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good evening. i am caitlin collins on a very busy sunday night at mar-a-lago with new reporting on what has been going on in the last 48 hours inside donald trump's orbit is the president-elect is now narrowing down his choices for critical roles in his incoming administration . staffing was one of his biggest regrets and he has vowed to get it right which for him means hiring people who are more loyal and less likely to push back and apparently there are many people eager to meet that requirement and it has basically been brimming for the last few days i'm told with two kinds of people those angling for a job and those trying to influence trump into hiring their pics but one person has loomed over all of that, elon musk. multiple sources say he has been there every day since donald trump

won dining with him on the patio and today they were sitting at the golf course together and musk has been in the room when world leaders has called trump and he is also weighing in on staffing decisions making clear his preference on certain roles and publicly he is backing ricks on as the next leader of the republican conference to replace mitch mcconnell. and while musk himself is not expected to take any formal position inside the administration given how complicated it would be with his companies, what is clear is that he doesn't really need to and with one source saying elon musk has just as much influence from the outside and with trump on the verge of announcing new hires including those who served in his last administration, he confirmed there are two that won't be asked back. nikki haley, who served as ambassador to the united nations and mike pompeo the cia director and secretary of state the last time around. the former president very publicly crossed their names off of the list with this post

saying "i won't be inviting former investor haley or secretary pompeo to join the trump administration." joining me now, what you hear about not just elon musk but what has been going on over there over the last few days? >> you are right. your analysis of mosques -- elon musk's influences accurate and i heard he is not just with donald trump but also been calling out some of the allies including many people in congress, lawmakers and trying to exert his influence that way and bringing his children tomorrow lago -- mar-a-lago and donald trump was seen showing around musk's children around his home and there is no question that musk has influence in part of that is behind the scenes that donald trump things --

thinks that musk is really smart and he loves to say he is close to him and involved in sending rockets into space. some of that as well is donald trump loving having him by his side but as for some of the other new hires no question on the island behind me that donald trump has been locked down and focused particularly this time more so than back in 2016 on making the right decisions for who will fill out the cabinet and that is the main focus, focused on filling out who the cabinet will be in the top white house roles. i think that him crossing off mike pompeo and nikki haley from the list is interesting. i did here in my conversations with why he went so public with that over the weekend is first of all when it comes to pompeo even though many people close to trump believe he was a great secretary of state and he deserved a seat at the table this time around but they

argued that donald trump wasn't sure if he was loyal enough and in private conversations he asked people directly do you think he would be loyal to me and could i trust him? we do know that is the most value and the thing of utmost importance to the president-elect. as for nikki haley, he hovers a lot of animosity toward her and for one the attacks she lobbed at him in the primary but staying in the primary beyond what donald trump thought appropriate and if you looked at some of what he was saying and maybe not the new announcements but the people that he is announcing who won't be in the second administration, it clearly shows loyalty will be the top of the list and he wants to surround himself who will say yes and won't hold them back which is a departure from what he did in 2016. >> are there any jobs in particular that the trump team has been hyper focused on whether it is the attorney general or any of those were he felt like he made the wrong decision his first time around and now focused on?

>> i think the attorney general and you know this as well that this is the most important role and when he left the white house back in 2021 he had said privately that his biggest regret was who he hired to fill the role of his attorney general referring directly to his attorney general jeff sessions and bill barr. this time around, he wants who his attorney general will be will be somebody in lockstep and he wants that person to be his legal pitbull and he wants to completely change how the department of justice operates and no longer wants it to be as independent as it has been traditionally and over the past several years but instead he wants it to be operating alongside him and potentially even using his attorney general to help prosecute some of his political opponents and some of the other big roles i'm told

donald trump values most right now is the cia director including the secretary of defense in the secretary of homeland security which is a preview of what donald trump may do with all of these agencies and what he is looking forward to as far as his biggest priorities come january 20. >> many decisions to come and we will talk about this with the political sources. our political commentator and republican strategist. i want to start with you on the level of influence that elon musk has because what i was picking up when i talk to people and we did know he was having an influence from the campaign but on friday it did become clear and this weekend it showcased how much she will have influence over what this potential second term looks like. >> i think about presidents of the past and fdr's brain trust and kennedys wisemen and reagan's kitchen cabinet and you saw something similar in the past where they relied on

