axios Macro

New financial technologies are making it faster and cheaper to move money across borders, seemingly reducing the world's reliance on the dollar.

But new research presented at the Jackson Hole symposium suggests financial innovation may instead tighten the dollar's grip on global finance.

Financial innovation is the theme for the annual gathering of central bankers, where they're grappling with how these technologies reshape the financial system.

Why it matters: Dollar dominance gives the U.S. enormous financial clout and helps keep demand for its debt strong.

If the paper is right, stablecoins and other forms of tokenized money could strengthen that position, even as concerns grow about America's fiscal health.

What they're saying: The authors argue that making currencies easier to access and transact in could steer more financial activity toward those that already dominate global finance.

"Rather than dissipating network effects by leveling the playing field ... digitalization could intensify them," wrote Gordon Liao, Eswar Prasad and Tony Zhang, economists at Circle, Cornell University and Arizona State University, respectively. 

Circle issues USDC, one of the world's largest dollar-backed stablecoins.

Zoom in: The authors use stablecoins — digital tokens backed by traditional assets — to model how new financial technologies could reinforce the dollar's dominance.

They find that more companies would choose to borrow in dollars, creating more demand for dollar assets and making dollar markets deeper and more attractive to other borrowers.

"Issuance begets issuance," Liao, Prasad and Zhang wrote. 

By the numbers: The dollar remains firmly dominant in global finance, even as rising U.S. debt and geopolitical tensions test the foundations of its dominance.

The paper says the dollar is on one side of roughly 90% of foreign-exchange transactions. It notes the euro, yen and pound have lost ground, while the Chinese renminbi has gained at their expense.

The other side: The authors warn that a more dollar-reliant world, propelled by new technologies, comes with its own risks.

It "comes at the cost of greater exposure of other countries to spillovers from U.S. policies," they noted.

Greater demand for tokenized Treasuries could also concentrate risk in that market, particularly if it leads to "less fiscal discipline" in Washington.

The case for the U.S. dollar's digital edge

Research presented at the Jackson Hole symposium argues that tokenized money could steer more financial activity toward those already dominating global finance.

Animated illustration of a digitized dollar sign rotating in a circle.

Cryptocurrency & digital assets

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

Economy

Latest news on Wall Street, Corporate America and financial regulation.

Business

The Strait of Hormuz has been Iran's most powerful card since the start of the war in late February. But over the past two months, U.S. officials say the American military has steadily eroded Iran's leverage over the crucial waterway.

Why it matters: What began six months ago with the goal of degrading Iran's missile capabilities and destroying what remained of its nuclear program has evolved into an open-ended fight over the world's most important energy chokepoint.

U.S. officials say they've turned the tide in the strait and believe it could be a watershed moment in the war that brings not only gradual relief to the world economy, but also a better deal with Iran.

"That sucker is open. The Iranian response is very mild. They don't want us to go back at them. That's the whole ball game. The rest doesn't matter," President Trump told Axios in a phone interview on Thursday.

Flashback: When the war began, the Strait of Hormuz was open, oil was flowing without interruption to global energy markets and Brent crude oil was trading at about $72 a barrel.

Behind the scenes: Two Israeli officials say the move to close the Strait of Hormuz was initiated by then-commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, General Alireza Tangsiri.    

In the first 72 hours of the war, Iran announced it was closing the strait and warned it would attack tankers that tried to transit.

But behind the scenes, Tangsiri gave an order that dramatically escalated the situation: to deploy naval mines in the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), the main international shipping lane through the strait, Israeli and U.S. officials say.

Tangsiri was killed three weeks later in an Israeli airstrike in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Driving the news: Iranian attacks on ships and the threat of mines brought commercial shipping to a standstill.

In the next two months, Brent crude skyrocketed to as high as $126 a barrel. 

Trump agreed to a ceasefire on April 8 partly in response to rising gas prices in the U.S. and pressure on energy markets — precisely the economic pain Iran wanted to inflict.  

The reopening of the strait was the linchpin of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed two months later. 

But the strait never fully opened and the deal soon collapsed.  

Zoom in: After the MOU fell apart, the military worked to reopen the strait unilaterally. The effort included several elements: 

Together with the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. military task force started guiding ships through the southern channel of the strait while giving them air cover and intercepting Iranian drone and cruise missile attacks. 

