Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts champ known as Notorious, was spotted making the scene at STK Steakhouse in Washington this weekend.
Other Ultimate Fighting Championship stars are expected at a black-tie reception Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — a UFC fan and Brazilian jiu-jitsu medalist — will co-host Monday night before the inaugural balls.
Why it matters: The fighters are part of a celebrity influx since President-elect Trump's last inauguration. Giddy MAGA insiders crow that Trump is culturally cool — or at least socially acceptable — after a stretch of toxicity.
Alex Bruesewitz — CEO of X Strategies LLC, based in Palm Beach, who advises Trump's inner circle on alternative media — told Axios between parties this weekend: "President Trump is cool again."
"He's reclaimed that image he had his entire adult life before he ran for president — sitting courtside at New York Knicks games and lighting Kate Moss's cigarette," Bruesewitz said. "That Donald Trump is back, and now he's going to the White House. It's now socially acceptable to support it."
Behind the scenes: Bruesewitz helped lead the charge on VIP outreach for the inauguration. As the celebrity liaison, he drew on his personal relationships and input from other Trump friends to help build a glittery roster for this weekend's festivities.
Bruesewitz told me part of the reason is that as celebrities met Trump personally, and as people hear him on long-form podcast interviews, they found him at odds with the portrayal in much of the media: "He was charming and hilarious, not crazy and angry."
Trump's inaugural weekend roster is expected to include:
Data: Solscan, Bloomberg Billionaires; Note: As of 7 a.m. ET Sunday Jan. 19; $TRUMP wealth excludes any income Trump made from selling 200 million memecoins on Jan. 17; Chart: Axios Visuals
The $TRUMP memecoin — a financial asset that didn't exist on Friday afternoon — now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump's net worth.
Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that's issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump's political fortunes.
After another massive overnight rally, as of Sunday morning Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough -- with his other assets -- to make him one of the world's 25 richest people.
Where it stands: While the Biden administration broadly took the view that memecoins like $TRUMP are securities subject to SEC regulation, the incoming Trump administration has pledged to be much more crypto-friendly and to regulate such coins with a light or nonexistent touch.
For the record: The coin's official website, GetTrumpMemes.com, urges visitors to buy coins with either dollars or crypto in order to "Celebrate Our Win & Have Fun!"
The coin is "not intended to be... an investment opportunity," per the site, which says that it "has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office."
That hasn't stopped investors from making millions by speculating on the price of the coin, which was launched while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" in Washington.
By the numbers: Some 200 million of the 1 billion total coins have already been released and are being actively traded. The rest, which are owned by Trump-controlled entities, will be able to be sold at various points over the next three years, starting in April.
On average, Trump's companies will be able to sell some 24 million coins per month into the market, which at current prices would amount to an income of $675 million per month, or $8.1 billion per year. (Although no one has a clue what the value of the coin will even be this afternoon, let alone three years from now.)
Flashback: During the first Trump administration, there were worries that individuals were able to enrich the president by staying at his hotel in Washington.
Since then, Trump has listed a meme stock where he controls more than 50% of the shares — and, now, has a meme coin that's even less tethered to reality.
Both of them represent a much more direct way of funneling money to Trump than staying at his hotel did.
Between the lines: The emoluments clause of the Constitution, written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.
In the present day, it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump.
Given the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential immunity, there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful.
The bottom line: Trump has just delivered a masterclass in the ability of a president to turn power into wealth.
Architects of the leading generative AI models are abuzz that a top company, possibly OpenAI, in coming weeks will announce a next-level breakthrough that unleashes Ph.D.-level super-agents to do complex human tasks.
We've learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who in September dubbed this "The Intelligence Age," and is in Washington this weekend for the inauguration — has scheduled a closed-door briefing for U.S. government officials in Washington on Jan. 30.
Why it matters: The expected advancements help explain why Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and others have talked publicly about AI replacing mid-level software engineers and other human jobs this year.
"[P]robably in 2025," Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan 10 days ago, "we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code."
"[O]ver time, we'll get to the point where a lot of the code in our apps, and including the AI that we generate, is actually going to be built by AI engineers instead of people engineers," he added.
Between the lines: A super-agent breakthrough could push generative AI from a fun, cool, aspirational tool to a true replacement for human workers.
Our sources in the U.S. government and leading AI companies tell us that in recent months, the leading companies have been exceeding projections in AI advancement.
OpenAI this past week released an "Economic Blueprint" arguing that with the right rules and infrastructure investments, AI can "catalyze a reindustrialization across the country."