close friends who didn't have cabinet posts and i went back and looked at some of the old news articles and some journalists were critical of some of those outside advisors because they didn't have cabinet post so i would put elon musk in the same category as them and i wouldn't call it problematic. >> elon musk is the world's richest man and has a major defense contract with the federal government and how do you view this? >> it would appear there are conflicts and i have opinions on the way he has run twitter and some of his other companies and accused of firing people within his companies who disagree with them. i think that is awful. but my opinion doesn't matter and donald trump was given the kingdoms keys last week and with that he gets to put anyone he wants around them and it could be the

people i think are very dangerous to democracy but it doesn't matter. this was a mandate unlike 2016 were donald trump got the republican primary by a plurality because 1800 people ran alongside of him. and there was this sense of when he went in that he wasn't really going to know what he was doing so they surrounded him with people who had already been in the establishment and republican circles and in the administration but this isn't that time. he gets to bring in anyone he wants. we could hate it and be afraid of it, but that is why he won and i wouldn't blame him for bringing people he thinks are loyal to him and he thinks are going to help him and lament his vision. >> i do hear you and you are right about the reality. but we should ask the question of conflict and in those examples that were given which i think were historically helpful the difference here is elon musk combines world's richest man

with defense contractor with the person who controls twitter or x. that is not something we have seen before. the potential there for it to be a further constraint on the function of government and certainly he could be favored in that function of government with big contracts right? >> yes. >> the fact we already have great questions about how is handling one of the major ways in which we communicate with twitter . this could be something that takes us to a different place. i do believe when people overreach and people have that kind of power and influence, they tend to overreach and when they do that, the public reacts in the media looks into it and the rest of the political world looks into it. the public doesn't like the misuse of power. i don't want to say one silver lining but maybe one reality is it will be very surprising if elon musk and obviously donald trump and his team don't overreach in this

environment. >> he is somebody who clearly bet big on him and it paid off for him and see this influence he has in this because of how much he helped to get them elected and obviously we have seen how close they are and i heard from some people they think democrats need to win elon musk back to have them on his side and am not sure that is happening. but on this the other thing as somebody who is covered trump for eight years, there are often people who are very important and prominent in his orbit who have a falling out with him if they disagree with something and that is a question of what that looks like if that happens when somebody is powerful and influential as elon musk is. >> i look at it as elon musk being an innovative thinker and i think it's a good time or good thing when trump has been given a mandate and there is some complicated things he has to address whether it is the economics or the dislocation and we saw major technological

advancements and the implications of that among men and maybe elon musk can help to advise the former president that could be helpful through the legislative process and looking at the foreign policy issue and maybe having some outside individuals that elon musk can bring to the presidents table and also help as well. i understand why people would be concerned and i would say give the former president the opportunity to see what the advice is and how it in a positive aspect help government differently. >> i am agreeing with you. >> we can and right now it 8:11 p.m. >> i have a huge critique of elon musk but on a.i. , he has been a critical voice and raised a lot of real concerns about the kind of guardrails needed and reforms. i agree with that point and i would be happy to see somebody like that in the inner circle saying we

need to make some real policy decisions. >> donald trump is making these pics and it's not like elon musk is deciding but having influence but on these overall, what has been happening in the last 48 hours is intense jockeying happening and everybody is trying to get their word and of who they want picked and mike pompeo was the result of that because somebody didn't want him to be picked and they showed trump what he said when he mildly criticized him on the classified documents and with conflicts with ukraine and said i am not hiring mike pompeo. >> i am not surprised at all. there was a saying during trump's first term that emerged over and over again, when you found a somebody else was going into the white house, the saying was lawyer up. there have been no consequences for folks going in and being in trump's orbit. i think there

is a little less fear. everybody wants to have this proximity to power and everybody wants to be in his orbit. for nikki haley and mike pompeo, it is a little special. he has a relationship with both of those two people. they aren't strangers to him. mike pompeo is one thing and nikki haley didn't just represent nikki haley but represented a voter who didn't want donald trump to win. that would be weird to have her in the orbit, in that inner circle. i get that even though she would have been my pick and represented voters who wore -- were deeply upset with donald trump. >> one person who was in the republican primary, the back -- vivek was asked if he had a future there. >> there are some good options at -- on the table and i want

to have the biggest impact on the country. we are having some high-impact discussions. >> i don't know. >> that was settle. >> not settle. >> that is smart of him to be that detailed about it but as self-promoting as per usual to make himself seem like somebody in demand, but i think when we look at this overall picture, here isn't interesting point. the folks he brings in and up on the chopping block so often and i hate to make an apprentice analogy, but let's be clear. look at jeff sessions and bill barr and all of these folks who we thought were going to be the saviors and i did meet with donald trump 10 days after the election in 2016 and he brought jeff sessions into the room is a guy who would be like core.

