Senate Majority Leader John Thune notched his first big win Friday by clearing the filibuster on the Laken Riley Act. It'll almost certainly pass Monday with ease.

Why it matters: It's a specific, popular, bipartisan bill. But it also hands Thune a chance to prove he's serious about promises made during the GOP leadership election.

• Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told Axios: "What we can feel good about is we're having a lot more conversations about what we're doing." Scott ran against Thune for leader.
• Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told Axios that Thune "says what he means and means what he says when he talks about having a more open amendment process." Lee wants a more open process and backed Scott in November.

Zoom in: Thune spent days haggling with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the bill, which requires ICE to detain immigrants charged with or convicted of theft.

• Thune and Schumer agreed Wednesday to allow two votes on amendments. One passed, which would require ICE to detain immigrants who attack law enforcement.
• Senators will vote Monday on another amendment from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) that would add to the detention list immigrants who commit crimes resulting in death or bodily injury. It's likely to pass.
• Because of the change, the House will have to pass the bill again before it reaches President-elect Trump's desk.

Zoom out: Nearly a quarter of Senate Dems proved they're willing to help break a filibuster for GOP priorities.

• Schumer privately told Democrats they were free to engage with the GOP on the bill, before he publicly opposed it once it was clear that substantive changes weren't happening.
• His defectors included new Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
• Schumer also lost Georgia's Jon Ossoff, Arizona's Mark Kelly, Michigan's Gary Peters, Nevada's Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, and New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen.

GOP tax writers are gathering support for creative ways to make the price tag $0 for extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts.

Why it matters: The procedural and budgetary gambit will free Republicans from the burden of finding the $4 trillion in spending cuts. But deficit hawks, including member of the House Freedom Caucus, haven't completely signed off on the novel approach.

Zoom in: Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, has privately indicated to senators that he's sympathetic to their view that the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts should be zero, according to people familiar with the matter.

By the numbers: Under a "current law baseline," extending Trump's personal and estate tax cuts will cost $4 trillion over 10 years.

• The tax cuts expire at the end of 2025, and the Congressional Budget Office has to score how much revenue the Treasury will miss if Congress passes it for another 10 years.
• But what if Congress runs the numbers from a different starting point, and considers "current policy"?
• Current policy has the tax cuts in place (at least until the end of the year). Among friends, say Republicans, what if we use current policy as the baseline? Then extending the tax cuts will cost … zero.

Between the lines: This fall, while still in the minority, Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) started talking about using a current policy approach.

• That strategy appears to be gaining momentum, especially in the Senate. House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is also on board.
• The two Budget Committee chairs, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) haven't tipped their hands on their preferred approach.

The bottom line: Republicans are seizing on the "current policy" paradigm in 2025, but plenty of Obama officials (including Jeff Zients, President Biden's current chief of staff) were for it in 2013.

President-elect Trump sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill on Friday by announcing that his inaugural ceremonies will take place indoors, leaving members of Congress guessing about their plans.

Why it matters: Monday's proceedings will now take place in the Capitol rotunda — an extremely limited space — meaning many lawmakers will likely not be able to attend.

• When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in the rotunda in 1985, only 96 people were invited, according to contemporaneous reports.
• That's significantly fewer than the 435 House members and 100 senators — not to mention Trump's family members, Cabinet and staff appointees, Supreme Court justices and other invited VIPs.

Driving the news: Trump wrote in a post on his social media app Truth Social that there is an "Arctic blast sweeping the Country" that "could take temperatures into severe record lows" in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20.

• "Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda," he said.
• The Capital One Arena, a downtown D.C. stadium with a capacity of 20,000, will screen the swearing-in live and host the presidential parade, Trump said.

What we're hearing: Lawmakers and staffers told Axios that the move to the rotunda throws their plans into serious doubt.

• Several House members who had planned to attend said Friday afternoon that they were trying to get more information.
• "We are still trying to figure out what this announcement means," said Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), noting that there is "definitely not enough room" in the rotunda.
• Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) acknowledged he will likely not be in the rotunda but may be at the arena, telling Axios: "I have 46 guests attending the Inauguration and I will remain with them throughout."

Between the lines: The move comes as a relief for some Democrats who had been experiencing heartburn over whether to attend the inaugural ceremony of a man they revile.

• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who had not decided whether to go, told Axios: "Reminds me of Aaron Burr's rejoinder to Ben Franklin's admonition to 'never put off until tomorrow that which you can do or decide today.'"
• "Burr said, 'Never decide today that which you can put off until tomorrow because something may happen in the meantime to make you regret your premature action.'"
• "The weather gods have spoken!"

President-elect Trump's inaugural ceremony Monday will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda due to the weather forecast in Washington, D.C., he posted on Truth Social.

The big picture: Ronald Reagan's 1985 presidential swearing-in was the last to move indoors because of cold temperatures.

