Elon Musk is backing Donald Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to lead the Treasury Department, touting the billionaire CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald as a potential secretary who “will actually enact change” from the most powerful economic post in Trump’s Cabinet, Politico reports.

Musk labeled another prime contender for the post, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a “business-as-usual choice.”

“You don’t root out corruption at the DOJ by picking a corrupt person to lead it. Either the report comes out and is he not going to be the attorney general or the report doesn’t come out and he is not going to be the attorney general.”

— Fox News host Trey Gowdy, talking about Matt Gaetz.

“Donald Trump is weighing a push from right-wing allies to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI, one of the clearest indications the president-elect plans to stick by his vow to fire Director Christopher Wray before his 10-year term ends and replace him with a loyalist,” CNN reports.

“Multiple sources familiar with the Trump transition process have expressed deep concerns about the possibility of Patel being named FBI director, where he would be well-positioned to try to investigate Trump’s political enemies, declassify sensitive information and purge career civil servants.”

Politico: “The last time Cliff Sims was this close to presidential power, he coined an indelible phrase for the cut-throat coterie around Donald Trump — it was a ‘Team of Vipers’ as he titled his 2019 tell-all. Now a key member of the Trump transition, Sims is showing that he knows his way around the old snake pit.”

“According to two well-placed Republicans … Sims’ presence came to head this week with Trump — who had only vaguely recognized him in transition meetings and asked for more information on his background. After an aide put a folder of clips about Sims and his book on Trump’s desk, he exploded. … Yet as of Friday, Sims remains on the job — and could be in line for a plum administration post.”

New York Times: “Mr. Epshteyn, who left his role in the White House communications office in 2017 over what was described as an issue with his security clearance that has since been resolved, had told friends before the special envoy discussion that he intended to stay outside government as a counselor to Mr. Trump. And in Mr. Trump’s world, the lack of an official title has meant little in terms of measuring influence.”

“Although there are those close to Mr. Trump who despise Mr. Epshteyn, there is nobody in the president-elect’s orbit who at this point would doubt the level of his influence. He has quickly become one of the most powerful figures in the early days of the presidential transition, despite having no formal role in it. He has become a significant gatekeeper for Mr. Trump, including shaping some of the information he receives about personnel and cabinet selections.”

“Lobbyists expecting a more conventional pick to lead the government’s $3 trillion health agency than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the brash contrarian President-elect Donald Trump named on Thursday to take charge, are plotting how to stop the Senate from confirming him,” Politico reports.

“They’re also currying favor in case they can’t.”

New York Times: Kennedy’s views mix mistrust of business with unfounded health claims.

Wall Street Journal: How radical can RFK Jr. Be as America’s top health official?

“Senior officials on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on Friday weighed the future of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, amid new revelations that police investigated an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017,” the Washington Post reports.

“The internal turmoil over Hegseth’s future was sparked by a complaint shared with the transition team with extensive information about a woman’s claim that Hegseth assaulted her in a hotel in Monterey, California, after a Republican conference… The woman who drafted the complaint said the alleged victim was a friend who later signed a nondisclosure agreement with Hegseth.”

CNN: Trump’s transition team caught off guard by Hegseth allegation.

“Locked out of power next year, Democrats are hatching plans to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump that look nothing like the liberal ‘resistance’ of 2017,” the New York Times reports.

“Gone are the pink knit caps and homemade signs from the huge protest that convulsed blue America that year, as exhausted liberals seem more inclined to tune out Mr. Trump than fight.”

“Washington is far different, too. The Republicans who stymied some of Mr. Trump’s first-term agenda are now dead, retired or Democrats. And the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by the former president, has proved how far it will go in bending to his will.”

“As they face this tough political landscape, Democratic officials, activists and ambitious politicians are seeking to build their second wave of opposition to Mr. Trump from the places that they still control: deep-blue states.”

New York Times: “Emboldened, confident in his instincts and more contemptuous than ever of Washington expertise, Mr. Trump is staffing the most important roles in his government at breakneck speed. Advisers have been stunned at how fast he is ticking through his choices, filling the government’s most important positions roughly a month sooner than he did in 2016.”

“Much of the action has taken place under the chandelier in the tearoom at Mar-a-Lago, where Mr. Trump surveys his potential Cabinet nominees on giant video screens.”

“In naming a set of unconventional nominees to run federal departments, Donald Trump this week also took steps to push for a broader goal: realigning the balance of power among Washington’s major institutions so that more authority flows from the White House,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump has threatened to take steps that would undermine the Senate’s confirmation powers and Congress’s role in budgeting—the most essential powers of the two chambers. He has insisted that senators allow him to place some nominees directly in their jobs, bypassing the Senate’s public hearings and confirmation process. He has said he would move to impound—or decline to spend—money appropriated by Congress for programs he dislikes, a step likely requiring him to overturn current law in court.”

“Trump’s transition team is considering a plan to bypass the Pentagon’s regular promotion system, with a draft executive order that would create a panel to evaluate three- and four-star officers for potential removal.”

“Federal Reserve leaders have braced for a potential effort to fire Chairman Jerome Powell, while officials elsewhere are waiting to see whether Trump follows through on a campaign promise to rein in other independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission, and subject them to greater presidential authority.”

New York Times: “Over nearly three decades as a tech entrepreneur, he has honed his penny-pinching by digging into minutiae and cutting as deeply as possible — often preferring to cut too much rather than too little.”

“Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Musk has been brutally unsentimental about the cuts, paying little regard to norms and conventions. The tech mogul has been unabashed about slashing costs to the point that corporate processes — and sometimes even product safety — break down, philosophizing that he can just fix things later, the people said. And he has been unafraid to offend, stiffing vendors to negotiate better prices and sidestepping traditional suppliers to manufacture cheaper parts from scratch.”

U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Donald Trump to protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon have been deeply disappointed by his cabinet picks, Reuters reports.

An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the release of the committee’s report, telling ABC News that one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.

NOTUS: Lawmakers want the Matt Gaetz ethics report released.

Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense, was flagged as a possible “Insider Threat” by a fellow service member due to a tattoo on his bicep that’s associated with white supremacist groups, the AP reports.

“Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow, whom Trump had considered naming to a senior economic policy role, informed the president-elect’s team that he doesn’t want to return to government,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said that Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for director of national intelligence, “is likely a Russian asset,” the Daily Beast reports.