To be sure: The AI world is full of hype. Most people struggle now to use the most popular models to truly approximate the work of humans.
AI investors have reason to hype small advancements as epic ones to juice valuations to help fund their ambitions.
But sources say this coming advancement is significant. Several OpenAI staff have been telling friends they are both jazzed and spooked by recent progress. As we told you in a column Saturday, Jake Sullivan — the outgoing White House national security adviser, with security clearance for the nation's biggest secrets — believes the next few years will determine whether AI advancements end in "catastrophe."
The big picture: Imagine a world where complex tasks aren't delegated to humans. Instead, they're executed with the precision, speed, and creativity you'd expect from a Ph.D.-level professional.
We're talking about super-agents — AI tools designed to tackle messy, multilayered, real-world problems that human minds struggle to organize and conquer.
They don't just respond to a single command; they pursue a goal. Super agents synthesize massive amounts of information, analyze options and deliver products.
A few examples:
Build from scratch: Imagine telling your agent, "Build me new payment software." The agent could design, test and deliver a functioning product.
Make sense of chaos: For a financial analysis of a potential investment, your agent could scour thousands of sources, evaluate risks, and compile insights faster (and better) than a team of humans.
Master logistics: Planning an offsite retreat? The agent could handle scheduling, travel arrangements, handouts and more — down to booking a big dinner in a private room near the venue.
This isn't a lights-on moment — AI is advancing along a spectrum.
These tools are growing smarter, sharper, and more integrated every day. "This will have huge applications for health, science and education," an AI insider tells us, "because of the ability to do deep research at a scale and scope we haven't seen — then the compounding effects translate into real productivity growth."
The other side: There are still big problems with generative AI's Achilles heel — the way it makes things up. Reliability and hallucinations are an even bigger problem if you're going to turn AI into autonomous agents: Unless OpenAI and its rivals can persuade customers and users that agents can be trusted to perform tasks without going off the rails, the companies' vision of autonomous agents will flop.
Noam Brown, a top OpenAI researcher, tweeted Friday: "Lots of vague AI hype on social media these days. There are good reasons to be optimistic about further progress, but plenty of unsolved research problems remain."
What to watch: Two massive tectonic shifts are happening at once — President-elect Trump and MAGA are coming into power at the very moment AI companies are racing to approximate human-like or human-surpassing intelligence.
Look for Congress to tackle a massive AI infrastructure bill to help spur American job growth in the data, chips and energy to power AI.
And look for MAGA originals like Steve Bannon to argue that coming generations of AI will be job-killing evil for managerial, administrative and tech workers. The new models "will gut the workforce — especially entry-level, where young people start," Bannon told us.
Axios' Scott Rosenberg, managing editor for tech, contributed reporting.
President Biden will leave office having presided over a very strong stock market, but not quite as strong as either of his two predecessors.
The big picture: The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all gained more during Trump's first term than during Biden's.
By the numbers: The S&P 500 gained 66.5% under Trump and 57.9% under Biden.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 56.8% under Trump and 40.2% under Biden.
The Nasdaq composite gained a whopping 137.5% under Trump, and 47.1% under Biden.
Flashback: Trump had warned in 2020 that the stock markets would "crash" were Biden elected. That didn't happen.
The bottom line: Presidents don't determine stock market performance, but often their supporters like to use the markets as an economic measuring stick.
After a three hour delay, the ceasefire in Gaza began at 11:15 a.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET) with Israel and Hamas agreeing to stop the fighting for 42 days.
Why it matters: This is the first ceasefire in the Gaza war since November 2023, when the first hostage deal led to an 8-day pause in the fighting.
The war, which started with the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, has been the bloodiest period in the Israel-Palestinian conflict since 1948.
More than 46,000 Palestinians and more than 1,600 Israelis have been killed — most of them civilians.
The war created a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza with close to two million Palestinians who were displaced and tens of thousands of buildings destroyed — making the Gaza strip close to uninhabitable.
Driving the news: The ceasefire was supposed to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) on Sunday.
But after Hamas failed to submit a list of the three hostages it is going to release on Sunday, Israel announced the ceasefire will not come into force.
Hamas claimed the delay was due to technical reasons, mainly the security situation on the ground.
Israeli jets conducted several air strikes in Gaza on Sunday morning local time with at least 8 Palestinians killed.
Hamas finally submitted the list around 10:30 a.m. local time, and the ceasefire began 45 minutes later.
Catch up quick: The ceasefire deal was signed in Doha earlier this week after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas with Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediation.
