Facing a revolt from Miami Republicans, President Trump salvaged his giant spending plan in Congress late Wednesday by ensuring the death of a Chevron oil deal in Venezuela that the lawmakers lividly opposed.

Why it matters: Trump's decision was a matter of political necessity and a nod to his secretary of state, Marco Rubio — a longtime critic of Nicolas Maduro's socialist dictatorship in Venezuela and Chevron's oil export license that helps enrich the regime.

• Trump's move also offered a window into the last-minute dealmaking that saved his priority legislation in the House.
• "Ultimately, he trusts Marco," a senior White House official said of the president.
• "The pro-Maduro Biden oil license in #Venezuela will expire as scheduled next Tuesday May 27th," Rubio announced late Wednesday on X.

The intrigue: The decision marked an abrupt reversal of Trump's special Venezuela envoy, Ric Grenell, who'd announced the day before that the administration would grant a 60-day extension of Chevron's license to export oil from Venezuela.

• As a special envoy, Grenell wants to engage with Maduro.
• As secretary of state, Rubio wants to enforce policies on Venezuela set in Trump's first term.
• Grenell's announcement Tuesday blindsided officials at the White House, the Treasury and State departments, and Rubio's fellow Cuban-Americans from Florida in the House: Carlos Gimenez, Mario Diaz-Balart and Maria Elvira Salazar — all critics of Maduro's regime.

Zoom in: With a razor-thin GOP margin in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson and administration officials knew Wednesday they couldn't lose the three Miami representatives' votes on Trump's big tax-cut and spending bill. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was already a no for other reasons.

• "We just got three new no votes on the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' " a second White House official groused Wednesday morning. "The Cubans plus Massie kill the bill."
• "Marco was apoplectic," a person who spoke with the secretary of state told Axios.

Zoom out: The Venezuelan and Cuban exile communities share a common bond — relatives who escaped leftist regimes. The Miami Cuban-American Republicans are under pressure at home over the Trump administration's deportation policies and its elimination of immigration protections for thousands of Venezuelans.

• As anti-socialist hardliners, they don't want Chevron to operate in Venezuela and enrich Maduro's regime, which is propped up by Cuba's intelligence services.
• In February, the lawmakers agreed to support Trump's budget plans in return for the president canceling Chevron's license, set to expire Tuesday.
• With that deadline in mind, Grenell negotiated with Caracas, secured the release of an American prisoner, and relayed Trump's interest in extending Chevron's license temporarily. But the timing of Trump's bill gave the Miami representatives leverage against those plans.

Inside the room: "The Cubans didn't have to tell us they were a 'no' again. We just knew it," said a third administration official involved in the discussions. "We knew they wouldn't fold on this."

• So Trump — who spent Wednesday afternoon arm-twisting and cajoling conservative House members to back his massive tax-cut and spending plan — had to engage with the Miami representatives as well.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Rubio arrived at the White House for an event honoring the University of Florida's national championship basketball team (Rubio is a Gator). Afterward, he huddled with Trump in the Oval Office to make his case against the oil deal.

• About 6 p.m., Gimenez — an occasional golfing partner of Trump's —called in by phone.
• Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair, a congressional liaison, was a constant presence.
• "Marco spoke to [Trump] about why it's good policy. Blair emphasized the need to keep these members happy to get the bill passed. It was a tag-team effort," a senior White House official said.

People briefed on the discussions told Axios that Rubio, Gimenez and White House officials who met with Trump countered the arguments by Grenell, Chevron and its legion of lobbyists and commentators who have warned that China would benefit from a U.S. withdrawal from the oil deal.

• They noted that China didn't significantly expand in Venezuela when Trump first slapped sanctions on Maduro's regime, which owes China as much as $10 billion.
• The oil market is almost glutted, and its $62-per-barrel price is about break-even for producers. So there's no crisis — and Venezuelan oil is more expensive to refine than others because it's so heavy and sulfurous.
• Finally, they reminded Trump that he'd given his word to the Miami-area lawmakers to end Chevron's deal with Venezuela.
• Gimenez declined to comment. Rubio couldn't be reached for comment.

After Wednesday's meeting, hours went by without word from Trump. The Miami representatives didn't want to push him, but they didn't want to get steamrolled, either.

• "When you negotiate with Trump on something like this, you can't make it look like you're negotiating. You have to apply pressure but not say you're applying pressure. It's delicate," a person involved in the talks said.
• Finally, at 10:57 p.m. Wednesday, Rubio posted his statement on X saying the Chevron lease would still expire Tuesday.

It was a sign to the three Miami lawmakers that Trump would honor his promise.

• Thursday morning, they voted yes on the president's big bill.

Former President Biden's disclosure that he had Stage 4 prostate cancer was quickly met with sympathy late Sunday. By Monday morning, the questions — from Democrats and Republicans alike — had begun.

Why it matters: The timing of Biden's announcement, coupled with the way his handlers tried to cover up his health issues in the past, fueled speculation about how long he'd known about the cancer.

People in both parties, whether they love Joe Biden or despise him, wondered whether the announcement was timed to change the subject after a week of reports about his physical and mental deterioration when he was president.

• Those reports included recordings, first posted Friday by Axios, of Biden being interviewed by prosecutors in 2023 about his handling of classified documents. Biden had such difficulty recalling events that prosecutor Robert Hur later described him as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Zoom in: On Monday, medical experts didn't exactly calm the suspicions about Biden's cancer diagnosis — even as they said it was treatable and that he could live several years with the disease.

• "He's had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading," Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who was a Biden White House COVID adviser, told the stunned hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
• Emanuel later told CNN that the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test used to detect prostate cancer isn't always reliable. Emanuel and other doctors noted that Biden, 82, is well beyond the 55-70 recommended age range for prostate cancer screening.
• But given how thoroughly presidents' health is scrutinized, it would be surprising if Biden hadn't been tested before his recent symptoms appeared, Emanuel said on "Morning Joe": "It's a little strange."

Zoom out: Several former Biden White House aides acknowledged they were perplexed.

• "I love Joe Biden," a former campaign and White House aide told Axios. "But I don't feel the same about some of the people around him. So I feel terrible saying this: I just don't know what to believe."

President Trump and the White House initially offered sympathy for Biden and did not engage in speculation on Sunday.

• But on Monday, Trump told reporters: "I'm surprised the public wasn't notified a long time ago ... I think if you take a look, it's the same doctor who said Joe was cognitively fine."

Some of Trump's MAGA loyalists struck a similar chord on social media, sending a mix of prayers and I-told-you-so messages about Biden's health — an issue they'd been harping on for years.

• Vice President Vance questioned the care Biden received and whether his advisers were honest, telling reporters: "We can pray for good health — but also recognize that if you're not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn't be doing the job."
• Donald Trump Jr. asked on X whether former First Lady Jill Biden was part of "another coverup."

Flashback: The Bidens have been silent about cancer in the family before, according to "Original Sin," a book by Axios' Alex Thompson and CNN's Jake Tapper that's being released today.

• When the Bidens' son Beau was attorney general of Delaware in 2013, he had brain surgery to remove a tumor and was diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma — one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.
• Beau and then-Vice President Biden's teams deliberated whether to explain his situation publicly, but decided to say nothing for months, according to "Original Sin."

In February 2014, Dr. Wai-Kwan Alfred Yung released a statement that Beau had a "clean bill of health."

• Beau Biden died 15 months later, soon after he left office.
• The book says that for the last year of his life, as he had difficulties with speech and other everyday tasks, Beau Biden was quietly flown around the country for experimental treatments and usually admitted into hospitals under an alias: George Lincoln.

Even some members of the Biden family didn't understand the lack of transparency.

• According to "Original Sin," Beau's wife, Hallie, expressed frustration about concealing the disease rather than telling people. The public would rally around Beau, she argued to friends. But Joe and Beau Biden opposed going public.