A two-week U.S. bombing campaign significantly undercut the IRGC's capacity to attack ships crossing the strait. 

A mine-sweeping operation involved Navy divers, Navy SEALs, underwater and surface drones, and private contractors to detect and neutralize the mines.      

A blockade of Iranian ports was restored.  

Zoom out: While the number of ships that cross the strait — and the amount of oil exported from it — remain well below pre-war levels, the reality on the ground has improved. Iran has lost much of its control over the strait and the U.S. military is effectively controlling most of it, U.S. officials said.

Iran is still firing at ships but its ability to target them accurately is limited. Only 2% of the ships that transited through the strait over the last month were hit, a U.S. official said.

More than 200 mine-like objects have been swept from the main lane of the strait. U.S. officials say only 11 of them were actual mines and just a few were properly deployed.  

In recent weeks, traffic through the southern channel has grown to 20 to 30 tankers every night, carrying an average of 9 to 10 million barrels, per U.S. officials. That's roughly half the pre-war volume.

"We achieved a major milestone in the Strait of Hormuz. Internationally recognized sea routes in the strait are free of Iranian sea mines. Bottom line: Today international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building," CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a video posted Thursday night.

Yes, but: Oil experts and tanker trackers are skeptical that the actual figures are that high. U.S. officials say they're undercounting. 

Periodic reports of oil tankers being struck by projectiles also raise questions about the safety of commercial shipping through the strait, despite U.S. assurances.

The big picture: The U.S. oil export operation shows signs of momentum. The UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait have already joined, and Saudi Arabia is also expected to. U.S. officials hope Qatar will soon start sending liquefied natural gas tankers through the U.S.-protected route. 

By mid-September, the U.S. hopes to widen the main channel of the strait so that at least 50 ships can transit in and out of the Gulf every night. 

The goal is to reach 60 to 70 percent of pre-war oil exports. 

State of play: Two regional sources told Axios that in recent days Iran has shown renewed interest in negotiations.

The commander of the Pakistani army visited Tehran on Sunday to try to revive the mediation between the U.S. and Iran. 

He was followed later in the week by the foreign minister of Oman, who came to Tehran to discuss the Strait of Hormuz.

On Thursday, the prime minister of Qatar — a key mediator between Iran and the U.S. — arrived for talks in Tehran at Iran's request, the regional sources said.  

At least in public, Iran has stuck to the same positions, demanding that the U.S. implement the MOU and offer terms for reopening the strait.  

The other side: At the moment, President Trump says he isn't interested in negotiating with Iran. 

"I don't want to meet, they do. In fact, they are begging to make a deal," Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. 

But White House envoy Steve Witkoff is still talking to the Qataris and to other mediators. 

U.S. negotiators want to see if the U.S. blockade, economic pressure campaign and growing leverage in the strait will make Iran soften its positions. 

U.S. officials believe shifting conditions in the strait give the Trump administration a stronger hand in any future negotiations with Iran. 

They see the June 17 MOU, which focused partly on Hormuz, as no longer relevant. And they're treating negotiations between Oman and Iran on new arrangements for managing the strait as background noise.

"That sucker is open": U.S. gains the upper hand in the battle for Hormuz

U.S. gains the upper hand in the battle for Hormuz

The U.S. has eroded Iran's main source of leverage.

Photo illustration of President Trump pushing a cargo ship across the water

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Markets

Axios Markets

A bar chart showing publicly-traded U.S.-based companies by sector and market cap as of August 26, 2026. Information technology is the largest sector shown, at $26.3 trillion, followed by financials (10.3 trillion) and communications services (9.5 trillion). Nvidia has a market cap of over 5 trillion, making it larger than the bottom five sectors.

Publicly-traded U.S.-based companies by sector and market cap

Data: S&P Capital IQ Pro; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Nvidia made billions selling AI's essential ingredient: chips.

Now it's plowing those riches straight back into the AI ecosystem, betting on a buildout that craves ever more compute.

Why it matters: Nvidia has become the AI industry's supplier, banker and kingmaker, feeding a self-reinforcing cycle in which chip profits finance the next wave of chip demand.

State of play: Already the world's most valuable company, Nvidia is now worth more than five of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500.

The chipmaker reported nearly $60 billion in quarterly profit Wednesday, prompting The Kobeissi Letter to call the results "the most impressive earnings in history."