The deal also includes the release of 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including about 275 prisoners who have been convicted of murdering Israelis.
The hostage and prisoners release is expected to begin on Sunday 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET). Three Israeli women and 90 Palestinian women and teenagers are supposed to be released.
The latest: On Saturday, ahead of the ceasefire, the Israeli Defense Forces started redeploying some forces in Gaza — moving them outside of the enclave or east towards the buffer zone on the Gaza-Israel border.
On Sunday morning, even before the ceasefire started, Palestinian civilians started moving back to northern Gaza and to the city of Rafah in the southern tip of the enclave.
Hamas armed militants and Hamas police started moving into to the streets after months of going underground in fear of Israeli strikes.
The big picture: The conflict in Gaza spread into a regional war engulfing Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the West Bank and Yemen. But fighting has stopped or appears to be stopping soon on each front.
The ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, signed last November, isolated Hamas and was one of the factors that pushed the group to agree to the hostage deal in Gaza.
The Israeli strike on Iran in late October deterred the Iranians from further retaliating and led the Shia militias in Iraq to stop their attacks on Israel.
The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria led to the departure of Iranian forces from the country and closed that front.
The last active front in the war, which is in Yemen, is also about to close as the Houthi rebels announced they will suspend their attack against Israel as a result of the Gaza ceasefire.
Zoom in: According to the agreement, 33 hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal, including women, children, men over the age of 50 and men under the age of 50 who are wounded or sick. Israel's assessment is that most of those 33 hostages are alive.
The hostages will be released gradually throughout the first phase of the agreement, beginning on the first day of the six-week ceasefire in Gaza.
During the first phase, Israeli Defense Forces will also gradually withdraw to a buffer zone in Gaza, near the border with Israel. The IDF will leave the Netzarim corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip and most of the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Palestinians will also be allowed to return to northern Gaza. Those who walk won't go through security checks but vehicles will be checked by Qatari and Egyptian officials to ensure no heavy weapons are transferred to Gaza.
More than 700 Palestinian prisoners will also be released, including about 275 who are accused of murdering Israelis and are serving life sentences. More than 1,000 other Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the IDF during the war but didn't participate in the Oct. 7 attack will also be released.
Starting today, the first day of the ceasefire, 600 aid trucks, including 50 fuel trucks, will enter Gaza every day. In addition, 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes will be delivered for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
The agreement stipulates that Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. will serve as guarantors for the implementation of the agreement.
On the 16th day of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which is supposed to include the release of the remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Most U.S. adults (9 in 10 Republicans and close to half of Democrats) say they support mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally — but that enthusiasm quickly erodes when presented with options over how to carry them out, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll.
Why it matters: President-elect Trump has vowed to initiate one of the "largest mass deportations in U.S. history" starting early in his return to the White House. Beyond the logistical obstacles, costs and possible pain to the U.S. economy, the survey suggests Americans could quickly sour on deportations depending on how they are carried out.
By the numbers: Two-thirds of all Americans surveyed said they support deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Among Republicans, support was at 93%, followed by 67% for independents and 43% for Democrats.
But just 38% of Americans support using active-duty military to find and detain undocumented immigrants in U.S. cities and towns; and only 28% want to use money allocated for the military to pay for deportations.
Just one in three endorse separating families or sending people to countries other than their country of origin in the interest of speed. And just one in three support deporting those who came to the U.S. as children.
The trends largely track with findings from a Ipsos-Syracuse University poll from November from which the questions were replicated. But the new survey shows even less support for use of active-duty military, or military funds, than the survey from two months ago.
What they're saying: "There's essentially broad agreement with Trump's position on these topics, but as soon as you start pushing into specifics, a lot of that dissipates," said Chris Jackson, Ipsos pollster and senior vice president.
The concept of mass deportations may work better for Trump in the abstract than in reality, Jackson said. "Immigration, in reality, is complicated, messy and difficult."
"The real question is going to be... does that level of support maintain or fragment as they confront the reality of what it means."
The other side: About one in 10 Americans — and close to 1 in 5 Republicans — said they'd support deporting immigrants who are in the country lawfully.
Context: Trump has said he would use the military to round up undocumented immigrants and would consider putting them into camps.
Trump also has said he would deport American citizens if that means it would keep families together since he wanted to deport their undocumented parents or spouses.
And he has indicated interest in deporting Haitian immigrants who currently have Temporary Protected Status.
The bottom line: To remove a sizable proportion of the estimated 11 million or more undocumented immigrants from the country, Trump would need not only broad but sustained public support.