What they're saying: A Biden spokesperson declined to comment on Monday.

• But on Tuesday the former president's team shed some light on Biden's diagnosis, saying that his "last known PSA [test] was in 2014," meaning he stopped getting tested when he was 70 or 71, about the age at which the test no longer is recommended.
• The spokesperson added: "Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer."

This story has been updated to reflect the Biden spokesperson's comment on Tuesday.

The Trump administration's first charter flight for dozens of "self-deporting" immigrants took off from Houston early Monday, part of a new program offering them a free trip back home and $1,000 — or else.

Why it matters: The self-deportation flights are one of the few incentives for unauthorized immigrants to present themselves to authorities under President Trump's immigration crackdown, which is long on sticks and short on carrots.

• The self-deportation program was announced in March. Since then, the administration has paid for tickets for some people to return to their home countries on commercial airliners.
• For those who are unauthorized and either don't turn themselves in or don't agree to self-deport, the alternative is being detained by immigration officials and held — possibly for months — in overcrowded facilities.

Zoom in: Monday's flight left Houston about 9:30 a.m. and took 65 people from Honduras and Colombia to their respective home countries, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.

• To participate in the program, the immigrants logged into the CBP Home App and requested to be voluntarily flown home in return for the free trip and $1,000 after they land, the Homeland Security official said.

Zoom out: The program is a small part of fulfilling Trump's campaign-trail promise for mass deportations after a historic number of migrants were allowed into the U.S. under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

• The administration is aggressively using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1958, with mixed results.
• The State Department is using AI to monitor social media accounts of foreign students for alleged "pro-Hamas" sympathies, as Axios first reported.
• And officials are weighing plans to ban some colleges from accepting foreign students if the officials decide the schools have been too soft on immigrant students viewed as supporters of Hamas and other terror groups, as Axios also first reported.
• The number of deportations of people living in the U.S. is increasing under Trump, but his administration is still lagging behind the Biden administration's for total removal numbers compared to this time last year, according to an analysis of government data.

What they're saying: "In principle, [self-deporting] could be a very good option for people," said Michelle Brané, former executive director of the Biden administration's Family Reunification Task Force.

• But there's a big caveat, she said. The Trump administration's "shock and awe" campaign of immigration enforcement has been effective at scaring people — to the point it may prevent people from using the government-run CBP Home app.
• "If people are not being coerced, are fully informed and if it actually is a safe option that preserves people's rights," Brané said, "it could be a successful program."

But the administration hasn't detailed how and when self-deporters could be able to return to the U.S., and critics are skeptical.

• "It's a scam because most people won't be allowed back into the U.S.," said Kerri Talbot, executive director of Immigration Hub, an advocacy group.
• "They don't have the power to change those laws, and those are statutes that will block people from being able to come back."

Monday's self-deportation flight was far less controversial than the administration's first effort to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans alleged to be Tren de Aragua gang members. They were sent to a notorious lockup in El Salvador two months ago.

• A judge ordered the jets to turn around mid-fight but the administration refused, saying the judge's jurisdiction didn't extend to international waters.
• The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked the administration from using the law to deport more Venezuelans to the El Salvador prison.
• The administration also is resisting a court order to facilitate the release of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia from that same prison, after his accidental deportation.
• Other court fights involve the deportations of pro-Palestinian demonstrators Mahmoud Khalil, Moshen Madawi, and Rumeysa Ozturk. Only the former remains incarcerated.

The intrigue: Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have stressed that leaving the country voluntarily could eventually lead to a pathway to return to the U.S. legally.

• Trump has said he wanted to create a system for "great" people to leave and legally return to the U.S.
• That message also has been part of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign by Noem.
• "If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home," Noem said in a statement to Axios. "If you don't, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation and will never allowed to return. ... Self-deport NOW and preserve your opportunity to potentially return the legal, right way."

Audio obtained by Axios of former President Biden's October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur shows Biden acknowledging that he might have wanted to keep a classified document about Afghanistan "just for posterity's sake."

Why it matters: That admission of intent technically could have exposed Biden to criminal charges.

• Biden's personal attorney Bob Bauer soon intervened in the conversation: "I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose of a clean record, getting into speculative areas...He does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the vice presidency."

Zoom out: In the conversation, Biden initially said he didn't recall how he retained possession of the document.

• "Your answer is that you don't know," Bauer instructed the president at one point.
• But then deputy special counsel Marc Krickbaum noted that journalists had written about the document, and he asked whether Biden had intended to keep it because of its historical value, prompting Biden to say, "I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity's sake"

Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said in a statement: "The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public."

Read the excerpted transcript of the exchange:

Part 1:

Marc Krickbaum: Was this memo, Mr. President, was this something that you consciously kept after your term as Vice President? Is this something that you wanted to hold onto?

President Biden: I don't recall whether I — did I have this? Was this in my possession, this memo?

Krickbaum: Yes. To give you some context for this, Mr. President, it was found in the front of this notebook that's on the first page, and the notebook was found in the library at the lake house, in one of the drawers in the cabinet.

Biden: OK.

Bob Bauer (Biden's personal attorney): But your answer is that you don't know.

Biden: I don't recall how it got back — I mean, I don't recall how it got back in the book, because I sent it to the President [Obama] and I gave it to the president. And this looks like the original. I don't think there ' s maybe there was a copy made, but I don't think so.

Krickbaum: It was faxed. Just to give you some more context.

Biden: Oh, OK, that's why.

Krickbaum: Yeah, yeah.

Biden: Alright. Now I got it. I wasn't sure how it got — how I whether I gave handed it to the President. It was faxed to the President, which I have the copy.

Krickbaum: Right.

Biden: OK.

Krickbaum: You had the original.

Biden: Yeah, I had the original and I just put it in the book and that was it.

Krickbaum: OK. Were you aware that you had kept it after your term as Vice President? Did you know that you had it?

Biden: I, I, I, I don't know that I knew, but it wouldn't have it wasn't something I would have stopped to think about.

Krickbaum: The reason I ask is it's been written about. Bob Woodward wrote about it in one of his books. Jules Witcover wrote about it in his biography of you. So that's the reason I ask is if it was something that you wanted to hang onto because it was going to be the subject of reporting or history.

Biden: I don't know if it was going to be the subject of reporting, but I wanted to hang — I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity's sake. I mean, this was my position on Afghanistan.

Part 2:

Biden: I — I've been of the view, from a historical standpoint, that there are certain points in history, world history, where fundamental things change, usually technology. For example, without Gutenberg's printing press, Europe would be a very different place. Literally a different place, because the country would not have known what was happening in other countries — other parts of the country. You know, think about a stupid idea, a notion. Nixon probably would have been President where he used the television where he's sweating — I mean, sincerely. He was sweating so profusely in that debate, a lot of people thought he won the debate, but he lost the debate because of his demeanor. The — so there's a lot of things that I think are fundamentally changing how — international societies function. And they relate a lot to technology. And one of the things that I was of the view, that a lot has changed in terms of everything from the Internet to the way in which we communicate with one another, to — that has fundamentally altered the ability — I've had this discussion with the press …

Krickbaum: Mr. President, I'm sorry to interrupt you …

Biden: No, I ' m sorry. That's why I wanted it.

Bauer: Marc, just really quickly, I promise it'll be brief. I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose of a clean record, getting into speculative areas. When the President responded and said, 'I don't recall intending to keep this memo,' you then said well, you know, might you have thought it was important to keep it, or whatever. And [Biden] said well I guess, I could have. His recollection as I understand it is, he does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the Vice Presidency. And I want that to be — I want these … questions to be as clearly answered and recorded on the transcript as possible.

Krickbaum: I think we should take a break at this point.

