(cache) Trump "on an island, all alone" - Axios
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Trump "on an island, all alone"

Carolyn Kaster / AP

The spotlight has been on President Trump's legal jeopardy. But inside the small circle of top Republicans who advise this White House, there's increasing concern that future political problems are stacking up.

One of the oldest (and most trusted) hands in America told a large group of CEOs in New York City on Friday: "Simply put, Trump has lost control of his presidency. He still has all the power of the office, but for someone who spent a portion of his life in real estate litigation, he shows once again he has not learned the first rule of legal combat: It is often better to say nothing and do nothing."

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That voice isn't a partisan, but our kitchen cabinet of Republicans is growing notably more bearish, even though slam-dunk evidence of "high crimes and misdemeanors" hasn't emerged.

"Another week, and no progress on the GOP agenda," said a GOP sage. "Infrastructure Week turned into Comey Week. No one really knows Trump and came to D.C. with him. He is a president on an island, all alone. ... [T]he ability to get anything done is in double jeopardy."

  • What Republicans fear: a downward spiral in which the Russia distractions make it harder to pass Trump's agenda, new talent won't come into the West Wing, top-shelf potential challengers are reluctant to run as Republicans in 2018, the House flips, and article of impeachment become a real risk.
  • Watch the Georgia special election results a week from Tuesday. It's officially the most expensive House race in history, and Democrats look like they could pick up a Republican seat.
  • Trump knows that he thrives with an opponent, so he personalized the investigation by making it Trump v. Comey, personally calling out his fired FBI director and offering to take him on under oath. In the short run, that plays well with the base, which wants a fighter. But it makes it harder to wall off the Oval Office by firing or disowning associates.
Be smart: Comey's failure to deliver a smoking gun has bought Trump some time . But so far, he's shown no indication that he has a plan — or the will — to use that time to change the course of events.
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Trump's climate denial and the power of media

Rebecca Zisser / Axios

America's president doesn't think climate change is a problem — for the first time since it became a global issue 30 years ago. That makes coverage of it more important than ever.

Why it matters: Sitting presidents can sway public opinion and other elected leaders. Many top administration officials, including President Trump himself, have openly doubted the scientific consensus that human activity is extremely likely to be the biggest driver of Earth's temperature rise over the last century. Because Trump is the first president like this, it's even more important for journalists to accurately frame the scientific consensus without loaded language or moralizing, just as I've written that environmental groups need to find a way to engage conservatives who want to act.

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Climate change wasn't a big issue in the 2016 election. But since Trump became president, his positions and those of his top advisers on climate change have taken on some prominence, particularly after Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Here's what that's revealed about the role the press plays in the climate debate:

  • Reporters across the political spectrum are pressing administration officials on the basic question of whether they acknowledge climate change is real. Fox News' Chris Wallace and CNBC's Joe Kernen have been among the most strident questioners of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
  • When questioning Pruitt and other top Trump officials, many reporters and cable TV anchors use the word "believe." That implies climate change isn't a scientific issue and is up for dispute. A better word is "acknowledge."
  • Some media outlets will always be in Trump's corner, especially those he reads and watches a lot, like Breitbart News and most of Fox News. This makes the job of unbiased media that much more difficult and crucial.

Climate change will always have some level of scientific uncertainty, much of which the media and political class alike will misconstrue and over-simplify. A case in point is Pruitt misquoting a recent column on climate change.

For his first column at The New York Times, Bret Stephens, former Wall Street Journal columnist, acknowledged human activity is the primary driver of climate change over the last century and then argued the debate needs to allow for more uncertainty about the long-term impacts and policy prescriptions. He was harshly criticized by climate activists.

In refusing to answer questions at a White House press briefing recently about Trump's views on climate change, Pruitt quoted almost verbatim from Stephens' column about the Earth's temperature rise while omitting the most relevant clause: that the "human influence on that warming" since 1880 is indisputable.