>> you are in there? >> yes. >> go on. >> the point is the warmth in the connection and then when it is gone, it is really gone. in most operations in politics, republican or democrat, there is mutual loyalty and people stick with 18 for the longest time -- the team for the longest time but that's not true with donald trump. >> people like tom cotton are taking themselves out of contention in part because they are looking toward 2028 and they realize how risky it is. >> i want to say on the pompeo and nikki haley thing, a lot of conservatives view them as war hawks and donald trump has been skeptical of prolonged expensive military conflicts with us involving ourselves in the interest of other countries so a lot of republican say we applaud this not act people or

add people who will be pro-war. >> thank you, everyone. up next we have new details on trump's swing states as he has swept all seven battlegrounds and harry enten is here to go over that as we have projected the president-elect has won arizona. we're waiting for key winners in the house and senate races a huge battle and we will tell you the state of that ahead. >> i am venturing across the globe to see how these new wait for -- loss medications -- weight loss medications are affecting the country.

tonight, republicans are keeping a close eye on several outstanding house races as they hope for unified control in washington just days after they retook the white house and senate. donald trump has now officially won arizona bringing the final electoral college tallied a 312 as he marks another battleground that he lost in 2020 but 1:2024. harry enten is here to take us to the numbers. with arizona capturing this, it solidifies what a strong night tuesday was for donald trump. >> there is a way you can get an idea of how strong it was of a night for donald trump. let's look at the states where he outperformed in 2020. guess what? i will pull it up. look at this. it is every single state where he outperformed his 2020 performance. i went back through the record books and looked at every single election dating back from 1976 and wended a party's candidate do better than a prior candidate

for that party did any prior election and it is this first time since jimmy carter where they outperformed in every single state plus the district of columbia and another way you can get an idea of how wide his wing went -- his win was. let's go all the way back to 2016 and how many did donald trump get that year, 306 if you tally up the states he won when they actually gathered the electoral college but less than that but he won in states containing 306 electoral votes in the last time a republican got that many, you have to go back to 1988 and we don't have it here but george h.w. bush won over 400 electoral votes. the bottom line this was a mammoth win for donald trump and the fact is he put in a strong electoral college performance since george w. bush. >> it only makes what happens in the senate race play out

even more remarkable because it is between ruben gallego and kari lake. where does that stand? >> there are two races, one in arizona and we see ruben gallego up at this point at 49.8 to 48.1% and now we are up to 88%. a few days ago if you asked me what we saw kari lake was closing but ruben gallego has spread it out but what a difference between kari lake and donald trump in the same state if we zoom out a little and put the percentage on and she is at 52.5%. that is such a difference from the senate race in presidential race which is something we have seen across the political map where in wisconsin, here is another state were donald trump, 49.6% wins the state but you go to the senate race and what happens, only at 48.5 and we

called this race and it is the same story in michigan were& lot can got that race barely but again donald trump easily won in that state by about 1.5. you see these republicans underperforming and it is interesting. >> i think mitch mcconnell would argue that quality and they put no money in arizona. another races what is happening in pennsylvania. i saw a lot of republican senators today on twitter complaining that dave mccormick the republican candidate won't be able to come to washington and get briefings starting soon because it has not yet been called in the incoming democrat hasn't yet conceded. what is going on? >> in pennsylvania we see dave mccormick has a clear lead and here the lead is a little bit over 40,000 but a few reasons this hasn't been called? number one in pennsylvania as long as the races within half a

percentage rate it means it will be recounted. here there are still only 92% of the vote in. we are waiting for a few more votes to see if it winds up within half a point. >> thank you, harry enten. his promise to make the economy great again and the question is how and one of my next guest suggest that the president can do so by playing golf on day one. she will explain next.

