Andrew Harnik / AP
Politico reports that Jerome Powell, a current Federal Reserve governor, is the leading candidate to replace Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Powell is backed by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Why it matters: Powell would align with White House deregulation efforts and has sided with Janet Yellen on continuing a slow pace of interest rate hikes, according to Reuters.
A U.S. public health official confirms more than 40 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan have coronavirus, while the remaining U.S. citizens without symptoms are being evacuated.
The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 1,770 people and infected almost 70,000 others. Most cases and all but five of the deaths have occurred in mainland China. Taiwan confirmed its first death on Sunday, per multiple reports, in a 61-year-old man with underlying health conditions. Health officials were investigating how he became ill.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
The Trump campaign has invested most of its advertising budget to date on Facebook, testing thousands of versions of ads per day to maximize its spending.
But behind the scenes, a source familiar with the campaign tells Axios, the thinking has shifted: "As everyone can see, we still have strong spending on Facebook, but the percentage of our total media budget [on Facebook] is shrinking."
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Contributor
In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections — buoyed by Republican control of both chambers — President Trump viewed campaigning for the House as a lower-tier priority and instead poured his energy into rallying for the Senate.
But after the GOP reckoning in 2018, and experiencing firsthand how damaging a Democratic-led House has been to him, Trump is now personally invested in helping Republicans regain the majority in November, several people familiar with his thinking tell Axios.