"As far as I can tell, Pruitt misquoted me by omitting a line in my column which noted that human influence is behind the warming climate," Stephens told Axios in an email. "It's a shame that a column whose point has already been widely mischaracterized by the climate-advocacy community is now being misconstrued by the administration."

An EPA spokeswoman didn't respond to requests for comment about why Pruitt omitted that line.

Historical context: This isn't the first time America is an outlier on climate change, but it's more extreme this time. in early 2001, then-Republican George W. Bush pulled the U.S. out of Kyoto Protocol, the world's only other big climate accord. Even as Bush opposed that deal, he acknowledged climate change was a problem. That's a big difference compared to today, and it elevates the importance of the media's coverage this time around.

What's next? Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina who now leads a conservative think tank pushing a carbon tax to address climate change, thinks that if a handful of conservative outlets and columnists would acknowledge climate change is a serious issue, the entire GOP would change its tune after denying it's a problem for nearly a decade. He puts The Wall Street Journal editorial page and Fox News in this category.

"If The Wall Street Journal editorial page changed or if Fox and Friends changed, this would be over," Inglis said. "We'd be acting."

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It's official: Emil Michael leaves Uber

Emil Michael is stepping down as chief business officer at Uber, as the result of a wide-ranging workplace investigation that was kicked off by allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination by a former Uber engineer. Michael was not named in those claims, but the investigation nonetheless determined that he should be removed.

Michael announced the news internally on Monday morning via an email, which added that current SVP of strategic initiatives David Richter will be promoted to SVP of business.

Why it matters: Michael has been Uber's second-most powerful executive behind CEO Travis Kalanick, and also is largely credited with much of its fundraising prowess.

Why he's out: It's unclear. There were reports last week that Michael inappropriately viewed the medical report of an Uber passenger in India who was raped by her driver (he's now in prison), although:

  1. Those same reports suggest Kalanick also viewed the documents, but he's retaining his job.
  2. The sourcing is anonymous, and a source close to Michael says he never viewed the file -- which the source adds was part of a larger case file prepared by an India law firm at the request of Uber's general counsel.
  3. All of this suggests that Michael's departure is related to prior acts, including a suggestion in 2014 that Uber dig up dirt on a reporter.

What Michael is saying: In a memo to company employees, Michael said TK TK TK

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Trump boasts about his record at first full Cabinet meeting

Andrew Harnik / AP

President Trump held his first full Cabinet meeting at the White House this morning, with each Cabinet member introducing themselves to the assembled media while heaping praise on Trump. Trump himself got in on the hyperbole in his prepared statement at the top of the meeting:

  • "Never has there been a president — with a few exceptions, in the case of FDR, he had a major depression to handle — who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than we've done."
  • "I think we've been just about as active as we can be at a just about record-setting pace."
  • "If we had the greatest bill in the history of the world on health care, we wouldn't get one vote from the Democrats."
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Senate GOP won't release draft health care bill

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Senate Republicans are on track to finish writing their draft health care bill this evening, but have no plans to publicly release the bill, according to two senior Senate GOP aides.

"We aren't stupid," said one of the aides. One issue is that Senate Republicans plan to keep talking about it after the draft is done: "We are still in discussions about what will be in the final product so it is premature to release any draft absent further member conversations and consensus."

Why it matters: Democratic senators are already slamming Republicans for the secrecy of their bill writing process, and this isn't going to help. Republicans are sure to release the bill at some point, but it's unclear when — and they want to vote on it in the next three weeks, before the July 4 recess.

What to watch

What to watch: When the bill is finished, it'll be sent to the Congressional Budget Office. It'll take CBO about two weeks to evaluate and score a draft bill. Senate Republicans then want to vote on the bill before the July 4th recess. "Conversations with CBO continue" but there are no new announcements about timing, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, when asked about these plans.

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Sessions to testify publicly tomorrow on Russia

Evan Vucci / AP

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify in an open session Tuesday afternoon at 2:30pm Eastern — soon after the Department of Justice released a statement stating that Sessions had requested a public hearing.