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office with low unemployment and a growing economy but neither of those facts could overcome how voters felt about it when they went to the voting booth on tuesday. >> the number one issue in this county is the economy. >> i think inflation, economy, the big thing. >> cnn exit polls sought two thirds of voters felt the way they did describing the economy is not so good or poor. with me are experts on the topic. the global economic analyst and financial times columnist is also here and you basically are making the argument that trump doesn't have to do anything to lower prices once he is in office. tell me what you mean. >> nobody will lower prices and the best we can hope for is prices don't grow much. we are already there. the very best

outcome we can hope for is that trump does nothing at all and he goes out and plays golf -- >> in so many ways. >> so true. the economy is already doing well. low unemployment and robust growth and grocery prices are close to flat year-over-year and people are still feeling the hangover from the price increases in 2022 and 2023 but a lot of people are frustrated by that but in terms of where the economy is now, the economy that trump is inheriting is quite good. all of the policies that he has laid out, whether we are talking about global tariffs or mass deportations, politicizing the fed, huge unfunded tax cuts, all of those things would either be inflationary or crash the economy. take the win .

>> even though he ran on it being a terrible economy, he is inheriting a pretty good economy when he is going into this. what happens if he comes in because it still is a question about his day one pledges if he fills them and how quickly tariffs or mass deportations happen. what would that do and what would be the impact on the voters who said let's put this back in the office because i trust him with the economy more. >> it is incredible that we have had the best recovery in the rich world in the last three years. in a way the risk is he will push an already good economy into overheating. i think you can already see some of the handwriting on the wall for that. one thing that was interesting was right after the election, the markets didn't actually believe he would do what he said which is protect u.s. manufacturing jobs or put broad-based tariffs on and be protectionist in a way that pennsylvania and other parts here but they thought tax cuts we are going to go back to the 19th century and it will be oligarchs running the economy

and free-for-all. will you will use debt and deficit to bolster asset prices so if the markets go up, we are six years overdue for a recession if you discount the covid v shaped blip. i am worried that trump is actually going to push us into potentially a little bit more with this boom and he will get rid of antitrust policies from the biden ministration but we will get a brief sugar high. but i think it is possible you get a market crash at the same time you have debt and deficit levels rising. that could mean, particularly with everything else going on in the global economy that costs will go up. that scenario in a year and a half to two years. >> jd vance likes her and we will see who wins out in that situation. >> doubtful. >> as trump makes these pics when it comes to the treasury

secretary or scc chair, these are ways of looking to shape what it looks like his second time around. the longest surviving cabinet number was steve mentioned -- steven mnuchin and what you make of that? >> i disagreed with him on a lot of the things that he was a moderating force. for example, trump kept threatening to fire his own chair of the fed jerome powell when he was either not raising rates and i think he blamed steve mnuchin for picking him. >> he talked him out of firing him which would've set up a global financial crisis. the idea that the feds and independence suddenly no longer becoming credible that the money supply would be put into the hands of politicians would be very traumatic for financial markets and we have seen

similar outcomes in venezuela, argentina, turkey right now when the central bank is under control. politicians don't have as good of outcomes. i will point out that one of trump's preferred treasury pics and we don't know yet but one of them is one of the people who would really like to politicize the fed. >> what about trump's pledge of no taxes on tips and over time? those were two very popular policies that he ran on in the election. >> classic republicans being good on messaging and democrats on policy. it is irrelevant no tax on tips from an economic standpoint. the amount of people at the lower end who get tips is 5% so not a lot of money you're talking about and it won't actually make a difference in the federal balance sheet. it won't make

too much of a difference to people's lives because most people who are earning money from tips in the service sector are making so little that they pay almost no tax anyway. it was a meme or an economic mean policy rather than something that is real. >> think you both and we continue to watch that impact. also all eyes are turning to a fierce fight in the senate with a secret ballot election looming in the next few days to determine who will replace mitch mcconnell as the republican majority leader. and what president elect trump is demanding tonight and their response.