Methodology: This Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted Jan. 10-12, 2025, by Ipsos' KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,025 U.S. adults age 18 or older.
The margin of sampling error is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample.
TIkTok's 170 million users started receiving a "services temporarily unavailable" notice late Saturday night and the app was no longer available in Google and Apple's app stores as a law to ban the app was set to take official effect at midnight.
Why it matters: It's the first time the U.S. has banned a major online platform of this scale.
Between the lines: In declining to enforce the ban during his last day in office, President Biden essentially shifted the responsibility for enforcing the law to incoming President Trump.
Trump has indicated that he will try to keep TikTok alive in the U.S., but facing hefty fines, Google and Apple likely chose not to take the risk of violating the law.
What they're saying: Apple has not commented on their plans. Google declined to comment.
Catch up quick: For app store operators and cloud-services vendors like Oracle, which runs the backend for TikTok in the U.S., the ban story has proven complicated.
Although the Supreme Courtupheld the ban Friday, lawmakers have been split on whether they should try to find a way to extend the ban's deadline or keep TikTok shut out of the U.S. unless it found a U.S. buyer.
What to watch: Trump could decide to extend the deadline by 90 days, but he would have to show that legally binding negotiations for a sale of TikTok to U.S. owners are underway.
There are U.S. players who are interested in buying TikTok, but any deal to acquire the app would also face the hurdle of winning China's approval.
Trump could also issue an executive order or ask his attorney general not to enforce the law.
Thousands attended the People's March on Saturday in Washington, D.C., to protest President-elect Trump's agenda ahead of his inauguration, per multipleoutlets.
Why it matters: The event, some eight years after the earlier Women's March that attracted hundreds of thousands of participants, was crafted with a slightly different approach this year to target Trump policies versus Trumpism as a whole, Axios' Sareen Habeshian writes.
The president-elect has promised mass deportations will be top of his agenda when he takes office on Monday, leaving sanctuary cities such as Chicago bracing for impact.
Zoom in: Trump's deportation plan is one of many issues demonstrators zeroed in on Saturday as they marched from Farragut Square, McPherson Square and Franklin Park to the Lincoln Memorial.
See some of the moments from the march:
Demonstrators near the Lincoln Memorial during The People's March. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
People's March protesters advocate for abortion rights near the Lincoln Memorial. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Demonstrators carry anti-war signs during the march. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
One protester passionately waves a flag during The People's March in Washington, D.C. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Some carry "Trust Black Women" signs during march. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
People's March demonstrators wear coats and scarves near the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration. The Monday event promises to be one of the coldest on record, prompting officials to move the ceremony indoors to the Capitol Rotunda. Photo: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It is only the third time MLK Day has fallen on Inauguration Day, with earlier instances being the 1997 inauguration of former President Clinton and the 2013 inauguration of former President Obama.
Trump's inauguration officially kickstarts a second term he promises will bring mass deportations, aggressive tariffs on U.S. imports and the dismantling of the Department of Education.
What his second term likely won't meanis jail time for Trump — the first former and incoming president with a felony conviction — who on Jan. 10 received a no-penalty sentence in a New York hush money case. He was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records for his criminal trial last May.
He claimed after the decision that he is "totally innocent" and "did nothing wrong."
What is Trump saying about his inauguration?
The president-elect told NBC News last month the central theme of his inaugural address will be "unity."
"As I said, we're going to be talking about unity, and we're going to be talking about success, making our country safe, keeping people (out) that shouldn't be in our country — we have to do that," he said. "I know it doesn't sound nice, but we have to do that."
When is the inauguration?
Gates will openfor security screening at 5am ET, with musical performances starting at about 9:30am, per a news release fromthe Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC).
Inaugural ceremonies will begin at 11:30am, and the swearing-in ceremony will begin at noon, with Vance going first and Trump to follow.
Where is the inauguration?
The swearing-in ceremony, originally set to take place on the front steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., will be moved inside the Capitol Rotunda due to freezing weather forecasts.
The parade down Pennsylvania Avenue will move to Washington's Capitol One Arena.
Who's attending the inauguration?
More than 220,000 tickets were printed for the event, with former presidents — Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton — and tech moguls alike set to attend.
Attendees include billionaire Elon Musk, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is co-hosting a black-tie reception Monday night, per the AP.
Country music star Carrie Underwood is set to perform at the inauguration, while the disco group the Village People and musicians Kid Rock and Billy Ray Cyrus were booked for the inaugural rally on Sunday.