What to expect: Russia, Russia, Russia. Sessions has been under pressure for weeks about undisclosed meetings with Russia's ambassador, and he also played a key role in James Comey's testimony. From the DOJ press release: "He believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him and looks forward to answering the committee's questions tomorrow."

Think about it: CNN reported yesterday that Sessions' offer to testify in front of Senate Intel was a move to potentially avoid testifying publicly. Now DOJ says he insisted the testimony be public. It's unclear how exactly it came together, but it's happening.

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China's lakes get a clean(er) bill of health

Weijiang Chen

Thanks to a variety of clean air and water regulations, China's infamously polluted waterways are looking cleaner.

According to a report published today in Nature Geosciences, phosphorous levels in China's lakes declined by 60% between 2006 and 2014. Phosphorous is a crucial nutrient for plant growth, but it's also a common byproduct of industry and used as a fertilizer. Too much of it can trigger the growth of harmful algae that, when it dies and decomposes, can consume the ecosystem's oxygen and kill all animal life.

Why it matters: Phosphorous pollution is a large source of water quality degradation globally that threatens biodiversity and the health of humans near polluted water. In the U.S., economic losses associated with high phosphorus levels in freshwaters is about $2.2 billion each year.

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How they did it: Yan Lin of the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Oslo and his colleagues took monthly measurements of phosphorous concentrations from 862 lakes across China and looked at the source of phosphorous in each lake separately.

What they found: Phosphorous levels have decreased in lakes in western, eastern, and central China. This corresponds with cleaner industry in the area and better sewage systems in the cities. However, in remote and relatively pristine Northeastern China levels of the mineral have increased, suggesting runoff of naturally-occurring phosphorous in the soil could be increasing due to logging.

Looking forward: Lin told Axios that building good sanitation and sewage infrastructure is the best way to stop phosphorous pollution. Although phosphorous levels in lakes decrease when pollution stops, phosphorous does build up in the soil. Lin notes that in places like Scandinavia and the U.S., lake phosphorous has started to increase despite anti-pollution measures. That's because phosphorous from pollutants builds up in the soil, and can continue to bleed into lakes for years to come. It doesn't mean that anti-pollution measures don't work, says Lin.

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Aldi's plan to become the 3rd-biggest U.S. grocer

Elise Amendola / AP

Discount grocery chain Aldi unveiled a plan Monday to invest $5 billion in the U.S. and increase its American store count to 2,500 in a move that will make the firm the third-largest grocer in the United States, behind Walmart and Kroger.

A bare-bones strategy: Aldi's rapid growth has been driven by offering a small selection of private-label brands in a small-store format. The firm has bet that shoppers are ready to trade selection and customer service for prices even cheaper than Walmart's.

What it means for workers: A recent analysis by British trade publication RetailWeek found that Aldi ranks as the U.K's most efficient grocer in terms of revenue per employee, and the firm is replicating this low-head-count strategy in the United States. The rise of Aldi dovetails with a recent trend of job losses in retail, and suggests that the industry will continue to search for success while trimming employment.

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Fewer, but better jobs: Aldi invests heavily in recruitment and training for management positions, which become all the more important in a skeletal operation. Forbes reports that it pays new recruits $75,000 per year, while offering a year of on-the-job training and access to a company car.

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Where robot-makers go wrong

A quarter century ago, Colin Angle set out with two MIT colleagues with ambitions of putting walking robots in space. Today, Angle, CEO of iRobot, has settled for the world's best-selling robotic vacuum cleaner, the Roomba. It's not space, but, with about 16 million sold over the last 15 years, the Roomba is one of the best-selling consumer robots of any type ever.

Angle's message for commercial robot-makers: go short cool and complex; go long rugged, reliable and simple.