Laufman: Oh, come on. Come on.

Go deeper — Exclusive: Prosecutor's audio shows Biden's memory lapses

• Listen to the full Biden-Hur interview

Audio obtained by Axios of former President Biden's October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur shows Biden struggling to find the right words and dates when recounting the time of his son Beau's death in 2015.

• At one point he asks, "Was it 2015 he had died?"

Why it matters: After Hur's report came out in early 2024, Biden was livid at the suggestion that he had forgotten when his son died: "How in the hell dare he raise that?"

• In fact, the audio and transcript show that Biden brought up Beau on his own.
• The exchange became a centerpiece in Hur's 2024 report that concluded a jury likely wouldn't convict Biden of mishandling classified documents because it probably would view him as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said in a statement: "The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public."

Read the full transcript of the exchange:

Robert Hur: So during this time when you were living at Chain Bridge Road and there were documents relating to the Penn Biden Center, or the Biden Institute, or the Cancer Moonshot, or your book, where did you keep papers that related to those things that you were actively working on?

President Biden: Well, um … I, I, I, I, I don't know. This is, what, 2017, 2018, that area?

Hur: Yes, sir.

Biden: Remember, in this timeframe, my son is either been deployed or is dying, and, and so it was and by the way, there were still a lot of people at the time when I got out of the Senate that were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president. I'm not — and not a mean thing to say. He just thought that she [Hillary Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did. And so I hadn't, I hadn't, at this point — even though I'm at Penn, I hadn't walked away from the idea that I may run for office again. But if I ran again, I'd be running for president. And, and so what was happening, though — what month did Beau die? Oh, God, May 30th.

Rachel Cotton (Biden White House counsel): 2015.

Unidentified male speaker: 2015.

Biden: Was it 2015 he had died?

Unidentified male spaker: It was May of 2015.

Biden: It was 2015.

Bob Bauer (Biden's personal attorney): Or I'm not sure the month, sir, but I think that was the year.

Marc Krickbaum (deputy special counsel): That ' s right, Mr. President. I …

Biden: And what's happened in the meantime is that as — and Trump gets elected in November of 2017?

Unidentified male speaker: 2016.

Unidentified male speaker: '16.

Biden: '16, 2016. Alright, so — why do I have 2017 here?

Ed Siskel (Biden White House counsel): That's when you left office, January of 2017.

Biden: Yeah, OK. But that's when Trump gets sworn in then, January.

Siskel: Right.

Bauer: Right, correct.

Biden: OK, yeah. And in 2017, Beau had passed and — this is personal — the genesis of the book and the title "Promise Me, Dad," was a — I know you're all … close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was like my right arm and Hunt was my left. These guys were a year and a day apart and they could finish each other's sentences, and Beau I used to go home on the train, and in the period that I was still in the Senate — anyway.

There was pressure — not pressure. Beau knew how much I adored him, and I know this sounds — maybe this sounds so everybody knew how close we were. There was not anybody in the world who wondered whether or not — anyway. And so…

Hur: Sir, I'm wondering if this is a good time to take a break briefly. Would that be ….

Biden: No, I — let me just keep going to get it done.

Go deeper — Exclusive: Prosecutor's audio shows Biden's memory lapses

• Listen to the full Biden-Hur interview

Axios obtained the recordings of former President Biden's interviews with special counsel Robert Hur — held over two sessions on Oct. 8 and 9, 2023 — that Biden's White House had refused to release last year.

Why it matters: The audio from two hours-long sessions appear to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Key moments from the interviews include moments when Biden:

Struggles to find the right words and dates when recounting the time of his son Beau's death

Acknowledges he might have wanted to keep classified document "just for posterity's sake"

Describes trip to Mongolia on tangent when asked about classified documents

Jokes "I'm a young man" at outset of the interviews

Gives inconsistent answer on whether he gave instructions on where to find classified documents in his home

Go deeper — Exclusive: Prosecutor's audio shows Biden's memory lapses

Amid long, uncomfortable pauses, Joe Biden struggled to recall when his son died, when he left office as vice president, what year Donald Trump was elected or why he had classified documents he shouldn't have had, according to audio Axios obtained of his October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur.

Why it matters: The newly released recordings of Biden having trouble recalling such details — while occasionally slurring words and muttering — shed light on why his White House refused to release the recordings last year, as questions mounted about his mental acuity.

• The audio also appears to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
• Partly based on that determination, Hur decided not to prosecute Biden for improper possession of classified documents, angering Republicans because Trump was facing charges in his own classified document scandal then.
• Democrats and Biden's White House blasted Hur for his observations about Biden. They repeatedly insisted he was "sharp" and that Hur was politically motivated. But the audio from the five-plus hours of interviews indicates he and co-counsel Marc Krickbaum were respectful and friendly.

The big picture: The audio surfaces as Democrats and the national media are grappling with the legacy of Biden's White House and campaign hiding his decline as he ran for another four-year term at age 81.

• Democratic leaders have struggled this week to respond to reports about a new book on that topic — "Original Sin," by Axios' Alex Thompson and CNN's Jake Tapper — that will be released Tuesday.
• The audio — from two three-hour sessions on Oct. 8 and 9, 2023 — adds voice and dimension to the transcripts of the interviews that the Justice Department made available in the weeks after Hur's report was released Feb. 8, 2024.
• Biden's White House refused to release the recordings last year, arguing they were protected "law enforcement materials" and that Republicans only wanted "to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes."

Between the lines: The audio shows what the transcript lacks — the president's dry-whisper voice and the long silences as he struggles to find the right words or dates. Those often were supplied by his attorneys, who acted as caretakers of his memory.

• The attorneys had to remind Biden the year his son Beau died (2015) and when Trump was first elected (2016).
• Also captured on the audio: the tick-tock of a grandfather clock in the White House's Map Room, where the interviews took place. It adds a metronomic measurement of Biden's halting speech — especially as he describes his book, Promise Me, Dad, about Beau's death from brain cancer at 46.

This is how that part of the interview is recounted in the transcript: Biden says, "OK, yeah. In 2017, Beau had passed and — this is personal — the genesis of the book and the title Promise Me, Dad, was a — I know you're all close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was like my right arm and Hunt was my left."

• But here's what it sounded like in the quiet room where the dead air between Biden's pauses is emphasized by the tick-tock of the clock:

"Okay, yeah … "

• Tick.

"... Beau had passed and …"

• Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick.

"... this is personal …"

• Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick.

"... the genesis … "

• Tick.

"...of the book and the title Promise Me, Dad, was a …"

• Tick. Tock. Tick.

"... I know you're all close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was .."

• Tick. Tock.

"...like my right arm and Hunt was my left."

Reality check: While Biden had clear memory lapses and needed assistance at times (with words such as "fax machine" and "poster board"), overall he was engaged in the interview.

• He cracked jokes and made humorous asides, and was able to respond to the general gist of the questions. But he had little memory of how he came to have classified documents after he left office as vice president.
• On Oct. 8 — the first day of the interview and the day after Hamas' attack on Israel — Biden often was slow and forgetful of basic facts.
• That day, it took Hur more than two hours to clearly determine how the documents could have ended up in various personal desks and file cabinets after Biden left office. That was because Biden kept veering into other subjects.
• On Oct. 9, however, Biden sounded much more engaged and vigorous.

Zoom in: Throughout his testimony, Biden sounded more like a nostalgic, grandfatherly storyteller than a potential defendant who could be accused of hoarding secret papers. He waxed on about:

• How then-President Obama in 2016 didn't want Biden to run for president out of the belief that Hillary Clinton "had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did."
• The walnut wood and seven different kinds of molding in refurbished rooms of his home.
• The Corvette he drove with comedian Jay Leno.
• The technological influence Gutenberg's printing press had on Europe.
• The visual impact of Richard Nixon sweating on TV during his 1960 debate with John Kennedy.
• And the time he shot a bow and arrow in Mongolia.