Country singer Jason Aldean and the band Rascal Flatts will play at the inaugural ball on Monday.
Yes, but: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former first lady Michelle Obama have joined a growing list of officials and legislators who do not plan to attend the inauguration.
What is planned for the day?
Inauguration Daytraditionally starts with a procession, in which the outgoing president joins the president-elect in a walk to the Capitol for swearing-in ceremonies.
The vice president, vice president-elect and their spouses are also present for the procession and escorted by JCCIC members.
The swearing-in ceremonies, including oaths of office, follow and the incoming president gives his inaugural address.
The outgoing president and first lady leave in an honorary departure, and signing ceremonies start followed by an inaugural luncheon and Pass in Review to allow the incoming commander in chief to inspect the troops.
How can you watch?
The inauguration will air live on several major broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, CNN, CSPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC and PBS.
The White House is also planning a live stream of the day's events.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change will mark MLK Day on Monday with "moral reflection and prophetic response" amid uncertainty as President-elect Trump retakes office.
Why it matters: This year, the King holiday and the presidential inauguration fall on the same day — a paradox that civil rights leaders say underscores the nation's deep divide.
Many see a contrast between a man who preached peace and an incoming president whose rhetoric has deepened racial divides, raising fears that Trump could roll back civil rights gains.
The big picture: Trump's second term follows a campaign filled with racist rhetoric, anti-trans policies, and mass deportation promises—raising concerns about the long-term impact on civil rights and equality.
King Center officials and the King family aim to use MLK Day to remind Americans of their responsibility for human rights and poverty action.
Zoom in: Bishop William J. Barber, II, President & Sr. Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, will offer a keynote sermon on Monday at the 40th Annual King Holiday Observance Commemorative Service.
The service is at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and will be live-streamed on The King Center's website.
Barber tells Axios he will reflect on how this overlap is a critical moment for people of faith and moral conviction to unite and address the deep injustices in our nation.
"I think that we have to see this past election, not so much as an election that Trump won, but an election that the progressives and others lost."
"If there was a serious outreach to poor and low-wage people, we wouldn't be in the situation we're in now."
State of play: Trump has vowed to roll back programs to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal government.
Some advocates are pushing him to overturn a key executive order from 60 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson, which addresses discrimination among federal contractors.
The intrigue: All eyes are on Trump's message and its implications for the future.
Zoom out: On the night of the election, Trump said, "We are going to help our country heal," leaving behind "divisions." Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League, said he will be watching to see if that was "just rhetoric or he meant it."
"The ball is in the president's court," he said. "I will be watching and preparing for whatever it is. He has to make that determination."
Regardless, Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, remains resolute as the nation enters this new chapter, telling Axios: "Our mission stays the same. We fight to ensure democracy works for all and that every citizen is afforded equal protection."
Context: The children of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King urge Americans to reflect on his legacy and the nation's state as the King holiday coincides with the presidential inauguration.
"l certainly understand the desire to tune out rhetoric, ideology, and policies with which we passionately disagree and which contradict the spirit of the Beloved Community," she wrote on Instagram.
Martin Luther King III told Axios the holiday is "a moment to renew and ask ourselves whether we've achieved the dream my parents envisioned."
"The truth is, we have not," he said. "Martin and Coretta King were not just dreamers — they were doers. It's time for us to step up."
His wife, Arndrea Waters King, added: "The inauguration and holiday, falling so close together, give us time for inner reflection. It's an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the vision we want to see for America."
Why it matters:The Supreme Court decided on Friday to uphold a law that could ban the video app if the China-based ByteDance parent company doesn't land a non-Chinese buyer by Sunday.
What he's saying: "The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it's appropriate," Trump told NBC News.
Yes, but: He hasn't made a final decision, calling it a "very big situation."
The president-elect added that he'll "probably announce" any action on Monday.
The White House said in a statement on FridayPresident Biden's position on the matter is that "TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law."
Data: Milken Institute; Table: Jacque Schrag/Axios. Editor's note: This chart has been corrected to reflect that the rankings include metro areas with at least 275,000 residents (not 250,000).
Raleigh, North Carolina; Ogden, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah are this year's best-performing big cities, according to an annual report ranking metros across a range of economic factors.
Why it matters: The Milken Institute's yearly rankings highlight U.S. cities with job growth, affordable housing, economic equality and other big draws.
The big picture: Cities have largely emerged from the tumultuous times of the COVID-19 pandemic and "remain at the center of economic activity," as the report puts it.