Driving the news: Trump wrote on Truth Social that the decision to adjust the ceremony's plans was a safety consideration.

• "I don't want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way," Trump wrote, noting that the temperature lows could pose "dangerous conditions" for law enforcement personnel and spectators.
• Instead, Trump said he had ordered much of the proceedings moved to the Capitol Rotunda and that Washington, D.C.'s Capitol One Arena would be opened to spectators to watch the ceremony live.
• Trump added that he would join the crowd at the arena after his swearing-in.

Zoom out: Air temperatures Monday are expected to hit the low- to mid-20s, with wind chills that could register between 12ºF and 14ºF.

• Though inaugurations have been held in colder weather, Trump's will be the coldest in several decades.

Go deeper: Abnormally cold weather forecast for Trump's inauguration

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

President Biden on Friday shortened the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses — setting a record in a single presidential term for the most pardons and sentence commutations.

Why it matters: Public attitude on criminal justice and prosecutions for non-violent crimes has shifted dramatically in recent decades. While much of Biden's legacy is set to be eroded by President-elect Trump, his use of presidential clemency power could be remembered.

Context: The thousands pardoned on Friday were "serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today," Biden's statement said.

• In 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo to federal prosecutors to end sentencing disparities that led to the disproportionate incarceration of Black people in cases involving crack and powder cocaine.

State of play: After Biden in a shocking move pardoned his son Hunter last year following his conviction on federal gun charges, Democratic and Republican lawmakers re-upped pardon requests.

• The White House is reportedly considering "preemptive pardons" to current and former public officials who could be targeted by President-elect Trump's administration, like former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Anthony Fauci.

As of early December, Biden had issued 26 pardons, a record low, and commuted 135 sentences.

• Later that month, he commuted the sentences of 1,500 Americans in a single-day record.

What they're saying: Criminal justice advocacy organizations applauded Biden's action on Friday.

• "Cruel and excessive prison sentences that have overwhelmingly harmed Black communities have been the cornerstone of federal drug policy for generations," Kara Gotsch, executive director of the Sentencing Project, said in a statement.
• "Today's commutations from President Biden are a welcome relief for countless families who have endured punishments for their loved ones that far exceed their utility."
• "Too often, our criminal justice reforms only apply to the law going forward, leaving behind the very people and injustices that moved us to change," said a statement from FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform organization.

Zoom out: Presidents tend to hand out more pardons during their final weeks in office.

• President-elect Trump, during his first term, quadrupled his number of pardons in his last few weeks in office, including to some allies, like his former chief adviser Steve Bannon.
• Biden's Friday statement said he'd continue to review additional commutations and pardons.

Go deeper: Biden has some catching up to do on pardons

President Biden on Friday said he believes the Equal Rights Amendment is the "law of the land" as the U.S. Constitution's 28th Amendment — though with only days left in his term, his power on the issue is not immediately clear.

Why it matters: The measure proposed more than a century ago would guarantee equal rights, legally, regardless of sex. The president claims it has met the standards to become part of the constitution, which would require the National Archivist to formally publish or certify it.

• The Biden administration did not immediately respond to Axios' request.
• Last month, the U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan said that the ERA could not be certified because of "established legal, judicial and procedural decisions" and called on new action from Congress.
• "The underlying legal and procedural issues have not changed," a spokesperson for the National Archives said in a statement to Axios.

What he's saying: "I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years, and I have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their sex," Biden said in a Friday statement.

• "We, as a nation, must affirm and protect women's full equality once and for all."
• The American Bar Association said the amendment has passed all hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution, Biden said on Friday.

Context: Reproductive rights organizations and advocates have backed the ERA to establish sexual health protections as GOP states limit abortion access, and especially after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

• In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the measure. Proposed amendments become part of the Constitution after being ratified by at least 38 states.,

Between the lines: Just before Virginia ratified the amendment, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during President-elect Trump's first term issued a memo claiming it considered the ERA expired since a 1982 ratification deadline was missed.

• The same office affirmed that decision in 2022 in another opinion.

Congress first passed the amendment in 1972 with a 7-year ratification deadline in its preamble (The deadline was extended by three years). By 1982, only 35 stated had ratified the ERA.

Go deeper: Biden jabs at Trump in farewell address, but pledges peaceful transition

President Biden plans to write a book after leaving office, the White House confirmed to Axios, giving him an opportunity to try and shape the narrative around his presidency and the tumultuous weeks leading to his historic withdrawal from the 2024 race.

Why it matters: There's a glut of reporting coming out on Biden's fateful decision to run again in 2024 and ultimately step aside after his disastrous debate with President-elect Trump — most of it unflattering to the 82-year-old president.

