💰 Axios PM: Huge surprise gift

Good Tuesday afternoon. Today's newsletter, edited by Alex Fitzpatrick, is 657 words, a 2.5-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

🚨 Situational awareness: The U.S. military has "only just begun" sinking "narco-terrorists" to "the bottom of the ocean," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters today.

• The Trump administration has rallied around Hegseth amid the controversy over lethal strikes on alleged drug boats near Venezuela.
• Get the latest.

Michael and Susan Dell marked Giving Tuesday with one of the largest individual charitable donations in history: a $6.25 billion gift to America's kids, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

• 💰 For all the ultra-rich tech donors giving huge sums to President Trump's inauguration, parades and ballroom, Michael Dell — billionaire chair and CEO of Dell Technologies — and his wife are giving an unprecedented amount for the next generation instead.

👧 By the numbers: The Dells' gift puts $250 in a "Trump account" for 25 million U.S. children under 10 years old.

• 👶 That means they won't be left out (entirely) by the $1,000 grants for 2025–2028 babies in the "big, beautiful bill."
• 💵 The payments are limited to kids in ZIP codes with a median annual household income under $150,000.

📋 The administration rolled out new details about the accounts today, including the IRS paperwork — Form 4547, as in Trump the 45th and 47th president — used to open them.

• Parents, family and employers can start contributing on July 4, 2026.

🌎 "We've seen what happens when a child gets even a small financial head start. Their world expands," Michael Dell said in a video posted to X.

• Dell is confident other philanthropists will follow suit, he added at a White House event this afternoon.

Announcement video.

President Trump made nearly one post per minute over a three-hour Truth Social spree late yesterday, Axios' April Rubin reports.

• Trump made 158 posts and reposts from 9 p.m. ET to midnight, by Axios' count.

😡 The president's posts started with criticism of political opponents, including former Attorney General Eric Holder and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).

• 🗳️ He also posted about President Biden's autopen use and today's special election in Tennessee.

🇸🇴 Several other posts concerned Minnesota's Somali community, some of which baselessly questioned Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) citizenship.

• He also shared a conspiracy theory that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) planned the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

One video, posted at least three times, celebrated First Lady Melania Trump.

• 🎄Another post, which included a clip of Trump's cameo in "Home Alone 2," said "Christmas is officially GREAT again."

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About the business: Annie, Molly and Grace grew up on their family farm in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They started 3 Farm Daughters, a line of high-fiber, nutritious pasta using the farm's wheat.

Why Amazon? "They handle all of our shipping and logistics, which makes a big difference."

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1. 🪖 Every National Guard member in Washington, D.C., is now armed following the recent shooting that killed one and critically injured another. The suspected shooter was charged with murder plus assault and firearms felonies today. Go deeper.
2. 🇮🇱 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Trump yesterday for more support in his push for a pardon from Israel's president, two U.S. officials and one Israeli official told Axios' Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo. Go deeper.
3. 🎾 Tennis legend Serena Williams has reentered a testing pool for competitive players, a key step for returning to the court. "I do not know if this means she is coming back, or just giving herself the option," an International Tennis Integrity Agency spokesperson told The Athletic. Go deeper.
4. 👠 Prada closed its nearly $1.4 billion purchase of fashion rival Versace, a "highly anticipated deal ... expected to relaunch Versace's fortunes, after middling post-pandemic performance," per AP. Go deeper.

The squeaks of fast, fuzzy creatures called pikas dashing across Colorado's mountains may be fading, Axios Denver's Alayna Alvarez reports from a new study.

• 💧The American pika doubles as an early-warning system for the health of mountain ecosystems that provide water to millions.

📉 University of Colorado Boulder researchers discovered that the number of young pikas living near Rocky Mountain National Park has "plummeted" since the 1980s.

• 🌡️ The cause is unclear, but researchers suspect warming temperatures are playing a role.

Go deeper ... get Axios Local.

Impact of selling in Amazon's store: "Running a small business out here in Grand Forks isn't easy, so we get a lot of help from Amazon, which handles all of our shipping."

Amazon sellers in rural areas and small towns, like 3 Farm Daughters, grew sales more than 30% year-over-year.

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