Driving the news: Raleigh moved up to the top spot this year after coming second in 2024 and third in 2023.
"It's been a long time coming for Raleigh, which has performed extremely well in our rankings for several years, without ever quite landing on top before this year," reads the report, which credits the city's job and wage growth and "thriving high-tech sector."
Utah is also a big winner, with Ogden and Salt Lake City taking the other two podium spots.
"Ogden's impressive rise from last year's ranking" — up 24 places — "stems from big improvements in its recent labor market performance."
Salt Lake, meanwhile, combines "a robust job market, a growing high-tech sector, and widespread access to economic opportunities."
Rounding out the top 10: Huntsville, Alabama; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Austin, Texas; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Olympia, Washington; Palm Bay, Florida and Boise City, Idaho.
Zoom in: Some smaller cities are growing thanks to lower housing costs and better economic equality, per the report, which highlights job and wage growth in places like St. George, Utah (near Zion National Park) and Auburn, Alabama.
How it works: The annual rankings from Milken — a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank — are based on its Best Performing Cities index, which takes into account cities' labor markets, tech industry growth and economic access.
Reality check: The report doesn't explicitly look at other quality-of-life factors people may consider when picking a place to live, like traffic congestion, public transit access, park space, etc.
The bottom line: If you're searching for a booming city that isn't New York, Chicago or L.A., give this list a look.
President-elect Trump launched his own cryptocurrency overnight and swiftly appeared to make more than $25 billion on paper for himself and his companies.
Why it matters: The stunning launch of $TRUMP caught the entire industry off-guard, and speaks to both his personal influence and the ascendancy of cryptocurrency in his administration.
It also speaks to the nature of the crypto industry that someone could have $25 billion worth of something that literally did not exist 24 hours previously.
Catch up quick: Friday night, while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" for the industry in Washington, the president-elect launched his own meme-linked cryptocurrency.
His website bills it as "the only official Trump meme."
By the numbers: According to CoinGecko price data, $TRUMP rose more than 600% overnight and was trading just over $32 as of 11 a.m. ET Saturday.
That gives the coin a fully diluted market capitalization just north of $32 billion.
The meme website says 80% of the supply is held by Trump Organization affiliate CIC Digital, and a CIC co-owned entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC. ("Fight fight fight" is what Trump said after being shot at a rally in July.)
They are subject to a three-year unlocking schedule, which means they cannot dump all of their holdings at once.
The intrigue: Trump has warmly embraced cryptocurrency as a concept and an industry, to the point that he is reportedly considering designating it a "national priority" as soon as this week, per Bloomberg.
💭 Brady's thought bubble: No politician has ever given their supporters a way to monetize that support -- until now.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Jake Sullivan — with three days left as White House national security adviser, with wide access to the world's secrets — called us to deliver a chilling, "catastrophic" warning for America and the incoming administration:
The next few years will determine whether artificial intelligence leads to catastrophe — and whether China or America prevails in the AI arms race.
Why it matters: Sullivan said in our phone interview that unlike previous dramatic technology advancements (atomic weapons, space, the internet), AI development sits outside of government and security clearances, and in the hands of private companies with the power of nation-states.
Underscoring the gravity of his message, Sullivan spoke with an urgency and directness that were rarely heard during his decade-plus in public life.
Somehow, government will have to join forces with these companies to nurture and protect America's early AI edge, and shape the global rules for using potentially God-like powers, he says.
U.S. failure to get this right, Sullivan warns, could be "dramatic, and dramatically negative — to include the democratization of extremely powerful and lethal weapons; massive disruption and dislocation of jobs; an avalanche of misinformation."
Staying ahead in the AI arms race makes the Manhattan Project during World War II seem tiny, and conventional national security debates small. It's potentially existential with implications for every nation and company.
To distill Sullivan: America must quickly perfect a technology that many believe will be smarter and more capable than humans. We need to do this without decimating U.S. jobs, and inadvertently unleashing something with capabilities we didn't anticipate or prepare for. We need to both beat China on the technology and in shaping and setting global usage and monitoring of it, so bad actors don't use it catastrophically. Oh, and it can only be done with unprecedented government-private sector collaboration — and probably difficult, but vital, cooperation with China.
"There's going to have to be a new model of relationship because of just the sheer capability in the hands of a private actor," Sullivan says.
"What exactly that model looks like, whether it takes more the form of guardrails and regulation, and some forms of support from the government —or whether it involves something more ambitious than that — I will tell you that some of the smartest people I know who sit at the intersection of policy and technology are working through the answer to that question right now."