• Biden's own version of those events has hardly registered, beyond his contentious claims that he could have beaten Trump.
• If the book project comes to fruition, it will be a chance for Biden to lay out, in full, his views on what he accomplished and why he handled the 2024 cycle the way he did.
• NBC News first reported that Biden was planning a book. A White House spokesperson confirmed the plans but did not provide additional details.

Between the lines: Biden was remarkably successful at holding his party together and passing consequential legislation during most of his term. He continues to contend that history will look kindly upon his four years in office.

• But he's leaving under a cloud, and handing power back to the man he vanquished in 2020 and condemned as a danger to American democracy.
• A widespread belief has set in among Democrats that by clinging on for too long, Biden helped doom his party — and the country — to a second Trump presidency.
• Biden, his family members, and some of his longtime aides disagree. He told USA Today last week that he still thinks he would have beaten Trump, while conceding he's not certain he could have handled the rigors of the presidency for four more years given his age.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that could ban TikTok in the U.S.

The big picture: The court unanimously rejected TikTok's claims that the law violates the First Amendment.

• The wildly popular app was on course to disappear for U.S. users as soon as Sunday But President-elect Trump has said he would delay enforcement of that ban. TikTok's long-term future is still unclear.

Driving the news: The bipartisan law President Biden signed in April requires ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to either sell TikTok or shutter it inside the U.S. on Jan. 19.

• The justices said that because the primary responsibility falls on a foreign company, and because all of the speech that's currently on TikTok could still be there under new ownership, the First Amendment does not apply.

What's next: Trump had asked the court not to let the ban take effect as scheduled, one day before his inauguration.

• Finding a way to keep TikTok alive may not seem like an emergency, but the app's sheer popularity will make it a top concern in the early days of Trump's new term.
• Only a few potential buyers could put together enough money to even make a serious offer for the dominant social-media platform. Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government was considering selling TikTok to Elon Musk, though ByteDance flatly denied that.
• But all sale discussions are in their early stages — in the months since the law took effect, ByteDance and TikTok have been more focused on avoiding the Jan. 19 deadline than finding a way to comply with it.

President-elect Trump spoke Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone just days before the U.S. presidential inauguration.

Why it matters: Trump said last month he exchanged messages with Xi after winning the election but didn't confirm they spoke. The president-elect has promised to implement aggressive tariffs on imports from China and could also be forced to determine the fate of TikTok upon taking office.

• The call took place several hours after the Chinese foreign ministry announced that Xi is sending his vice president Han Zheng to Washington, D.C., to attend the inaugural ceremony Monday.
• President Biden has said he won't enforce the TikTok ban that's supposed to take effect Sunday, the AP reported.
• According to the Chinese state news agency, Trump requested the call.

What they're saying: "I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately," Trump said in a post on his truth Social account.

• He said they discussed balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok and "many other subjects."
• "President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!" Trump added.

Per the Chinese state news agency, Xi told Trump: "China and the U.S. have extensive common interests and broad space for cooperation. They can become partners and friends, achieve mutual success, prosper together, and benefit both countries and the world."

• Trump and Xi discussed Taiwan, Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Xi asked Trump to handle the Taiwan issue "with caution."
• It reported Trump told Xi he looks forward to meeting him "as soon as possible."

State of play: According to a bipartisan law passed last year, the Chinese-owned TikTok needs to be sold to an American company or shut down operations in the U.S. by Jan. 19, due to national security concerns.

• Trump has said he wants to take measures to "preserve" the wildly popular app in the U.S. despite the new law, his incoming national security adviser, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), said Thursday.
• Trump asked the Supreme Court last month to pause the TikTok ban, cementing his flip-flopping after he advocated to ban the app during his first term.
• The high court is set to rule as soon as Friday on whether to uphold the law, which justices seemed inclined to do during oral arguments last week.

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

The Israeli cabinet will convene on Friday to approve the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, which the smaller security cabinet has already approved.

Why it matters: Approval by the full cabinet is the final hurdle before the deal can be implemented. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the ceasefire and the process of freeing hostages are expected to start on Sunday at 4pm local time (9am ET).

State of play: The cabinet meeting was moved up from Saturday night at the urging of the director of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, Ronen Bar, according to an Israeli official.

• That timeline would have meant the deal couldn't be implemented until Monday, and Bar urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move more quickly to avoid unexpected complications.
• But moving it up meant convening after the Jewish Sabbath began. The ultra-orthodox members of Netanyahu's cabinet said they would agree to that because the deal is a matter of life and death, the official said.

Driving the news: The Israeli security cabinet convened on Friday morning local time, ahead of the full cabinet meeting, and was briefed on the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

• Netanyahu said during the meeting that he received guarantees from both the Biden administration and the Trump administration that if negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire and hostage deal fail, and Israel's security demands are not met, Israel would be able to resume the war in Gaza with U.S. backing, an Netanyahu aide tells Axios.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu's remarks at the security cabinet meeting came after ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he and the cabinet members from his party would vote against the deal but not leave Netanyahu's coalition.

