Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Liz Cheney's plan to take on Trump

Pics: This plane landed safely | Thursday, May 13, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Google   Axios AM By Mike Allen ·May 13, 2021 ♻️ Good Thursday morning. Please join Margaret Talev, Nicholas Johnston and me today at 12:30 p.m. ET for a virtual event on clean-energy jobs. Guests include Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Sen. Ron Wyden. Sign up here.     1 big thing: Divided America flocks to partisan brands Data: Harris Poll; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios Americans are leaning into companies that have strong political positions, Axios' Sara Fischer and Danielle Alberti report. The new Axios/Harris 100 poll — an annual survey to gauge the reputation of the most visible brands in the country — shows that brands with clear partisan identifications are becoming more popular. Patagonia got top marks among 42,935 Americans surveyed by Harris: The fleece giant sued the Trump administration in 2017 to protect national monuments, and has an "Activism" tab on its website. REI, Patagonia's outdoor-apparel rival and fellow Trump antagonist, appeared on the list for the first time this year. Several conservative brands performed well: Chick-fil-A moved up in the rankings, from 11 last year to 4 this year. Hobby Lobby appeared on the list for the first time, as did Goya Foods, which became a political lightning rod after the company's CEO praised then-President Trump. All three have positive reputations. Americans listed MyPillow and the Trump Organization among the companies they're most aware of. But both have strongly negative reputations. The Trump Organization is No. 100 on the list of 100. The big picture: This year's reputation rankings reflect a return to normalcy in the business world. The most visible companies are blue-chip brands that consumers relied on heavily throughout the pandemic — Amazon and Walmart, Apple, Facebook, Google, Target, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Nike and McDonald's. "Coronavirus companies" that ranked high last year — including Clorox, Peloton and DoorDash — have all moved off of this year's list. Go deeper: See the interactive list, No. 1-100. Share this story.     2. Liz Cheney's plan to take on Trump Rep. Liz Cheney talks to Savannah Guthrie on "Today." Screenshot: NBC News   Rep. Liz Cheney plans to make her purge the beginning of a new movement, with campaign travel, fundraising and speeches to challenge Donald Trump for ideological dominance of the GOP. Sources in Cheney's camp tell me her message will be the importance of the truth, the need to move past Trump, and a push to articulate conservative policy and substance to combat Democrats. She'll argue to conservatives: If we're ever going to be trusted again to uphold the Constitution, and win again politically, we have to be honest. We can't embrace Trump: We know what he's capable of — and we have to be a party of ideas and vision, not a cult of personality. Cheney is leaving open the possibility of challenging Trump if he runs again in 2024, although she would be the longest of shots. Some longtime Republicans, including a few in House leadership, fear her "new mission will only prod Mr. Trump to run again in 2024 to prove his hold on the party," the N.Y. Times' Jonathan Martin reports. Reality check: It'd be difficult for Cheney to mount a credible campaign as an anti-Trump neocon in a populist, quasi-isolationist party with a large evangelical segment of primary voters.     3. Eid al-Fitr in Middle East A tower in Gaza City, before and after it was destroyed by Israeli air strikes. Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters Weary Palestinians prepared today to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Gaza braced for more Israeli airstrikes and communal violence raged across Israel after weeks of protests and violence in Jerusalem, AP reports. The outburst of violence has reached deeper into Israel than at any time since the 2000 Palestinian intifada. Flights are being cancelled or diverted from Tel Aviv.     A message from Google Google is helping American small businesses adapt and grow     In 2020, more than 17 million American businesses received phone calls, requests for directions, messages, bookings, reviews, and other direct connections to their customers from Google. Find out more in the 2020 Economic Impact Report.     4. Mapped: Beating COVID Data: CSSE Johns Hopkins University. Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios America is finally winning its fight against the coronavirus, Axios' Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon report. For the first time in a long time, nobody needs to cherry-pick some misleading data to make it seem like things are going well. And the good news doesn't need an endless list of caveats. It's just really good news. We're winning. Be happy. The U.S. averaged fewer than 40,000 new cases per day over the past week. That's the first time the daily average has dipped below 40,000 since September — eight months ago. New cases declined last week in 37 states. Not a single state moved in the wrong direction. Deaths from the coronavirus are at their lowest level since last July — about 600 per day, on average, per AP, and may soon hit their lowest point of the entire pandemic. Hospitalization rates are also falling significantly. Share this map.     5. Travel takes off Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios   Pent-up demand boosted April travel bookings 11% above April 2019, according to American Express Travel data provided exclusively to Hope King for Axios Markets. Based on last month's figures, the vast majority of people are staying domestic — 87%. 39% plan to travel internationally within the year.  Top 10 U.S. destinations: New York, L.A., Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Charlotte, Denver, San Francisco and Phoenix. Topping the international list: Sydney, Melbourne, London, Dubai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris.     6. Inflation fears could last all year Data: CPI. Axios Visuals Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he expects bouts of volatility around inflation through September. Inside the White House, aides see pressures lasting potentially through the end of the year, a White House official told Bloomberg News on condition of anonymity. 🗞️ How it's playing ...      7. 📚 Apple parts ways with author After an employee uproar over his writing demeaning women and others, Apple cut ties with new hire Antonio García Martínez, the former Facebook employee who wrote "Chaos Monkeys," Axios' Ina Fried learned. Employees circulated a petition yesterday calling for Apple to explain its hiring of García Martínez. It's not known what he was going to do. It's rare for Apple employees to organize publicly on any issue, let alone an individual hiring. In a passage of "Chaos Monkeys," García Martínez describes women in the Bay Area as "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness." Apple confirmed to Axios that García Martínez was no longer employed, and said in a statement that it has "always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace." Share this story.     8. First look: Stephen and Ayesha Curry join One Million Black Women Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry. Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images   Stephen and Ayesha Curry are joining the advisory council for Goldman Sachs' One Million Black Women initiative, Axios Markets is first to report. Why it matters: The initiative has committed to invest more than $10 billion in Black women over the next 10 years. It comes as banks and large companies are increasingly putting money behind rhetoric about advancing racial equity. Council member Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, said: "The $10 billion investment will allow for more Black women to realize their full potential and become the economic drivers we know they are." Dina Powell McCormick, Goldman Sachs global head of sustainability and inclusive growth, said: "We have been proud to partner with outstanding Black women-led organizations ... to identify market-based solutions to the challenges facing Black women." Go deeper on the fight to equalize "Black Womenomics."     9. Highest-paid athletes Photo: Steve Marcus/Getty Images   Major U.S. sports leagues took a $13+ billion revenue hit in 2020, but that didn't stop the world's top athletes from earning historic sums of money, Axios Sports editor Kendall Baker writes from Forbes' 2021 calculations. The 10 highest-paid athletes took home $1.05 billion during the past 12 months, 28% more than last year's top earners and just a few million short of the $1.06 billion record set in 2018. Top 10: 🥊 Conor McGregor: $180m ⚽️ Lionel Messi: $130m ⚽️ Cristiano Ronaldo: $120m 🏈 Dak Prescott: $107.5m 🏀 LeBron James: $96.5m ⚽️ Neymar: $95m 🎾 Roger Federer: $90m 🏁 Lewis Hamilton: $82m 🏈 Tom Brady: $76m 🏀 Kevin Durant: $75m     10. 1 smile to go: This plane landed safely Photo: CBS Denver via AP   Two small airplanes collided in midair near Denver yesterday, leaving this aircraft nearly ripped in half — and forcing the pilot of the other to deploy a parachute attached to the plane to land safely, AP reports. Remarkably, no one was injured. Photo: CBS Denver via AP The pilot was the only person aboard this twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed despite major damage. The plane is owned by Colorado-based Key Lime Air, which operates cargo aircraft. A pilot and one passenger were on the other plane — a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane that unleashed a red-and-white parachute to float to a safe landing in a field near homes.     A message from Google Havana Carolina is using Google tools to adapt     Havana Carolina has been serving up a taste of Cuba to Concord, North Carolina locals since 2015. When the pandemic hit, they updated their Business Profile on Google to focus on takeout and delivery, and their loyal customers showed up. Explore stories from small businesses in every state.   📬 Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? 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