“Elon Musk has already achieved his first cut at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency: his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy,” Politico reports.

“Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days… An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.”

“Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE and planning to announce a run for Ohio governor next week. Musk’s ability to ice out Ramaswamy, who for a variety of reasons had irked some Republicans in Trump’s circle, is the latest sign of his influence in the incoming administration. And it presages an encore of all of the infighting that marked Trump’s first term.”

“President Trump’s redecorated Oval Office includes a portrait of Benjamin Franklin and a fresh Andrew Jackson painting, part of an Inauguration Day overhaul of the most exclusive office space in America,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Donald Trump’s pledge to rename the highest mountain in North America put Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation in varying states of dismay after he reiterated plans to change Denali back to Mount McKinley in his inaugural address Monday,” Politico reports.

“Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is likely to be given office space in the West Wing, putting him close to President Trump as Mr. Musk steers a project that aims to cut as much as $2 trillion in government spending,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Musk had been expected to be situated in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is in the White House complex but not in the West Wing proper. But he has for many days been asking about his level of access, signaling a desire for proximity to Mr. Trump.”

“Mr. Trump had wanted Mr. Musk to have the space… Mr. Musk has been given a badge for the White House complex and was said to be working there on Monday.”

New York Magazine: “It is customary for human beings inheriting enormous power over others to show a bit of humility before exercising it. This is why presidential inaugurations include ritualistic invocations of national traditions, hallowed precedents, and divine favor. Those staging the second inauguration of Donald Trump did their best to surround the man with reminders that he stands in the shadow of leaders much greater than he can rightly claim to be, and in the presence of institutions, from Congress to the courts to the armed forces sworn to defend the Constitution, that constrain his authority.”

“The reality that Trump doesn’t recognize any such restraints was made most evident by his reluctance to bow before the supreme authority of God Almighty, as he stood open-eyed during the invocations of the deity to bless his puny human efforts. Indeed, he seemed to regard God as a peer or perhaps as an aide in his confident assertion that the Lord of Hosts had saved him from assassination out of divine concern for his holy role in restoring American Greatness.”