• Sources in Smotrich's party claimed he received assurances from Netanyahu that the war would resume after the initial 42-day ceasefire and the humanitarian aid delivery system for Gaza would be changed to prevent Hamas from controlling the aid.
• Meanwhile, Netanyahu's ultranationalist minister of national security, Itamar Ben Gvir, held a press conference on Thursday and announced he would resign and his party would leave the coalition if the deal was approved. He said he would be ready to rejoin the coalition if Israel were to resume fighting in Gaza after the 42-day ceasefire in the first phase of the deal.
• Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir voted against the deal at the security cabinet meeting, but it still passed easily.

State of play: Ahead of the cabinet meeting Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz signed an order to release all Israeli settlers who were under administrative detention for allegedly committing and planning terror attacks against Palestinians.

• An Israeli security official who was alarmed by the decision said Katz made it for domestic political considerations and without consultation with the Shin Bet.
• "The decision gives backwind for terrorism and will destabilize the security situation in the West Bank," the official warned.

What's next: Under Israeli law, Palestinian prisoners can't be released from prison without a government vote and a 24-hour period for the public to appeal to the courts. That's why the deal, which involves the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, can't immediately take effect after the cabinet vote.

Go deeper: How two feuding presidents combined to get a Gaza deal

If capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, as former astronaut and Eastern Airlines CEO Frank Borman famously put it, then the U.S. over the past decade or so has been a joyous church indeed.

Why it matters: We're now beginning to see signs that the days of very few bankruptcies might be coming to an end, thanks in large part to the Fed.

How we got here: The financial crisis of 2008 to 2009 saw a sharp rise in bankruptcies, as you'd expect.

• It also caused the Fed to cut interest rates to zero and to keep them there for many years.
• It led bank regulators to get stricter about the amount of risk they allowed banks to take on, even as borrowers also started to get worried about the consequences of having too much debt.
• The result was a years-long decline in bankruptcy filings, as smaller debts became easier to refinance in an easy-money era.

Where it stands: A recent uptick in the numbers suggests that era might have ended with the Fed rate hikes of 2022. As CEA chair Jared Bernstein tells Axios, "we know this variable is pretty highly elastic to rate rises."

The big picture: Bankruptcy — a process that wipes out debts and allows fresh starts — is a necessary part of any dynamic economy.

• Fewer bankruptcies isn't always a good thing. It can be a sign of excessive risk aversion on the part of both lenders and borrowers, a paucity of what John Maynard Keynes characterized as "animal spirits."
• As University of Illinois law professor Robert Lawless notes, bankruptcy filings are not a good measure of the health of the economy. "Note how bankruptcies declined as the economy went into recession in the early 2000s," he said of the chart above.

By the numbers: Bankruptcy filings by companies with assets or liabilities greater than $2 million if they're public (or $10 million if they're private) rose to 694 in 2024. That's up 9% from 2023 and up a whopping 87% from a record low of 372 in 2022, per S&P Global.

• Overall, business bankruptcies in U.S. courts rose to 22,762 in 2024, up 33% from 2023 and up 73% from 2022.
• Those numbers are less precise than they seem, since the default setting on most bankruptcy-filing software is "consumer" rather than "business" and many business filers don't check that box.
• Meanwhile, many large corporate bankruptcies involve simultaneous filings from hundreds of subsidiaries, which can result in the numbers being exaggerated.

Yes, but: The absolute number of bankruptcies is still low, even after the recent increases.

• In 1997, for instance, there were 54,252 business bankruptcy filings, and 6.1 million business establishments in the U.S., for a ratio of 0.9%.
• By 2024, that ratio had fallen to 0.3%.

The bottom line: When rates rise, they bite harder. But an economy with more bite isn't always a bad thing.

A majority of Americans across nearly all demographic groups said DEI initiatives have made no impact on their personal careers, according to a newly released Harris Poll/Axios Vibes survey.

Why it matters: Republican lawmakers and activists have vilified DEI, a term for diversity, equity and inclusion policies used by employers. Companies have responded by rolling back programs.

• Yet Americans — and businesses — have a generally positive to at least indifferent view on the subject.
• On balance, most demographic groups were more likely to say DEI benefited their career than hindered it.

Zoom out: The current enmity for DEI was on display this week in the congressional hearings for President-elect Trump's Cabinet nominees.

• At Pete Hegseth's hearing, the Defense secretary nominee railed against DEI, as did some lawmakers.
• DEI is "race essentialism," Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said. "I think the American people have spoken loudly and clearly about this."
• Trump's opposition to anything DEI-related is well known.