"Am I making any sense to you?" Biden asked at one point while discussing the classification process for sensitive documents.

Though amiable, the interview became somewhat tense when Biden attorney Bob Bauer chastised prosecutor Krickbaum for leading Biden to consider changing his story about why he kept a classified document about Afghanistan.

• "Your answer is that you don't know," Bauer instructed the president at one point.
• But then Krickbaum noted that journalists had written about the document, and he asked if Biden intended to keep it because of its historical value.
• "I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity's sake," Biden acknowledged.

That admission of intent technically could have exposed Biden to criminal charges, and Bauer soon interjected: "I just really would like to avoid, for the purpose of a clean record, getting into speculative areas.… He does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the vice presidency."

• Krickbaum then called for a break.

In another instance, Krickbaum noted that DOJ had a copy of a recording made by Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter of Promise Me, Dad, whom Biden told in 2017, "I just found all the classified stuff downstairs."

• "So you can imagine we are curious what you meant when you said, 'I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.' " Krickbaum told Biden.
• "I don't remember," Biden responded. "And I'm not supposed to speculate, right?
• "Correct," said Bauer, Biden's attorney.
• "So — OK, well, I don't remember and it may have been — I just don't remember," Biden said.
• White House counsel Ed Siskel and his deputy, Rachel Cotton, also stepped in occasionally when the then-president was searching for words or dates.

Zoom out: Hur's report concluded that this evidence wasn't enough to persuade a jury to convict Biden — especially given how cooperative Biden had been (unlike Trump in his case) and how likable and forgetful Biden was.

• "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president, well into his 80s — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness," Hur concluded.
• Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., promptly accused Biden of being unfit to be president if he weren't fit enough for trial.

Biden's defenders included then-Vice President Harris, who blasted Hur's report and called his comments about Biden's age "gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate."

• "The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated —gratuitous," Harris said then. ".... We should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw."

What they're saying: Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully told Axios: "The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public."

• Bauer, Siskel, and Hur did not respond to requests for comment.

President Trump leaves for the Gulf on Monday and is aiming to return home with $1 trillion worth of deals and investment pledges, according to two current and former U.S. officials and two Arab officials.

Why it matters: Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE is almost all about money. "His regional agenda is business, business and business," one Arab official said.

• The geopolitical agenda is secondary. While Trump had made clear he wants a Saudi-Israel normalization deal, the president and his aides know it's currently not in the cards, mainly due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

The big picture: Trump made Saudi Arabia the first foreign trip of his first term, and would have again if not for Pope Francis' funeral.

• One reason: Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) pledged $600 billion in investments in the U.S. over the next four years right after Trump took office.
• "Last time they put up $450 billion," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in March. "But this time they have gotten richer. We have all gotten older. So I said 'I will go if you pay $1 trillion to American companies over four years,' and they agreed to do that."
• The deals signed in Saudi Arabia will include at least $100 billion in military sales as well as big energy and minerals deals.

Breaking it down: The Qataris are also expected to announce $200-300 billion in deals and investments, including a huge commercial aircraft deal with Boeing and a $2 billion deal to purchase MQ-9 Reaper drones, a source with knowledge of the issue said.

• The Qataris are also considering giving Trump a gift: A 747 jumbo jet to serve temporarily as Air Force One. Qatar's Ministry of Defense and the Pentagon are discussing the issue, which is also under legal review. Trump wrote on his Truth Social that it would be "a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE."
• The UAE already declared in March that it would invest $1.4 trillion in the U.S. over the next decade.

Between the lines: Trump clearly sees the Gulf as a place where there's big money to be made, for the U.S. and for businesses like his.

• The Trump Organization announced a new luxury real estate deal in Qatar just two weeks before the trip, and also has projects in Jeddah, Dubai and Oman.
• Many of Trump's close associates also do business in the region.

Reality check: While the announcements Trump unveils may add up to $1 trillion, it's not clear whether a trillion in new spending will actually materialize.

Zoom in: One particular focus of the trip will be investments in AI and tech.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be traveling to the Gulf during Trump's trip, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the issue said. OpenAI declined to comment.
• A host of tech leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, are slated to speak Tuesday at a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh.

What to watch: The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the countries lobbying hard to gain access to advanced AI chips exported from the U.S.

• The Trump administration last week rescinded a Biden-era rule that aimed to block China's access to advanced chips via third parties by capping how many could be exported to most countries.
• The Trump administration has said it will replace it with a new rule, leaving open the question of whether the Gulf states will face any restrictions.

Go deeper: Hamas to release Israeli-American hostage as a gesture to Trump

The U.S. and Qatar were bargaining over the price for a "palace in the sky" Boeing 747-8 to be used as the new Air Force One — and Qatar "came back and said: 'We'll just gift it. It's OK,'" a top administration source tells Axios.

• "And it's gifted to the people of the United States, gifted to the Department of Defense," the source added. "And it's supposed to be ready by the end of the year."

Why it matters: Qatar's royal family plans to donate the luxury jumbo jet to the Defense Department, then it'll be transferred to President Trump's presidential library when he leaves office — one of the biggest foreign gifts ever given to the U.S., ABC News scooped and the N.Y. Times confirmed.

• Democrats say that such a transfer would have to be approved by Congress.
• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws."

Behind the scenes: The White House was looking for a quick successor to the specially configured Boeing 747-200Bs that are the iconic presidential aircraft, which have been in service 30+ years. (The radio call sign is "Air Force One" for any Air Force plane with the president aboard.) Two replacements are being built by Boeing but are long delayed.

• The first of the current planes was delivered in 1990. One or the other is frequently out for maintenance, and a replacement from Boeing isn't expected until at least 2027.
• "So that's what we got," the source said. "And nobody's happy with that. It isn't Donald Trump being a diva. Nobody's happy with that."

The backstory: "So when they were searching for a plane," the source continued, "the emir of Qatar raised his hand and said: 'I got a plane for sale.' And so we've toured it. It came to Palm Beach [in February, shown in the photo above]. We toured it. It's perfect in every way because it was designed for a head of state."

• "So it's got all the right configurations," the source continued. "It's a little bit bigger. It's got two floors." (The Air Force One planes currently also have two floors, but the top is mostly avionics.)
• "This has a usable area and two bedrooms, not one. They're small, but it's perfect for a head of state."

What they're saying: Qatar's media attaché to the U.S., Ali Al-Ansari, said in a statement to Axios the "possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar's Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made."

Qatar's plane is said to be parked in San Antonio. The emir of Qatar is a buddy of Steve Witkoff, U.S. special presidential envoy to the Middle East.

• "That's how they happened to know we were looking for a plane," the source said.

Go deeper ... "Scoop: Dem seeks probe into reports Qatar plans to gift plane to Trump," by Axios' Andrew Solender.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is planning a White House sitdown with President Trump to get on the same page for supporting the best Republican candidate in the swing state's 2026 Senate race, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: The race for the seat, held by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, will be one of the nation's most competitive and most expensive because it's one of the best pickup opportunities for the GOP in a Trump-won state.

• Republicans only have a three-seat advantage in the 100-member U.S. Senate.

The big picture: Kemp and Trump had a falling out in 2020 —after which the GOP lost both of its Peach State Senate seats — and only made peace last year. Neither wants a repeat. So Kemp in the coming weeks is planning to fly up to meet the president to get on the same page.

• "The president, like the governor, wants someone who can win," said a White House adviser.

The intrigue: In both the White House and the governor's mansion, there's concern with polling that shows firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would win a Republican primary but lose to Ossoff. One poll conducted by a Republican group shows her getting "smoked," said one person who had reviewed the numbers.