This is beyond uncharted waters. It's an unexplored galaxy — "a new frontier," in his words. And one, he warns, where progress routinely exceeds projections in advancement. Progress is now pulsing in months, not years.
Between the lines: Sullivan leaves government believing this can be done well — and wants to work on this very problem in the private sector.
"I personally am not an AI doomer," he says. "I am a person who believes that we can seize the opportunities of AI. But to do so, we've got to manage the downside risks, and we have to be clear-eyed and real about those risks."
The big picture: There's no person we know in a position of power in AI or governance who doesn't share Sullivan's broad belief in the stakes ahead.
Regardless of what was said in public, every background conversation we had with President Biden's high command came back to China. Yes, they had concerns about the ethics, misinformation and job loss of AI. They talked about that. But they were unusually blunt in private: Every move, every risk was calculated to keep China from beating us to the AI punch. Nothing else matters, they basically said.
That said, AI is like the climate: America could do everything right — but if China refuses to do the same, the problem persists and metastasizes fast. Sullivan said Trump, like Biden, should try to work with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a global AI framework, much like the world did with nuclear weapons.
There won't be one winner in this AI race. Both China and the U.S. are going to have very advanced AI. There'll be tons of open-source AI that many other nations will build on, too. Once one country has made a huge advance, others will match it soon after. What they can't get from their own research or work, they'll get from hacking and spying. (It didn't take long for Russia to match the A-bomb and then the H-bomb.)
Marc Andreessen, who's intimately involved in the Trump transition and AI policy, told Bari Weiss of The Free Press his discussions with the Biden administration this past year were "absolutely horrifying," and said he feared the officials might strangle AI startups if left in power. His chief concern: Biden would assert government control by keeping AI power in the hands of a few big players, suffocating innovation.
Sullivan says a conversation he had with Andreessen struck a very different tone.
"The point he was trying to register with me, which I thought was actually a very fair point, is: I think about downside risk; that's my job," Sullivan told us. "His point was: It should also be my job as national security adviser to think about how AI applications running on American rails globally is better than AI applications running on some other country's rails globally."
What's next: Trump seems to be full speed ahead on AI development. Unlike Biden, he plans to work in deep partnership with AI and tech CEOs at a very personal level. Biden talked to some tech CEOs; Trump is letting them help staff his government. The MAGA-tech merger is among the most important shifts of the past year.
The super-VIP section of Monday's inauguration will be one for a time capsule: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg — who's attending his first inauguration, and is co-hosting a black-tie reception Monday night. The godfathers of tech are all desperate for access, a say, a partnership.
A fight might await: Steve Bannon and other MAGA originals believe AI is evil at scale — a job-killer for the very people who elected Trump. But for now, Bannon is a fairly lonely voice shouting against AI velocity. Trump and the AI gods hold the stage.
The bottom line: There's a reason our Behind the Curtain column writes obsessively about AI and its collision with government. We believe, based on conversations with AI's creators and experts, this dynamic will reshape politics, business and culture beyond most imaginations.
Treasury secretary Janet Yellen, in one of her final major acts in office, warned Congress late Friday that the Treasury will need to begin "extraordinary measures" on Tuesday to avoid hitting the debt limit.
Why it matters: The first full day of the Trump 2.0 presidency will see the government scrambling to move money around, increasing the urgency of the problem he's demanded Congress address.
Driving the news: Yellen warned Congress about three weeks ago that measures would be necessary sometime this month unless they acted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
On Friday, she indicated those measures were now necessary as of Jan. 21.
The debt limit was suspended by legislation in 2023, but went back into effect on Jan. 1 of this year.
President-elect Trump wants the debt limit abolished entirely, but equally wanted that done before he took office.
Zoom in: Yellen outlined a variety of steps the Treasury would take, including freezing certain investment activities for civil service and postal retiree benefits and suspending debt issuance.
What she's saying: "The debt limit does not authorize new spending, but it creates a risk that the federal government might not be able to finance its existing legal obligations that Congresses and Presidents of both parties have made in the past," she wrote.
"I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States."
Between the lines: The Treasury deploying a toolkit of extraordinary measures to avoid the debt ceiling is nothing new.
But every time it happens, it amplifies the long-running debate and raises the pressure on Congress to act.
The intrigue: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said this week he wants to raise the limit through the end of Trump's presidency, floating the prospect of tying it to LA wildfire aid.