By the numbers: While 41% of those surveyed said they support efforts to roll back diversity initiatives, the majority — nearly six in 10 — either oppose those efforts or are unsure about them.

• 57% said DEI initiatives have had no impact on their career, while 16% explicitly said they have been hindered.
• 39% of Democrats said they have benefited from DEI, compared to 26% of Republicans.
• At least half of all demographic groups — including people of different races, ethnicities and sexual orientations — said DEI had no impact on their personal careers.
• 51% of respondents said DEI is primarily a symbolic gesture, while the rest said it is essential for equality.
• "With all the backlash to DEI, you'd expect a public mandate to do so. But Americans are telling us they see the benefits of diversity, even if their support is more mild than passionate," John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Axios.

The big picture: There is broad support for the idea of diversity inside companies.

• 61% of those surveyed said diverse employees have a positive impact on organizations, and 75% agreed that more needs to be done to guarantee everyone is advancing.

Between the lines: Even as they feverishly cut programs, business leaders appear to have good feelings about DEI, according to a separate survey out this week.

• Nearly three-quarters of 3,200 global CEOs and business leaders said initiatives tied to social issues — such as diversity and inclusion — have had a positive impact on their company's economic performance, per the AlixPartners Disruption Index.
• 94% of executives whose companies lead their industries in growth and profitability view diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage.

The bottom line: There is a big disconnect between political rhetoric and reality.

Just about all the biggest names in tech will be in Washington on Monday for President-elect Trump's inauguration — a much different scene than the beginning of his first term.

Where it stands: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is the latest addition to the Big Tech guest list for Trump's swearing-in.

• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are also planning to attend, according to media reports.
• Elon Musk will be there, too.

Most of those CEOs, or their companies, also donated money for Trump's inauguration. And Zuckerberg is co-hosting a black-tie reception Monday evening, according to The New York Times.

The number of public electric vehicle chargers doubled over the last four years, driven by a combination of increased private investment and a surge in government funding under the Biden administration.

Why it matters: EVs and charging have been a chicken-and-egg-problem that's now getting a little easier.

• People won't buy an electric car unless they're confident they have somewhere to charge it.
• Companies won't invest in charging infrastructure without enough EV owners to plug in.

By the numbers: There are more than 207,000 publicly available EV charging ports in the U.S. today — up from around 95,000 when Biden took office in January 2021.

• That figure tracks with what Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a House committee last May. Republicans earlier had complained about delays.
• It includes 38,000 new chargers — both DC fast-chargers and slower, Level 2 chargers — that were turned on in 2024, according to the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.

Yes, but: Charging might be getting easier — but the U.S. is still far short of the estimated 1.2 million public chargers that a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report says will be needed by 2030 to support expected EV sales.

The big picture: Spurring a switch from gasoline-powered cars to battery-electric vehicles has been a key part of President Biden's climate agenda.

• He pushed a variety of policies — consumer EV tax credits, manufacturing incentives for carmakers and tougher tailpipe emissions laws — with the intent to make EVs account for 50% of new car sales by 2030.
• He also targeted 500,000 public chargers by 2030 — a goal supported, in part, by $7.5 billion allocated by Congress under the bipartisan infrastructure act.

Reality check: Electric vehicles sales are growing, but far off the expected pace.

• Only 8.1% of new car sales in 2024 were EVs, according to Cox Automotive. Still, that's a record 1.3 million EVs sold.
• Momentum was stronger in the second half, with EVs accounting for 8.7% of total sales.
• A flood of new, more affordable models could help keep that going — even if President-elect Trump kills the consumer tax credits as expected.

At least charging access is improving, and not just because Tesla opened its Supercharger network to other brands.

• GM Energy, for example, has opened more than 2,500 fast-charging stalls in partnership with EVgo and Pilot Flying J, and recently announced plans to add 500 more with ChargePoint by the end of this year.
• IONNA, the charging network founded by eight big automakers, is starting to roll out the first of 30,000 charging points by 2030.
• Electrify America added 600 new chargers in 2024, and replaced 1,000 others, bringing its network to more than 4,700.

Taxpayer-funded chargers have been slow to open, but the snags are mostly due to state and local issues like permitting, utility upgrades and in some cases, politics.

• The federal government has already shelled out $4.5 billion to support about 25,000 chargers, but only 200 have opened so far.
• Since that money's already been allocated to the states, the rest are still expected to open in the next year or two, even if Trump slows down Biden's EV policies.

Where it stands: As of Oct. 31, drivers in 61% of the most heavily trafficked corridors could access a charger every 50 miles, up from 38% in 2021, Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told Axios Pro Energy Policy. (subscribe here)

Editor's note: Cox Automotive and Axios are both owned by Cox Enterprises.

Mark Zuckerberg is living his best life in the Trump 2.0 era, despite the President-elect's campaign threat to jail him.