• "The president loves MTG. He doesn't love her chances in a general," the Trump adviser said.
• Greene has not ruled out a race, but those familiar with her thinking say she's aware of the perception that she could not win a general election. They also note she's a more savvy operator than publicly perceived and knows how to read a poll.

🔫 The race unofficially began Thursday morning when Republican Rep. Buddy Carter — who has been eyeing a Senate bid for years, according to someone who has spoken to him — announced his bid for the office. Trump and Kemp insiders say Carter's not a preferred candidate.

Three names have been in circulation the most in the White House and this weekend at the governor's Sea Island retreat on the Georgia coast:

1. Rep. Brian Jack. A longtime Trump adviser, Jack won his congressional seat last year and has signaled that he'd prefer to keep it. Many see him as being on the leadership track, and he could run the National Republican Congressional Committee next cycle. But if Trump demands he run, he'll likely do it.
2. Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler. A former senator who lost her race in 2021 to Sen. Raphael Warnock, Loeffler is another Trump favorite because she knows what the job entails and she has run statewide before. But an adviser said she would prefer to run for governor.
3. Rep. Mike Collins. He has been a Trump supporter since 2016 and sponsored the Laken Riley Act, cracking down on undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes. It was the first act Trump signed into law this year. Collins has been traveling outside his district to drum up support and hosted a political event this past weekend that drew hundreds of people.
4. Other potential GOP candidates include Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (a Trump foe), state Insurance Commissioner John King and Rep. Rich McCormick. Kemp may also advocate for a state legislator.

The early default favorite is Collins:

• "He lines up on the Venn diagram," said a top Georgia Republican strategist. "He's at every [Trump] rally. He's a trucker, so he has a blue-collar business background and would be the firebrand, workhorse candidate."

Zoom in: Kemp, who declined to run for Senate, is keenly focused on making sure his party fields a strong top-of-the-ticket candidate so that it makes it easier for Republican state legislators to win their races down ballot.

• The GOP has a 10-seat majority in the state House, but seven of those seats are held by Republicans in districts Trump lost or he only won by a single point.
• "If we have a candidate who loses by more than 6 points statewide, it can drag everyone down and we lose the House," said a Republican who has discussed the dynamics and upcoming White House trip with Kemp.

Zoom out: There's a keen awareness in Kemp's orbit of the need to balance conservatism with pragmatic electability, which helped Kemp win his 2022 reelection at the same time Warnock was elected to a full Senate term.

• "Whoever the nominee is has to be able to win Kemp-Warnock voters and the Buckhead wine moms," the Georgia Republican strategist said.
• This should be obvious to people, but you can't slap an R next to your name and win statewide anymore against an incumbent. You have to be a good candidate, raise money, tell a story and establish a brand that is more Georgia Republican than D.C. Republican."

President Trump picked Fox News host Jeanine Pirro for interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., hours after pulling the nomination of Ed Martin, the president confirmed on Truth Social Thursday evening.

• The job is Pirro's to have if she wants it, a senior administration official told Axios. ABC first reported she was being seriously considered.

Why it matters: Pirro is a longtime Trump ally who would replace Martin, a MAGA true believer whose leniency toward Jan. 6 Capitol rioters lost him key Republican support in the Senate.

The latest: In announcing his selection, Trump paid tribute to Pirro's background as assistant district attorney for Westchester County, New York, county judge and district attorney and noted she was the first woman to be elected to those positions.

• "During her time in office, Jeanine was a powerful crusader for victims of crime. Her establishment of the Domestic Violence Bureau in her Prosecutor's Office was the first in the Nation," he said.
• He praised Pirro for excelling "in all ways" and noted her career at Fox News, where she was a vocal supporter of Trump.
• "Jeanine is incredibly well qualified for this position, and is considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York," he added. "She is in a class by herself."

Zoom in: Trump told reporters Thursday morning in the Oval Office that Martin "wasn't getting the support" and expressed disappointment in this.

• "Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in some capacity."
• The final blow came from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Tuesday: "I have no tolerance for anybody who entered the building on Jan. 6," he told reporters on Tuesday.
• A fire-breathing conservative podcaster, Martin was already on thin ice with the Senate Judiciary Committee for failing to originally disclose appearances on Russian state media.
• Pirro is a good friend of both Trump's and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The big picture: Martin served as Trump's attack dog during a controversial interim appointment, demoting prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, pursuing critics of Elon Musk's DOGE, and threatening Wikipedia over what he called biased "propaganda."

• The U.S. Attorney for D.C. is a big office that prosecutes both white collar and national security investigations in D.C. — and street-level violent crime locally.
• Martin vowed to "Make D.C. Safe Again" and introduced himself to residents at community meetings, promising to pursue illegal guns. "A lot of people don't feel safe," he recently told the Washington Informer.
• Last month, his office charged a 49-year-old man for allegedly defacing multiple Tesla cars. "The so-called 'Tesla Takedown' is domestic terrorism, and my team is taking it on front and center," Martin announced.
• One of his latest targets was a medical marijuana shop located near schools.

Between the lines: MAGA influencers like Charlie Kirk had unloaded on Tillis for his opposition, but their efforts to save Martin's nomination fell short.

What's next: Martin will move to the Justice Department and take up the position of "Director of the Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Pardon Attorney," Trump said in a later Truth Social post.

• "In these highly important roles, Ed will make sure we finally investigate the Weaponization of our Government under the Biden Regime, and provide much needed Justice for its victims," Trump added.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with more comment from President Trump and additional context.

Not that long ago, Ron DeSantis looked like the future of MAGA, the iron-fisted ruler of Florida politics who was set up for a White House run.

• Now the Republican governor faces potential political obscurity, unable to control legislators in his own party who are calling for a federal investigation of his wife's charity.

Why it matters: Nothing exemplifies DeSantis' striking loss of mojo in Tallahassee like the scandal surrounding Hope Florida, the state-backed charity of First Lady Casey DeSantis, who's been eyeing a bid to succeed her husband as governor.

• The charity received $10 million in secret settlement money from a Medicaid provider just days before the charity sent that same amount to two political groups favored by the DeSantises.
• House Republicans and independent observers allege that the arrangement amounted to an illegal siphoning of Medicaid funds.
• The governor has denied wrongdoing and accused fellow Republicans of a "bogus" political smear.

The big picture: The high-level Republican drama, dysfunction, name-calling and accusations in Tallahassee are likely to reverberate in next year's state elections.

• Polling suggests the scandal has hurt Casey DeSantis, who's been weighing a 2026 campaign to follow her term-limited husband as governor. Hope Florida was supposed to be central to her political platform.
• Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, up for reelection next year, also has been accused of wrongdoing by other Republicans. He was Ron DeSantis' chief of staff last year and ran an anti-marijuana political group that may have benefited from the alleged Medicaid switcheroo.
• Uthmeier also denies wrongdoing and has accused a critic of being a stooge for the marijuana industry.

Zoom in: Ron DeSantis' stumble began with his failed presidential primary bid against Donald Trump last year. DeSantis' vindictive and pugilistic style of politics left him further isolated in the Florida Capitol.

• "Be careful how you treat people on the way up because you may encounter the same people on the way down," said Curt Anderson, veteran consultant and top adviser to DeSantis' predecessor, Rick Scott, who's now a U.S. senator and has had a strained relationship with the governor.
• "This is an amazing story," Anderson said. "... You see falls in politics, but not like this. It's stark. It's fast. It's a made-for-TV movie. Let's not forget: He was ahead of Trump in polling in 2022 and would've run against [President Biden or Vice President Harris] and won."

Whether DeSantis would have won the White House in 2024 is a question for the ages. Trump aside, the campaign exposed one of DeSantis's biggest weaknesses: his reluctance to build alliances and establish personal connections.

