“As Tesla’s electric-vehicle sales have flattened this year, CEO Elon Musk has increasingly staked the company’s future on his vision for self-driving robotaxis, despite the massive technological and regulatory obstacles in delivering them,” Reuters reports.

“Now Musk – as one of President-elect Donald Trump’s biggest backers – may have the influence to help break through those regulatory roadblocks.”

William Kristol: “What a 24 hours! The lightest of lightweights, Pete Hegseth, is nominated for secretary of defense. A leading Assad and Putin apologist, Tulsi Gabbard, is announced as director of national intelligence. The poster child of moral degradation, Matt Gaetz, is selected for attorney general.”

“If you’re surprised, you’re a dupe. President Trump is going to do in his second term what he said he’d do on the campaign trail, and what he tried fitfully to do in his first term. He’s going to turn the federal government into an instrument of MAGA policy and grievance. He’s going to pursue retribution against enemies. He’s going to destroy what remains of the older norms that guide the operations of the government, and of the institutional checks that constrain the abuse of power.”

“He told us this was his plan. The only surprise is how quickly he’s acting on it.”

Ken White: “If this is a sincere appointment—in other words, if it isn’t a head-fake to get the Senate to accept another candidate later, or a ruse to let Gaetz resign from Congress and avoid a damaging ethics report—it’s an example of self-indulgence thwarting malign intent. Gaetz is a buffoon. He has absolutely no qualifications to run the Department of Justice. Can he wander around firing everyone? Yes. Does he understand how the Department of Justice works in a way that would allow him to maximize its potential for abuse? No. Is he smart enough to figure it out? Also no. Is he charismatic enough to persuade insiders to help him use it effectively? Very much no.”

“Gaetz as attorney general will do petty, flamboyant, stupid things in clumsy ways. Some of those things will be very bad. But clown shoes are preferable to jackboots. We’d be in much more trouble if someone evil in a smart and competent way who understands how the machine works—say, Jeff Clark or Ken Paxton—took over.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed Donald Trump’s nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as Attorney General:

“He’s a performer and provocateur, and his view is that the more explosions he can cause, the more attention he can get… He’s a nominee for those who want the law used for political revenge, and it won’t end well.”

Liberty Media chairman John Malone was interviewed by his colleague Mike Fries, Deadline reports:

FRIES: Is there anything you want to learn more about next year, something you want to dig deeper into, understand better?

MALONE: How Elon Musk’s brain works.

FRIES: That could take some time.

Marina Koren: “Musk’s role is a glaring conflict of interest; SpaceX has been an aerospace contractor for years and could stand to profit nicely from the creation of DOGE, which could shift government functions to private companies in the name of cost cutting. But it also raises a question with real stakes for Americans. How might Musk—the centibillionaire, innovator, right-wing activist, and relentless troll—actually steer this new effort? His leadership of his businesses, especially SpaceX, suggests that he’ll throw himself into the job with zeal, casting government efficiency as an existential effort, just like the quest to make life multiplanetary.”

“SpaceX is the most successful rocket company in America, and it became successful by not behaving like a government organization. It ascended under Musk, who adopted Silicon Valley’s ‘Move fast and break things’ philosophy and displayed a willingness to blow up rockets until he got the recipe just right. The approach suggests that, in a SpaceX-inspired government, Musk would not just cut through red tape, but annihilate it with a flamethrower.”