The big picture: Zuckerberg has spent the post-election months cozying up to Trump, including through a Mar-a-Lago visit and $1 million inauguration donation.

Zoom in: Zuckerberg has spent the post-election months cozying up to Trump, including through a Mar-a-Lago visit and $1 million inauguration donation.

• That could pay off for Meta when it comes to future regulation, particularly given the fact that Trump's antitrust regime sued the company in late 2020. The case was later dismissed.
• It's also given Zuckerberg a way to loudly hit back at a Biden administration that revived the lawsuit — and the confidence to scrap content moderation and workplace culture policies that appear to have privately chafed him for years.

Zuckerberg also might soon benefit from a ban on TikTok, even though Trump has pledged to keep the social media app alive.

• Meta would gain the most advertising spend if TikTok disappears in the U.S., according to a recent eMarketer analysis.

The bottom line: Zuckerberg is one of the world's richest people, and didn't get there without knowing how to align himself with those in power. And if he's actually enjoying his ride on the Trump train, then it's just another feather in his fortune.

Eight years ago, Donald Trump took office with a dark message about "American carnage" — a nation ravaged by crime, poverty and drugs. As he returns to the White House on Monday, his team is stressing "unity" and "light."

Why it matters: It's unclear whether Trump's inaugural message will resist his typical doomsday rhetoric about the America he's inheriting, but the inauguration festivities he's planning do suggest a cheerier tone.

Zoom in: The schedule of inaugural events in Washington this weekend reflects that optimism.

• There's a "One America, One Light" prayer service for Trump donors and a "Candlelight Dinner," also for donors. One of the three main inaugural balls will be called the "Starlight Ball."
• "Light signifies hope, it signifies a new beginning, it signifies a pathway forward. It's really something that has been a theme for the inaugural, yes, but also a guiding principle for our team over the past couple months," a person familiar with Trump's inauguration plans told Axios.

Between the lines: In a December interview with NBC News, Trump — who has suggested he'd seek retribution against his political enemies if he were elected president again — said "unity" would the major message of his inaugural address.

• "I think success brings unity, and I've experienced that," he told NBC's Kristen Welker. "... Basically it's going to be about bringing our country together."
• Trump likely wants to use his address to "make sure people know he is a president for all Americans," the person familiar with the planning said.

Some of Trump's inauguration guests also have touted such optimism. Singer Carrie Underwood, who'll perform "America the Beautiful" at the swearing-in ceremony, said her decision to participate in the inauguration was "in the spirit of unity."

Zoom out: Trump also called for national unity after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last summer, just before the Republican convention.

• In his speech at the convention — his first since the shooting — he began with a reflective, positive tone about unity.
• But after several minutes of that, Trump pivoted to an hour or so of the fiery, often grievance-filled rhetoric he was known for on the campaign trail.
• During the final weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Trump tapped into increasingly dark rhetoric. He called his political foes everything from "enemies" of the U.S. to "mentally disabled," and said the U.S. was an "occupied country" that must be "liberated" from criminal migrants who have "bad genes."
• Since winning reelection, Trump has continued to blast his adversaries and Biden administration policies.

The bottom line: The person familiar with the planning said they didn't want to speak for Trump, but he likely "does want to come out and be seen as a unifying force."

• "But ... that doesn't mean he's going to compromise on ... the policy necessarily, or campaign promises."

Go deeper: Trump picks historically young group of top officials

Chinese AI makers have learned to build powerful AI models that perform just short of the U.S.'s most advanced competition while using far less money, chips and power.

Why it matters: American policies restricting the flow of top-end AI semiconductors and know-how to China may have helped maintain a short U.S. lead at the outer reaches of the AI performance curve — but they've also accelerated Chinese progress in building high-end AI more efficiently.

Catch up quick: In late December, Hangzhou-based DeepSeek released V3, an open-source large language model whose performance on various benchmark tests puts it in the same league as OpenAI's 4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

• Those are the most advanced AI models these companies currently offer to the broad public, though both OpenAI and Anthropic have next-generation models in their pipeline.

Stunning stat: Training V3 cost DeepSeek roughly $5.6 million, according to the company.

• OpenAI, Google and Anthropic have reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build and train their current models, and expect to spend billions in the future.
• AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy called DeepSeek's investment "a joke of a budget" and described the result as "a highly impressive display of research and engineering under resource constraints."

Between the lines: In an interview last year, DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng said, "Money has never been the problem for us; bans on shipments of advanced chips are the problem."

• The V3 model was trained on Nvidia H800 chips, a less-powerful version of a chip the U.S. banned for export to China in 2022. Export of the H800 was then prohibited when the U.S. tightened controls again the following year.

The big picture: Some U.S. officials have argued for restricting China's access to advanced AI chips even further in hopes of slowing the country's development of the technology.