• "There was a time when every Republican in the nation wanted to have a beer with Ron DeSantis," said one Republican who still likes him. "The problem is that the governor didn't act like he wanted to have a beer with them, and it showed."

DeSantis had risen to Republican stardom with his laissez-faire approach to COVID restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Florida's Legislature kowtowed to him repeatedly.

• That came to a screeching halt this year, when DeSantis dragged lawmakers into a special session on immigration that many felt was needless political peacocking by the governor.
• DeSantis didn't get his way, thwarted largely by new House Speaker Daniel Perez, whose chamber has led the way in investigating Hope Florida.
• The multiple special sessions and acrimony in the state Capitol played a role in the Legislature's regular 60-day session not ending on time last Friday, despite Republicans holding super majorities in both the House and Senate.

The intrigue: The Hope Florida scandal's damage to Casey DeSantis was evident in a voter survey shared with Axios by a business group that examined the state of play in Florida politics:

• In January — before her charity was targeted by the House investigation — Casey DeSantis led U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds by 4 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup for governor. A recent survey had her trailing Donalds by 5 points — a 9-point swing.
• When voters were told that Donalds had been endorsed by President Trump, Donalds' lead jumped to 28 points in the survey.

Zoom out: Casey DeSantis still may run for governor, but people familiar with her thinking say the Hope Florida controversy has been a wake-up call.

• "She doesn't have the stomach or the temperament for this," said one Republican who has discussed a campaign with her.
• Another disagreed: "She has time. She's popular. The DeSantis brand is strong."
• "He's the most followed and accomplished governor in the country," DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said, criticizing media coverage of "bogus intrigue."
• Ron DeSantis fumed about "bogus narratives" when he was heckled about Hope Florida at a recent news conference on the snapper fishing season.

What's next: Political observers and insiders aren't sure about DeSantis' future as he heads into his lame-duck year without the clear prospect of an appointment in Trump's administration that some allies have hoped for.

• "Ron DeSantis went from Rupert Murdoch and every Republican billionaire telling him he could be president to sniping at hecklers at a fish shack in Destin," said former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a one-time DeSantis ally turned critic who now hosts a talk show on One America News Network.
• "It's quite a fall."

President Trump plans to announce Monday that Washington, D.C., will host the 2027 NFL Draft, with the aim of holding it on the National Mall, Axios has learned.

• The announcement is expected to be made with National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris at the White House, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios.

Driving the news: It comes days after the Commanders and D.C. officials announced a plan to bring the team back to the city with a new domed stadium on the site of the old RFK Stadium.

• The team has played in suburban Prince George's County, Maryland, for nearly three decades at a stadium built by former team owner Jack Kent Cooke.

Zoom in: The new stadium at the old RFK site is tentatively scheduled to open in 2030, but needs to be approved by the D.C. Council.

• It would be part of a massive $3.7 billion redevelopment project that would include the 65,00-seat domed stadium, 6,000 homes and an entertainment district.
• The project was unveiled by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the team last week. The Commanders would pay $2.7 billion for the stadium, with $1 billion in taxpayer dollars used to build infrastructure on the site.
• Bowser wants the D.C. Council to approve the project by July 15. The council's approval isn't assured — Council Chair Phil Mendelson is deeply skeptical of using public funds for the project.

The intrigue: If the D.C. Council kills the project, the Trump administration hypothetically could pick it up.

• Congress gave the District long-term authority over the federally owned RFK site last December. It could retake it if Trump were to become personally invested in getting a stadium done.

Trump has embraced the NFL to help motivate his political base and has praised the plan to have Washington's team return to its roots in the city.

• He has celebrated the stadium plan on social media, saying "the new Stadium Deal is a HUGE WIN for Washington, D.C."

Zoom out: The NFL has made a spectacle of its three-day player draft in recent years, rotating the event among cities where its teams are based.

• This year's draft was in Green Bay, Wis., and next year's will begin on April 23 in Pittsburgh.

President Trump's decision to make Secretary of State Marco Rubio the acting national security adviser showed the MAGA faithful that his former rival is now among his most trusted advisers.

Why it matters: Rubio's elevation caps a years-long evolution for the former Florida senator, from a traditional Reagan-era conservative to a Trump Republican. But it's not just about politics and policy.

• "Marco can bro out with the POTUS. They talk UFC. They talk sports," a White House insider told Axios, comparing the secretary's good relationship to the president with that of Vice President Vance, a Rubio ally.

The intrigue: A faction of old-line Trump loyalists still deride Rubio as a "neo con," and have waged a relentless behind-the-scenes war against him to try to persuade reporters that Rubio has a shaky hold on power in the Cabinet.

• Thursday's move by Trump put the lie to that.

As secretary of state and acting national security adviser, Rubio now has powers no U.S. official has held since Henry Kissinger, who held both posts full-time under President Nixon.

• Rubio, Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff are like gold to a president known for liking gilded things. He keeps piling work on him.
• "When I have a problem, he has answers. He can fix things," Trump said of Rubio, according to an adviser.

Zoom in: A secret to Rubio's success with Trump is his willingness to make frequent appearances on Sunday shows, where he defends the administration's controversial immigration policies and goes on offense.

• "Rubio hits it out of the park consistently," a White House adviser said.
• "He's not just on message — he makes the message. There's no flubs. He's great on TV and that's what the boss likes," said another White House adviser.

Zoom out: Rubio now wears four hats: secretary of state, acting national security adviser, USAID acting administrator and interim leader of the National Archives. And those are just his formal titles.

• "The president pulls him in for everything," said another White House official. "When Trump likes you and trusts you, he loads you up. Marco is loaded up."
• "Marco, what do you think about tariffs?" Trump asked out of the blue on one occasion, the source recalled.
• Rubio tried to avoid giving his opinion (which the source wouldn't disclose) but ultimately weighed in.

Inside the room: When Trump began considering replacements for then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz after Signalgate, he was hesitant to make any changes because he didn't want to give his critics a win. But inside the White House, the wheels were in motion to replace Waltz.

• One problem: Trump didn't have an obvious replacement.
• "Go figure it out," he instructed his top aides.
• Chief of Staff Susie Wiles "eventually came back with Marco's name, and Trump loved the idea," said one official involved in the talks.

Driving the news: Thursday's announcement was hastened when journalist Mark Halperin scooped that Waltz was on his way out.

• "We woke up Thursday morning and the Halperin thing had gone on fire. It wasn't just a blaze," a senior adviser said. "We couldn't put it out. So we just went with it and made it happen."
• In the hours that followed, Trump's team quickly took Waltz off his national security post and found him a landing spot: UN ambassador.

Outside the room: Rubio has steadily sidled up to MAGA media. He made sure to reserve time for an interview with the president's son Donald Trump Jr., for his "Triggered" podcast last month.

• Rubio also granted an interview to Mike Benz, another Trump-friendly podcaster.
• In an X post that aligned with MAGA hearts, Rubio on Friday defended Germany's AfD, describing the far-right party as "popular" and the immigration policies of Germany's mainstream parties as "truly extremist." Vance and Elon Musk have praised the AfD, which Germany's more moderate parties treat as an extremist organization and refuse to work with.
• Rubio also has a close working relationship with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who criticized then-Sen. Rubio in 2013 for his involvement in the "Gang of Eight" bipartisan immigration reform effort.

Flashback: Rubio, who lost out to Vance to be Trump's VP, had a close working relationship with Trump during the president's first term. He helped craft Trump's Cuba restrictions and advised him on events in the Western Hemisphere.

• Before that, they were bitter rivals in the 2016 presidential campaign.
• Trump belittled Rubio then as "Little Marco." Now he expresses a measure of fond jealousy that Rubio, running for Senate in 2016 after dropping his presidential bid, got more votes in Florida than Trump on the same ballot.
• "Trump loves converting former foes who become allies," an outside White House adviser said.