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It's germane right now: Last Friday, Alphabet sold off Boston Dynamics, one of the world's most advanced robot-makers. The reasons: Boston Dynamics' walking, jumping robots were agile and cool, but contained no machine learning software, and, analysts say, had difficulty finding a commercial market.

That may or may not be true: Softbank, Boston Dynamics' purchaser, clearly thinks Alphabet is wrong about the company's commerciality. But, for all the hoopla over robots, not many have penetrated the consumer market yet. "Here we are, in 2017, and we're just about none of the way to achieving the potential that robots are going to play ultimately in our world," Angle told Axios at iRobot's headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Getting to vacuums was a journey: "My early days," Angle said, "was all building legged robots, and, you know, I think part of what — the reason why I ended up being so focused on practical robotics — is the transition I made from wanting to build Commander Data from Star Trek, or if not that at least legged, walking robots that could go explore other planets." He went on:

"For my master's thesis at MIT I built a robot so complicated that it just collapsed under its own crushing, like, complexity. You know, it had six legs. Each leg had four degrees of freedom. Each leg had its own microprocessor. There was hundreds of sensors on this robot, and it just _ I think the mean time between failures, was about seven minutes, and the promise of the legs was never realized."

That's where Angle learned his lesson: "Don't add anything to a robot design that doesn't need to be there. And so what we can we take out of the robot to make it more rugged, more reliable, even if it would be cool to add something."

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Qatar: "We are open for business"

AP

Qatar Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi told CNBC Monday that he thinks the countries that cut diplomatic ties with Qatar last week did so because they would "like to dictate our foreign policy."

  • On accusations Qatar financially supports militant groups: "We know who's behind it," said Al Emadi. "We know that all these things are really to put the propaganda against Qatar." When asked if he was referring to Saudi Arabia, Al Emadi said he would leave it to the audience to interpret.
  • Financial implications of diplomatic crisis: "We are business as usual and we are open for business... this is a country that's very resilient. We have the assets and the security we need... we know we can defend the currency or we can defend the economy."
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Putin critic arrested after planning today's Russia-wide protests

@maxseddon / Twitter

In celebration of Russia Day, Russians gathered in cities across the country this morning to protest government corruption, in what could be the biggest protest Russia has seen for years. City governments and authorities have attempted to ban the rallies, sanction them to side roads and arrest protestors, according to NYT.

Arrests: Kremlin critic Aleksei A. Navalny, who orchestrated the protests, was arrested in Moscow this morning. There have been reports of other arrests, including three teenage girls in Petersburg, according to Financial Times' correspondent Max Seddon.

Why it matters: Navalny organized nation-wide protests in March as well, after which he was jailed for 15 days. The protests also serve as Navalny's attempt to force the Kremlin to let him run against President Putin in the 2018 presidential election. A felony conviction has held him back, but he claims the conviction was politically motivated.

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Ivanka Trump felt "blindsided" by DC viciousness

Markus Schreiber / AP

Ivanka Trump said Monday that she felt "a little blindsided" by all of the voracity and distractions that have been plaguing the Trump administration:

"It is hard, and there's a level of viciousness that I wasn't expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn't supposed to be easy. My father and this administration intends to be transformative, and we want to do big, bold things, and we're looking to change the status quo. So I didn't expect it to be easy, I think some of the distractions and some of the voracity was, I was a little blindsided by on a personal level. But for me, I'm trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise."
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Other highlights from her interview with Fox and Friends:

  • On James Comey: Ivanka said her father feels "very vindicated" and "incredibly optimistic" following Comey's hearing Thursday, adding that through all of the media distraction, the White House has been focused on getting things done. She added that infrastructure week, though it didn't make headlines, will have a "much more important impact."
  • Does Jared Kushner like his job? "He loves it," said Ivanka. "I mean talk about impact."
  • On Jared "clashing" with others in the White House: "There's a 24 hour news cycle that gets sped by and is encouraged by lots of salacious emails, and at the end of the day we're very focused on the work... [Jared] is someone who likes to get things done and doesn't get involved in that."
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