Nvidia believes its reign is far from over, telling investors to expect roughly 70% revenue growth even from today's extraordinary heights.

Zoom out: Nvidia's vast chip windfall has enabled the company to take on a new role as financial patron of the entire AI industry.

Nvidia is involved in more than $750 billion worth of AI investments, financing deals and partnerships, according to PitchBook — a staggering footprint for a company whose core business is still selling chips.

That figure does not include this week's reported $13 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, which would give Nvidia control over one of the industry's most important model-distribution hubs.

CEO Jensen Huang has enlisted Wall Street to mobilize more than $500 billion for AI infrastructure, channeling outside capital toward the data-center buildout that drives more than 90% of Nvidia's quarterly revenue.

Between the lines: The strategy creates a powerful flywheel: The more money Nvidia helps pour into AI, the more compute the industry builds — and the more chips it needs.

What they're saying: Huang argues Nvidia's expanding reach reflects a position no other company can match, calling its role in the AI market "singular."

"We're the only company in the world that ... offers an entire AI factory platform," Huang said on Wednesday's earnings call. "Most companies just don't have the skills to do that."

Reality check: Critics say Nvidia's flywheel looks uncomfortably circular.

The company is helping finance customers and infrastructure projects that then spend heavily on its own hardware, raising questions about how much demand is being supported by Nvidia's own balance sheet.

Huang has dismissed those concerns, telling CNBC Wednesday that Nvidia's investments will generate "tremendous returns" and that "the risk is low."

Threat level: The cozy relationship between Nvidia and its biggest customers is becoming increasingly competitive.

OpenAI, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others are developing their own custom chips designed to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. OpenAI claims its new Jalapeno chip outperforms Nvidia hardware on some workloads.

Nvidia, meanwhile, is spending billions developing its own open-source AI models, aiming to become the American champion in a field increasingly dominated by Chinese models.

The bottom line: The result is an unusually tangled ecosystem in which Nvidia is simultaneously supplier, investor, partner — and increasingly competitor — to AI's biggest players.

Nvidia almighty: Chip riches flood through AI universe

It's Nvidia's world. We're just living in it.

Emerging Tech

Tech Policy

Europe's landmark AI law has moved from an idea to enforcement. 

Why it matters: Brussels will soon learn whether it can turn its sweeping AI rulebook into regulation that companies can actually follow — and if it can become a global benchmark for AI standards.

Driving the news: A major enforcement deadline arrived Aug. 2.

Most notably, new transparency and disclosure requirements are in effect for chatbots and AI-generated content.

Europe's AI Office has not gone after any companies covered under the law for misconduct yet, but it can now request information from companies or ask for access to models.

What they're saying: "This is a messy piece of legislation," Patrick Van Eecke, a partner at Cooley in Brussels who advises companies on AI Act compliance, told Axios in an interview.

He said Aug. 2 marked the point when ordinary users may start to encounter the impacts of the act through being notified they are seeing AI-generated material. 

The big picture: The AI Act could become a global standard without being a copy-and-paste rulebook for companies. Execution among companies might get messy, but wherever compliance ends up will be influential as companies decide how to operate around the world.

"We need a standard. This technological moment is happening really quickly. And right now, at least the EU AI Act gives us a standard," Amy Worley, managing director and data protection officer at Berkeley Research Group, told Axios.

Transparency notices required under the AI Act have already spread, she said, adding that watermarking can also serve as a litigation defense for companies.

Case in point: Anthropic announced that future Claude models will generate text that contains a watermark to comply with the EU AI Act. 

Anthropic says watermarked text will be indistinguishable to readers, but that it plans to offer a "watermark detection API" to users soon. 

Google and Meta both said in July they would adopt and develop transparency and watermarking tools. Meta said it would work with the EU AI Office to keep its approach to compliance "practical, interoperable and genuinely useful."

OpenAI  is publishing training data summaries in compliance with the act, it said, along with embedded "provenance signals." Microsoft's compliance with the act involves internal governance and risk management changes.

What's next: The transparency requirements that took effect in August are only one part of the AI Act's rollout. 

Rules for major categories of high-risk AI systems, such as uses around education, biometrics and migration, along with AI uses in physical products, come later — in December 2027 and August 2028.

Europe's AI Act gets real

Europe's landmark AI law has moved from an idea to enforcement.

Axios

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