What's next: Insiders say Trump's in no rush to replace Rubio as acting national security adviser. The president sees him as a capable manager who's overseen the gutting of USAID and the downsizing of the State Department.

• More staff reductions and firings are likely on the way.
• Rubio allies say there's an advantage to a secretary of state controlling the national security apparatus because it reduces inter-agency foreign policy fights that can be a drag on an administration.

As for Rubio? "He's deathly afraid of getting another title and more responsibility," a longtime ally joked.

President Trump soured on Mike Waltz as his national security adviser for multiple reasons. But ultimately it came down to vibes when he replaced Waltz with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who'll temporarily do both jobs.

Why it matters: The boot for Waltz — two days after the media circus on Day 100 — was this term's first big shakeup. It showed how responsive Trump remains to optics, even while feeling as empowered as ever.

How it happened: In Trump's mind, Signalgate was the first time he was unable to control the narrative or win the day, top advisers tell Axios.

• Waltz came to symbolize Trump's first obstacle. Momentum is so important to the president that he emphasized the concept in his advice last night to University of Alabama graduates.
• Waltz also hadn't collaborated well with others in the White House. (Go deeper.)

It was Waltz who added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a thread in the messaging app Signal where attack plans were discussed. The embarrassing debacle embittered Trump.

• "He just came to look at Waltz like he was bad luck, bad news," a White House official familiar with Trump's thinking told Axios. "There was nothing Mike could do at that point."

As criticism rose about tariffs, Trump would occasionally return to fuming about Waltz — who had nothing to do with that policy.

• Immediately after the Signal story broke, Trump wanted to fire Waltz but held off, Axios reported at the time.

Behind the scenes: Trump was ready to fire Waltz or force him out. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles advocated for the soft landing of ambassador to the UN — an open role after Trump pulled the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

• Exactly what triggered Trump's first big personnel shakeup of the term was unknown even to some close aides. But Trump makes decisions by his gut.

What's next: Waltz now will have to undergo Senate confirmation for UN ambassador — meaning a raw reliving of questions about the national security team's use of Signal.

Mike Waltz has been a dead man walking in the White House for the past month, and the outgoing national security adviser started to act like it, Trump administration sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: "Signalgate" badly damaged Waltz, but it wasn't his only problem. He got on the wrong side of everyone from conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

• After a flood of reports that Waltz was being pushed out, President Trump confirmed the news but announced he was nominating him for a new role outside of Washington: UN ambassador.

Behind the scenes: Waltz didn't work as well with other Cabinet and White House officials as was hoped.

• On a trip to Greenland in March, Vice President Vance counseled him about "working more collaboratively," a senior White House official told Axios at the time.
• The former congressman and Green Beret also treated Wiles with a dismissive attitude, two officials said.
• "He treated her like staff and didn't realize he's the staff, she's the embodiment of the president," one of them said. "Susie is a deeply loyal person and the disrespect was made all the worse because it was disloyal."

Then came Loomer, the pro-Trump conspiracy theorist and social media influencer who has crusaded against what she claims are "disloyal" people and "neocons" who never should have been hired in Trump 2.0.

• In a meeting with Trump a month ago, Loomer urged him to fire some of the staffers Waltz had appointed, and shared an old video of Waltz criticizing Trump years ago.

Friction point: Waltz didn't fire everyone Loomer targeted — including his chief of staff Alex Wong, who is also now on his way out — but he acted like and was a diminished figure in the administration, the sources told Axios.

• "He's like a beaten dog that keeps doing the same trick so he doesn't get beaten again. It's a little sad," the senior White House official said in mid-April.
• "When you stack everything on Waltz, he just couldn't survive. Laura Loomer gets a confirmed kill," an administration adviser familiar with the discussions said.

The intrigue: In recent days, Wiles began collecting names to replace Waltz but kept the process and discussions strictly under wraps.

• For now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will fill in on an interim basis while keeping his current job.
• Trump envoy Steve Witkoff has already been floated in some reports as a permanent pick but isn't interested in the job, a source familiar told Axios.

Between the lines: Waltz, Wong and many of the National Security Council staffers who already departed were on the more hawkish wing within the administration, and were perceived as neocons within the MAGA camp.

• On Iran, Vance and Witkoff favor diplomacy, whereas Waltz was much more open to the idea of military strikes.
• For now, it seems the "restraint" wing has won that argument and is generally in the ascendancy within Trump's national security team.

State of play: Waltz did turn up to work on Thursday, even giving Fox News an interview from the White House grounds around 8am.

• But at 8:35am, the first report that he was about to be pushed out came from Mark Halperin. A flood of similar reports followed.
• Later that morning, Trump held a public event in the Rose Garden —just steps from Waltz's office — in which most of his top team was present, but Waltz was nowhere to be seen. Trump did not mention him in his remarks.
• Trump later announced Waltz's new role on Truth Social, saying Waltz had "worked hard to put our Nation's Interests first."

This story was updated following Trump's announcement that he was nominating Waltz for the UN role.

National security adviser Mike Waltz is changing roles about a month after he inadvertently included a journalist in a Signal chat discussing sensitive details about a strike in Yemen.

Driving the news: After a flood of reports that Waltz was being ousted, President Trump announced he was nominating him for a new role: UN ambassador. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will replace Waltz on an interim basis while keeping his current job.

• Waltz was Trump's fifth national security adviser in just over four years as president, and he lasted less than four months in the role.

Why it matters: "Signalgate" was a big strike against Waltz, but the National Security Council was also embroiled in a power struggle and targeted for internal criticism by Trump allies. Waltz's deputy Alex Wong is expected to depart, and several other senior NSC officials were fired last month.

How it happened: While administration officials argued no classified details were discussed in the Signal messages published by The Atlantic, security experts and lawmakers said Waltz's mix-up sparked massive concerns about the way administration officials share and store secure information.

• Officials in the chat discussed the timing, sequencing and results of March 15 strikes against the Houthi rebels.
• President Trump had previously made clear he did not intend to fire Waltz over the scandal.

Friction point: Signalgate prompted several Democratic lawmakers to call for Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared a timeline of the proposed strikes in the chat, to be fired or resign over the leak.

• Hegseth has faced an extremely tumultuous month since, with several of his closest advisers pushed out and some of them warning the Pentagon had devolved into chaos. Trump has denied any plans to fire Hegseth.
• Mark Halperin was first to report that Waltz was expected to be pushed out.

The intrigue: White House envoy Steve Witkoff has already been floated to replace Waltz on a permanent basis but he is not interested in the job, a source familiar told Axios.

This is a breaking news story and has been updated throughout.

Go deeper: Hegseth's leaked texts: "THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP"

The Trump administration's resolve to prevent Kilmar Abrego Garcia from returning to the U.S. is stiffening amid newly released allegations that he abused his wife on several occasions, according to White House sources and court documents reviewed by Axios.

Why it matters: Garcia's mistaken deportation to a notorious El Salvador prison has become central to the legal and political fight over President Trump's immigration policy and due process for undocumented immigrants.

• The administration has defied a court order to return him to the U.S., calling the ruling judicial overreach that intrudes on Trump's powers to fight terrorism and carry out foreign policy.

Zoom in: Trump's team alleges that Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2012 — was involved with the notorious MS-13 gang, though he's never been charged with a crime.

• Abrego Garcia was denied asylum in the U.S. The evidence for his transfer to a Salvadoran maximum-security prison revolved around his tattoos and clothing, an informant's claim, and his 2019 arrest alongside suspected MS-13 members in Maryland.
• In 2022, Abrego Garcia was stopped in Tennessee for speeding in a vehicle owned by a convicted human smuggler. Eight other people and no luggage were in the car, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
• He was suspected of human smuggling, but wasn't charged, and the FBI told state police to release him, according to the conservative Tennessee Star.