• On Monday, the Biden administration announced another big round of export controls aimed at choking the supply of chips to China via third-party countries.

What's next: Advances like V3 and OpenAI's powerful new "reasoning" model, o3, have lent weight to recent claims by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other industry leaders who predict the industry is closing in fast on artificial general intelligence (AGI). (Plenty of other observers remain skeptical.)

• AGI — or AI that can solve problems and perform tasks at a human or beyond-human level — is a holy grail for AI researchers, and many in the industry and U.S. government believe the technology's first developer will win a massive economic, scientific and security edge.
• Biden's latest export controls have led some observers to conclude the government shares the growing sense that AGI is close.
• "This is a 'break in case of emergency' policy, and the Biden administration identified that the emergency is that AGI is just a few years away," Gregory Allen, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Axios.

Yes, but: AGI is also not well-defined, and both optimists and pessimists have complained that it's become a moving goalpost.

Mayors across the country, representing nearly 35 million Americans, are warning of a severe and worsening housing shortfall, according to a new survey from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The big picture: There aren't enough homes in the U.S. to keep up with demand, with some estimates putting total housing shortage in the millions of units.

• A lack of affordable homes to buy or rent are keeping prices high. That's paired with record-high mortgage rates, putting monthly payments out of reach for many.

Zoom in: Mayors from 120 cities in 43 states responded to the national survey from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the American Institute of Architects.

• The study found that the housing deficit will increase by more than two million more units in the next five years.

By the numbers: 42% of households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, mortgage payments and other housing costs, per the report.

• The median rental price increased 18% over the past three years, to $1,779.81.
• The median sale price increased 21% in the same period to $488,272, according to the report.

Between the lines: The survey found that mayors believe inaction at the federal level will exacerbate an already deepening crisis.

• 89% of the mayors surveyed indicated that flexible and direct funding for cities to stimulate housing supply, preservation, or access is important.
• While the mayors value existing federal housing programs, they strongly urged for an expansion, including of low-income housing credits and housing vouchers.

Zoom out: The cost of housing was a key issue during the 2024 presidential race, making clear it's a top-of-mind issue for Americans.

• Vice President Harris had framed the housing shortage largely as a problem of supply, Axios' Emily Peck reported. Harris' solution, broadly, was to build more homes.
• President-elect Trump painted it as mostly as a demand issue and blamed the housing shortage on immigrants.

Flashback: Today's housing shortage is rooted in the 2008 housing bust when a huge number of homebuilders went out of business, from which the industry never recovered, Peck reports.

• Go deeper: Read the 20-page report.

More from Axios:

• Why Harris and Trump can't stop talking about housing
• America's housing shortage is keeping home prices high
• America's housing shortage explained in one chart

LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk and his allies are waging a ruthless information war in California, sensing opportunity in the ashes of the most destructive wildfires in state history.

Why it matters: For decades, Republicans have tried and failed to end Democrats' near-monopoly on power in the nation's most populous state. This time, they insist, the conditions are ripe for a reckoning.

Driving the news: More than a week after the Palisades Fire erupted — and with three major infernos still burning — Republicans are still flooding the zone with allegations of gross mismanagement by California Democrats.

• For conservatives emboldened by Donald Trump's victory, the targets are familiar: DEI programs at the Los Angeles Fire Department, undocumented immigrants, red tape — even aid to Ukraine.
• Trump, Musk and other MAGA influencers have spread misinformation about water policies in California, while downplaying the role of climate change in fostering historically dry conditions.

As his allies gleefully mused about flipping California in the next election, Musk predicted the state's burdensome regulations would accelerate the electorate's rightward trend.

• "The real red pill will come when people try to get permits to rebuild their homes and face multiyear waits," Musk wrote on X, racking up nearly 50 million views on his post.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order this week waiving permitting requirements for fire victims seeking to rebuild their homes, and has pushed to slash red tape as the GOP attacks have escalated.

Zoom in: The political danger is most acute for LA Mayor Karen Bass, a former U.S. House Democrat who was on President Biden's short list to be his running mate in 2020.

• Bass, who was elected in 2022 and is up for reelection next year, has been pilloried for traveling to Ghana a day after the National Weather Service warned of dangerous fire conditions in LA.
• Her 2022 opponent Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer and former Republican, has seized on the crisis as he weighs another run for mayor — or for governor.

Newsom — one of the most prominent Democrats in the country amid the party's post-election leadership vacuum — is widely expected to run for president in 2028.

• He's been front-and-center in countering MAGA's messaging offensive but expressed a desire to work with Trump on the recovery effort, despite their verbal sparring.
• "I get the California Derangement Syndrome. I've been living with that for years and years," Newsom told MSNBC, excoriating Trump and Musk for spreading "lies" about the wildfire response.

