🐘 Axios AM: Trump tanks Trump

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📺 Stat du jour: CNN's Harris-Walz interview drew a strong 6.3 million viewers Thursday night, including 1.2 million in the prized 25-54 demographic) — one of CNN's best showings in the 9 p.m. ET hour in recent history. (Variety)

Former President Trump's off-script whims are increasingly throwing mud on his advisers' game plans, Axios' Sophia Cai reports.

• Why it matters: After spending months in the lead, Trump now faces a tougher opponent, Vice President Harris, who's rising in polls.

Case in point: Trump's campaign this week debuted a Pennsylvania mail-in voting website for a program called "Swamp the Vote," aimed at boosting GOP turnout in swing states.

• The same day, Trump called mail-in voting "terrible" during an interview with "Dr. Phil" McGraw.

For months, Trump's team has been training field volunteers to get out the Republican vote.

• But Trump is making clear he doesn't care as much about their efforts as "election integrity" — a push aimed in part at justifying his false claims that he lost 2020 because of fraud.
• "Our primary focus is not to get out the vote — but to make sure they don't cheat," Trump said last week.
• Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign's communications director, told Axios both programs are equally important: "Trump has encouraged his supporters and voters to get out the vote through video, social media posts, in-person events and much more."

🥊 The ex-president continues to lean into personal attacks, despite his advisers' repeated efforts to get him to focus more on issues.

• Aides are writing policy proposals into his speeches, and pushing policy ideas on social media and in a daily campaign newsletter, Palm Beach Playbook.
• Trump frequently deviates from prepared remarks to ask rally-goers which nicknames he should give his opponents. He's begun calling Harris "Comrade Kamala."

In North Carolina during the Democratic convention, Trump complained: "They always say, 'Sir, please stick to policy, don't get personal ... You'll win it on the border. You'll win it with inflation. You'll win it with your great military that you built.'"

• He then did a "free poll" of the crowd: "Should I get personal, or should I not get personal?" The MAGA crowd roared, wanting more vintage Trump.
• "My advisers are fired!" he joked at a time when he's brought back past advisers, including Corey Lewandowski (who's on "Fox News Sunday" tomorrow).

The disconnect between Trump and his team was apparent this week over ground rules for his Sept. 10 debate with Harris on ABC.

• As Trump's advisers were pushing to keep mics muted for the candidates when it's not their turn to answer, he declared he didn't care. The mics will be muted, under the latest rules.

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Americans, driven by a Democratic surge, are the most enthusiastic about the presidential election in 24 years of Gallup polling.

• Democrats' enthusiasm is one point shy of the party's high — 79% in February 2008, during the Clinton-Obama primary.

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Brazil started blocking Elon Musk's social media platform X early today, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through its mobile app after the company refused to comply with a judge's order, AP reports from São Paulo.

• Why it matters: The suspension marks an escalation in the monthslong feud between Musk and Brazil Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

Brazil's telecom regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users' access to X. As of Saturday at midnight local time, major operators began doing so.

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A cloud-to-ground lightning strike near the Washington Monument during a storm on Thursday.

Former President Trump is vowing to dismantle the Department of Education. Vice President Harris wants to stem school shootings.

• Beyond that, neither has offered detailed plans for the nation's K-12 schools, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.

Why it matters: Student reading scores have fallen to 20-year lows. States are facing teacher shortages, and racial segregation in schools has returned to levels not seen since the 1960s.

🔭 The big picture: American public schools are growing more separate and unequal even though the country is more racially and ethnically diverse.

• Education advocates are seeking a variety of reforms, from how school boundaries are shaped, to recruiting more teachers of color, to improving student achievement.

"I'm so depressed," Amanda Rae Aragon, executive director of the education advocacy group NewMexicoKidsCAN, tells Axios.

• "It's kind of like every person out is out for themselves: 'Hope you get to live in a good school district.'"

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Empty nesters increasingly are lingering in their family-sized homes, making it tougher for millennials to trade up.

• Why it matters: Baby boomers with empty nests own 28% of America's homes with 3+ bedrooms, while millennials with kids own just 14%, Axios' Sami Sparber writes from Redfin data.

Between the lines: The problem for younger families is baby boomers don't have much motivation to sell.

1. Many older people are on fixed incomes. So those who own homes are often staying put because they're mortgage-free or have a low interest rate.
2. Most boomers are in their 60s, and are "still young enough that they can take care of themselves and their home without help," Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari writes.
3. Purging or packing decades of belongings can be overwhelming.

🧳 The other side: extreme downsizing! No home, no lease, no storage unit, no problem for Gary and Judy Kelly, who have been traveling the world since early last year.

• Everything the couple owns fits in two suitcases and two carry-ons.

"The anxiety of giving away a lifetime of stuff was tempered by the anticipation of the adventure," Gary Kelly tells Axios.

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Costco membership fees increase for the first time in seven years starting tomorrow — up $5 to $10 a year, depending on membership level, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Why it matters: It adds up for the world's third-largest retailer, after Walmart and Amazon. Costco's membership fees in Q1 accounted for $1.12 billion — two-thirds of the company's $1.68 billion total net income.

The U.S. renewal rate: 93%.

• Go deeper: Fascinating N.Y. Times deep dive, "How Costco Hacked the American Shopping Psyche" (gift link — no paywall).

After struggling to find a distributor, "The Apprentice" — starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, and written by Vanity Fair's Gabe Sherman — will be released in U.S. theaters 25 days shortly before Election Day, on Oct. 11.

• Why it matters: Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish-Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting "The Apprentice" into theaters before voters head to the polls, AP's Jake Coyle writes.

"The Apprentice" chronicles Trump's rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn, played by Jeremy Strong.

• The new distributor, Briarcliff Entertainment, has released films including the 2022 documentary "Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down." The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped release Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Potential litigation dampened interest. After the film's Cannes premiere in May, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung threatened a lawsuit "to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers."

• Asked about the distribution deal, Cheung told me the film "is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked. ... [T]his is election interference by Hollywood elites right before November."

"Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid" — a documentary with tons of access to its hero, James Carville, and his wife, Mary Matalin — will premiere on CNN on Sat., Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. ET, with release in theaters in the fall.

• "Political luminaries including Bill Clinton, Al Hunt, Donna Brazile, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, Mandy Grunwald, Rev. Al Sharpton, Mitch Landrieu and Sidney Blumenthal trace the story of Carville's rise from the bayou to the Beltway," CNN Films says in the announcement.
• "Interwoven throughout is the 30-year love affair between Carville and famed Republican operative Mary Matalin. ... [Director Matt] Tyrnauer reveals how their union defies political tribalism, serving as a counterpoint to the gladiatorial nature of modern politics."

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