May 19, 2017

Trump's unconventional first foreign trip

Susan Walsh / AP

Trump's first foreign trip is a noted break from his predecessors, as he becomes the first president to select the Middle East as his primary stop on his maiden voyage, per CNN.

Nah-FTA: The last five presidents — back to Ronald Reagan — all hit Canada or Mexico for their first trip, so it's interesting to note that Trump snubbed the other members of the trade pact.

Why it matters: Trump's a showman who likes a flourish, so it makes sense that he'd break convention and head to Saudi Arabia first on a trip built around the three major world religions. And it's certainly worth noting that the administration is on the verge of announcing a Kushner-negotiated arms deal worth more than $100 billion with the Saudis.

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Sara Fischer, Jonathan Swan

Scoop: Inside the Trump campaign's big hedge on Facebook

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."

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Alayna Treene

Trump's revenge tour has the House in its sights

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.

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Jacob Knutson

Pelosi warns U.S. allies against working with China's Huawei

Nancy Pelosi, Feb. 16. Photo: Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday cautioned U.S. allies against allowing Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to develop their 5G networks, arguing at the Munich Security Conference that doing so is akin to “choosing autocracy over democracy," CNBC reports.

Why it matters: Pelosi's hawkish stance marks a rare area of agreement with the Trump administration, which believes Huawei is a national security threat because the Chinese government may be capable of accessing its equipment for espionage.

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