Because so many House Republicans are fundamentally opposed to raising or eliminating the debt limit, that may require Johnson to make a deal with Democrats to get it passed - and they are vehemently opposed to conditioning fire aid.
Years of debate, months of procrastination and weeks of panic have brought the U.S. to the brink of banning TikTok — a bipartisan achievement that top politicians suddenly want nothing to do with.
Why it matters: On the eve of his inauguration, President-elect Trump is facing an enormous challenge to his popularity, his executive power and his word. He has vowed to save TikTok — but failed to explain how he can do so without violating U.S. law.
The latest: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the law passed by Congress last year that forces Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from TikTok by Jan. 19, or else face a ban in the U.S.
The decision was unanimous, with all nine justices shrugging off a brief from Trump asking the court to delay the ban so that his administration could "pursue a negotiated resolution."
President Biden, who signed the TikTok bill into law, will not enforce the ban — saying in a statement Friday that "actions to implement the law simply must fall" to the Trump administration, given the timing.
TikTok, meanwhile, said the app "will be forced to go dark" on Sunday unless the Biden administration "immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement."
State of play: Trump is now in a serious bind.
It was his administration that spearheaded the initial push to ban TikTok via executive order in 2020, citing the national security threat posed by Beijing's potential influence over the app and its user data.
Trump became a defender of TikTok once he realized how powerful it could be as a campaign messaging tool, especially among young people.
Now, for many of the platform's 170 million American users, Trump's first day in office threatens to be overshadowed by — or worse, forever tied to — the disappearance of TikTok from app stores.
Screenshot via Truth Social
What to watch: Trump is considering an executive order delaying enforcement of the TikTok ban to give the administration time to find a U.S. buyer, despite ByteDance's refusal to sell for the past eight months.
It's unclear how the executive order could bypass the letter of the law, and app stores run by Google and Apple could face fines and liability risk if they ignore the Supreme Court's ruling.
The intrigue: One of the biggest obstacles to Trump's salvation mission is his own party.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the chair of the Intelligence Committee, blocked Democrats' attempt to extend the deadline for the ban on Thursday.
"Let me be crystal clear: there will be no extensions, no concessions, and no compromises for TikTok," Cotton said, echoing the hawkish language typical of most Republicans before Trump's change of heart.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump's nominee for secretary of state, was among the very first lawmakers to raise the alarm about TikTok in October 2019 — though he has indicated he will now defer to Trump.
Between the lines: In many ways, the dynamics around banning TikTok are a microcosm of the broader debate over the U.S.-China competition.
"Decoupling" the two economies may sound like the shrewd national security approach, but the practical consequences — and potential for public backlash — are staggering.
In the days leading up to the ban, hundreds of thousands of self-described "TikTok refugees" have downloaded the Chinese app RedNote — its name believed to be a reference to Mao Ze Dong's "Little Red Book."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed Friday that Democratic senators had sent him a letter alleging "he has a clear and direct interest in obtaining favors" from Donald Trump and is using his donations "to cozy up" to the incoming administration to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Why it matters: Altman was one of several tech titans who donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. In a statement to Axios in response to the senators' letter, an OpenAI spokesperson said: "Sam believes that President Trump will lead our country during a pivotal moment for AI and American innovation, and looks forward to working with him and his administration."
Altman posted the letter on X, adding: "funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats."
Driving the news: The letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) stated that "million-dollar gifts" to Trump's inaugural fund by Altman and tech firms like Google, Meta, Microsoft and Uber, "raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money" on the Trump administration.
Altman was one of a few tech CEOs who donated personally, rather than via their companies. Apple CEO Tim Cook did the same, as Axios scooped.
Representatives for Warren and Bennet didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
What they're saying: In the letter, lawmakers said that "the industry's efforts suggest that Big Tech companies are trying to curry favor and skirt the rules."
The letter includes a list of questions, with a Jan. 25 deadline for Altman to respond. They include: "What is your rationale for these contributions?" and "When and under what circumstances did your company decide to make these contributions to the Trump inaugural fund?"
In his response, Altman noted that he'd made a personal contribution and thus "i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision."
Flashback: Altman told Fox News in December he would donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, saying he was "eager to support" Trump's efforts to "lead our country into the age of AI."
He's changed his tune since 2016, when he stated in a post on X that "I am voting against Trump" as "he is unfit to be President and would be a threat to national security."
Between the lines: Trump has vowed to repeal President Biden's AI executive order from 2023 that outlined the steps companies and the government will be directed to take to foster responsible AI.
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 dayshaggling 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.
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.'"