The big picture: Musk's bluster aside, Democrats acknowledge they face serious challenges in California that predate the fires — and that their supermajority in the legislature makes it difficult to blame Republicans.

• Crime, homelessness, illegal immigration, high prices and an intractable housing crisis helped Trump increase his vote share in 45 of California's 58 counties in 2024.
• In Los Angeles County — which shifted an astonishing 11 points to the right — a progressive district attorney was defeated by a former Republican who vowed to crack down on crime.
• California voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure, Prop 36, to increase penalties for drug and theft crimes, and recalled Oakland's mayor and local district attorney over public safety issues.

Reality check: The main beneficiaries of California's backlash have been independents and moderate Democrats — not Republicans, and certainly not the strain of MAGA Republicans publicly agitating for a revolution.

• Most Californians believe climate change is contributing to the fires, even if they're unhappy with state leadership's handling of the crisis.
• House Republicans' threat to condition federal aid to California, meanwhile, risks public blowback at a moment of vulnerability for Democrats.

What to watch: Republicans today are flush with billionaire cash and influence, much of it concentrated in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and other parts of California where supporting Trump is no longer taboo.

• Flipping the state is still a "long-term project," as pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk put it last month — but one that could be accelerated by this type of systemic shock.
• "We don't see these shifts overnight," California Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher said in a local news interview. "Texas was once a blue state, and slowly but surely it became a red state."

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has an alarm set for 4:20 a.m. But he rarely needs it — he usually beats the buzzer by 10-15 minutes.

• His first two tasks of the day: 20 minutes of transcendental meditation ... followed by four shots of espresso. He does an hour of work, then a workout, and is in the office by 7:30 a.m.

Why it matters: Zients, 58, had a lucrative run as a CEO and chairman (The Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board) and entrepreneur — including co-founding Call Your Mother, the D.C.-area bagel chain.

• He has stayed upbeat despite running a White House that is in the dumps and ending on a very downbeat note.

President Obama brought Zients into government as deputy budget director and the nation's first chief performance officer — before making him top economic adviser.

• Under President Biden, Zients had the high-stakes, thankless role of COVID response coordinator, helping lead the U.S. back. He took a nine-month break before returning as Biden's second chief of staff.

Over bagels from Call Your Mother in his West Wing corner office (with no computer — just cellphones), he wanted to share leadership lessons learned:

1. Discuss. Zients is allergic to tackling tough topics over text or email. "They obfuscate precision," he says. So he's known for one-word responses to emails. His favorite: "Discuss." That means to get around a table and dig in. "The hardest decisions require face-to-face conversations, not texts or emails that can blur the precision and debate required to solve the toughest problems," Zients told us.
2. The 7-minute meeting. That isn't literal — it's how colleagues playfully channel his approach. This is the art of how you "Discuss": His meetings tend to be quick, direct — 15 or 30 minutes. They're often preceded by tightly written memos — upper limit: three pages — so thinking is sharpened before shared. "Short memos in advance of meetings are key to efficient discussion and decision-making," he told us. "Shorter is harder than longer, as it forces rigorous analysis and requires precision." He's not a fan of "graphics for the sake of graphics."
3. Don't "admire the problem." Too many people too often stare at the complexity of an issue instead of solving the damn thing. In government, you don't always choose your problem. You did pick the solution. So get to it.
4. Dive into it. This is his go-to solution when a dirty-diaper issue lands on his desk. So many government leaders want to run away, often in fear. "When something is troubling you, don't fret it or deny it," Zients says. "Dive into it — it only gets better."
5. Execute, execute, execute. He says it so often it's stamped on a helmet, a gift from a staffer, that sits on the fireplace mantel in his White House office. Executing in government is a tremendous grind, so he delights in the nuts and bolts of managing. Zients pointed to Obamacare as a great example. Obama's crowning achievement almost died during the execution phase after the website powering it crashed. Zients led the team that fixed it.
6. Face into it. "You need the reps" to master crappy or tough situations, Zients says. His days are full of them. But the more you face them and solve them, the calmer and wiser you grow. He calls it "facing into the problem."
7. Build the team. "In the federal government, we don't spend enough time on recruiting, coaching and giving feedback," Zients says. "When you build and invest in a team of smart, diverse, and low-ego people who are in it for the right reasons and have each other's backs, you can weather any crisis and capture any opportunity."
8. Keep it sunny. "Leaders should always be optimistic," he says. "I'm not talking about blind optimism, but optimism coupled with a credible plan to get things done or solve the problem."

The bottom line: Zients says working in business first made him a better government leader because of the private sector's focus on the importance of teams — "from recruiting to coaching and focus on execution/getting stuff done."

• Little of that comes naturally in government. "There are pockets," Zients told us, "but not enough focus."

Axios' Hans Nichols contributed reporting.