After Abrego Garcia was deported in mid-March, there were reports his wife had complained to police about domestic abuse.

• Unknown to the administration until this week: Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, actually had told local police in Maryland about a total of six instances of alleged abuse from 2019-2021, according to court documents filed when Vasquez Sura sought a protective order. (DHS released the documents Wednesday.)
• Vasquez Sura alleged that Abrego Garcia kicked, shoved, slapped, verbally abused her, detained her against her will and threatened to kill her in a dispute on Aug. 3, 2020.
• Abrego Garcia was never charged. Vasquez Sura now defends him as a good husband and father who's not involved with MS-13, and has been active is calling for the administration to return him to the U.S.

The White House, however, is signaling that it will use Vasquez Sura's old allegations to redefine Abrego Garcia's image as a victim of an overzealous deportation operation.

• "The media continues to call him a victim while ignoring the real victims: the women he battered, the children he terrorized, and the communities he endangered," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
• "Let us be crystal clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia will never be on American streets again."

What they're saying: Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said domestic abuse and human trafficking allegations aren't part of the case about his client's deportation.

• He emphasized that although reports on those incidents are now public, they haven't been entered into the official case filings.
• "If they want to put him on trial for that, they are welcome to bring him back and do so. We'll defend him in court," Sandoval-Moshenberg said in an email.
• Critics of the administration's policy and Abrego Garcia's supporters argue that due process applies to everyone in the U.S. — no matter their background or immigration status — and that he's entitled to have his case heard in court.

Catch up quick: Abrego Garcia's deportation case is unusually complex.

• He was illegally in the U.S. and eligible for deportation, but a judge in 2019 said he shouldn't be deported to El Salvador because he had a reasonable fear he would be hurt or killed by a Central American gang.
• On March 12, Abrego Garcia was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and soon after deported to El Salvador anyway.
• The administration admitted in court filings that the deportation was a mistake.

The intrigue: Trump, the administration and the U.S. Supreme Court have made the case even more confusing.

• On April 10, the high court ruled the administration had to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. But the court stopped short of ordering it to "effectuate" his return to the U.S., and kicked the case back to the lower court.
• On April 14, El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, met with Trump in the White House and told reporters he didn't have the power to "smuggle" Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
• Then, in a Tuesday interview with ABC, Trump said he "could" get Abrego Garcia back.
• On Wednesday, the New York Times reported El Salvador "spurned" a U.S. diplomatic inquiry about freeing Abrego Garcia.

President Trump's advisers are seriously considering the likelihood that he would be impeached again if Democrats take the House next year.

• "I'm certain," Trump's longtime pollster, John McLaughlin, told Axios, echoing others in Trump's orbit.

Why it matters: As the only twice-impeached president, Trump and his team are keenly aware of how much the process can weigh on the White House and grind a president's agenda to a halt.

• Democrats don't control the House now, but they're already signaling that they're eager to drag Trump through another impeachment.
• In a warning shot Monday, Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar introduced seven long-shot articles of impeachment against Trump for how he's dealt with immigration, humanitarian aid and judicial rulings.
• On Friday, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff became the first swing-state senator to signal support for impeaching Trump.

The big picture: The threat of impeachment has added urgency to the Trump administration's push to get as much of his agenda through Congress as possible before the 2026 midterms — especially his plan to extend his 2017 tax cuts.

• The threat of another impeachment also could help Trump's team motivate his fickle base to turn out in elections without him on the ballot.
• McLaughlin said it's a clarion call to House Republicans to set aside their differences and back his economic platform.
• "We need to pass the tax cuts and avoid a recession," McLaughlin said. "That's the high stakes here. We cannot lose the midterms."
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently told conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson that "the real danger here if there were a midterm loss — and I don't think there has to be — you know what's going to happen ... [The] Democratic House is going to go immediately to impeachment for something."

Zoom in: Democrats are under pressure from their base to oppose Trump more forcefully, and vowing to impeach Trump likely would help Democrats raise money from grassroots donors and elevate Democratic lawmakers' national profiles.

• But some Democratic leaders and strategists believe they need to moderate in order to peel away middle-of-the-road swing voters who went for Trump in 2024 — and who Democrats need to win elections.

Zoom out: Impeachment was a back-burner issue for Trump's team even before the 2024 election. One senior Trump adviser said last year that the mere threat of a Democrat-led House with a Trump presidency was extra motivation to make sure the House would wind up in GOP hands.

• Unlike Trump's first term, one senior adviser said, some Democrats' push to temper the calls for impeachment might carry the day this time. They "have largely learned their lesson. But it depends on who wins the primaries," the adviser said.
• "Democrats have their own problems," the adviser added, referring to divisions between moderates and progressives who are more inclined to seek impeachment.
• "They have an internal war, and the outcome might do more to define the general election than anything we're doing."

Reality check: There are no standards for impeachment beyond what the House decides is an offense worthy of charges.

• Impeaching a president requires a simple majority vote in the House, but it takes 67 votes in the 100-member Senate to remove a president from office, which has never happened.
• Democrats are only a few seats seats away from retaking the majority in the 435-member House, which would give them the power to start an impeachment inquiry.

An impeachment is disruptive, but it ain't what it used to be to Trump, a second adviser to the president said.

• "Ooh, impeachment," the adviser said mockingly. "They already did it twice and it did nothing."
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt affected a similar nonchalance Monday when asked about impeachment and the articles filed by Thanedar: "Who the hell is this lunatic?"
• Lawyer David Schoen, who defended Trump in his first impeachment over leveraging aid to Ukraine, said he thought the president "would care. It would be yet another effort at derailing the agenda he was elected to pursue."
• However, Schoen added, "I think he also would recognize that while some on the far left would cheer it, it would likely help him politically on the backdrop of the previous two efforts and the other attacks the past four years, which I believe propelled many voters to vote for him."

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday she is resuming the practice of attempting to seize reporters' phone records in order to smoke out leakers.

Why it matters: It is a complete reversal of the policy that former President Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland put in place restricting subpoenas of reporters' news-gathering materials.

• "This conduct is illegal and wrong, and it must stop," Bondi, referring to recent administration leaks, wrote in an internal memo obtained by Axios.
• "I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland's policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks," she wrote.

The big picture: Bondi's announcement comes as her office prepares to investigate at least three suspected leakers referred Wednesday by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.

• "A leaker within the IC sharing information on Israel / Iran with the Washington Post," Gabbard wrote last month on X. She has not specified what stories or journalists merited a leak investigation.

The intrigue: The Defense Department has reeled from a series of embarrassing leaks, including stories that portray Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as paranoid, vain, and careless with sensitive information.

• CBS also reported that the former Fox pundit had a makeup studio installed at the Pentagon.
• Four people have been fired or left the Pentagon as a result of the drama on Hegseth's watch. They have denied wrongdoing.

What they're saying: Bondi wrote that, under her new rules, "the news media 'must answer subpoenas' when authorized at the appropriate level within the Department of Justice."

• She said that subpoenaed news outlets are to be given advanced notice and that the subpoenas will be "narrowly drawn."
• Bondi also wrote that any warrants for reporters' materials "must include protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into potentially protected materials or newsgathering activities."

What to watch: Bondi said that, when considering whether to issue a subpoena, she will try to determine where there are "reasonable grounds to believe that a crime has occurred and the information sought is essential to a successful prosecution."

• She also said that a subpoena will only occur after prosecutors have made "all reasonable attempts to obtain information from alternative sources" and pursued exhaustive negotiations with the reporter.
• Threats to national security, she suggested, would create some exceptions to these policies.

An ABC News reporter first posted on X about the existence of Bondi's memo.