the secret vote on wednesday to decide who will become the most powerful republican in the united states senate is leading to a not so secret battle playing out right before us tonight over who will replace senator mitch mcconnell as the leader. the three names vying for the coveted jobs are the ones you see here, john thune, john cornyn, and rick scott. whoever gets it would have to follow president trump's new mandate to fast-track his cabinet nominations but also the block democrats from appointing any more judges while joe boyden -- joe biden is in office. very quickly all three candidates agreed to use recess appointments as a way around senate approval. joining me now

is the deputy chief of the ap and author of a new biography of mitch mcconnell the price of power. it is great to have you here. this book is fascinating, a look at mitch mcconnell's role in the senate but on this race to replace him tonight, you sell rick scott quickly coming out almost immediately saying he 100% agrees with trump and will do whatever it takes to get his nominations through. from your perspective, how clear is it that the deference to trump will be a requirement for whoever it is that takes mitch mcconnell spot? >> it is pretty clear and when you have outside validator's like tucker carlson and elon musk trying to shape the race, it puts the senate in an unusual spot. as you know the senate prides itself on being in an exclusive club made up of people who are very self made and don't need the validation of other people. here, you have outside forces shaping an

inside election. >> when you look at that, it very clearly is working because they are all coming out and i am not sure anybody would have envisioned that they would have all emphatically endorsed these appointments and what you think he makes of what we see play out tonight on social media? >> he certainly believes in the idea of co-equal branches of government and the separation of power. however, i doubt you will hear him say much publicly about this. he knows that if he puts his thumb on the scale for one candidate or the other, it could backfire. i suspect he will remain quiet until the election itself. >> it would almost guarantee that trump would pick that person. your book is full of mitch mcconnell critical of trump in the state of the republican party and he did say at one point the maga movement was completely wrong and he said reagan wouldn't recognize the party as it is today. in hindsight of tuesday, how that

thought shapes out for him? >> i don't think he has changed his mind. we are in a position to see what happens with all of the norms we thought existed have been shattered and he is in a position where he is exceeding the power he has had and he is in some ways i think relieved because it is a difficult job and you are often the subject of ridicule and rarely the subject of praise so he will be on the sidelines. >> yes. certainly for him and with trump demanding with the judicial nominations he doesn't want democrats to confirm any of them until trump takes office but mcconnell and trump together push through many of their own nominees after trump lost the 2020 election including judge cannon, one of those confirmed in this period after trump had lost before biden took office and you think senate republicans will follow through on that? >> i don't know how they can stop it because they don't have the numbers to do so and

the democrats are within their right to do it in both parties did it in the democrats were the ones who eliminated the filibuster initially from federal judges and mitch mcconnell did it for the supreme court so it's really the state of play. >> it is an excellent book on the inner workings and some amazing stories and thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. ukraine has so far launched its biggest attack on moscow yet and what it could look like in a big question when trump is back in office. that is ahead. next sunday i ventured across the globe to see how these new weight-loss medications or transforming lives and disrupting the industry. >> they are effective but not for everyone. >> is ozempic right for you? next sunday.

ukraine has launched its biggest attack on moscow since the start of the war. the russian ministry of defense had a total of 34 drones were launched on saturday night in the direction of the russian capital. that attack demonstrates the precarious moment in that war as donald trump prepares to take office. in the eastern region of ukraine, russian forces have made gains as we have seen. as many as 10,000 north korean troops have bolstered the kremlin forces there and american officials are telling us they expect them to enter combat soon. meanwhile, ukraine said this weekend it launched a drone attack on a russian chemical plant in a western city and in the center of all this turmoil we can see critically what will happen next will be donald trump, whose eldest son offers this

message to world leaders. >> everyone understands that daddy is home and they have to start behaving accordingly and it really is incredible to watch the world fall in line. >> i am joined tonight by a retired colonel and it is great to have you. i want to get your lay of the land on what is happening in ukraine right now especially with the 10,000 north korean forces and maybe even more from some sources on this. how do you expect they are looking at this over the next few months before trump's in office? >> it is great to be with you. the big thing about the north koreans are their presence could expand a bit so 10,000 basically are in theater and there is a possibility of a total of 100,000 coming in over

the course of the next year. if that is the case, that could tip the balance in favor of the russian forces as they maneuver in and around ukraine which could make a difference when it comes to the personnel shortages the russians are experiencing and basically backfill those russians who were lost to war and it could also cement the relationship between north korea and russia even further. this is a major development that could affect the course of war. >> what is happening on the battleground but what is happening in the united states when it comes to the politics around supporting ukraine. trump is somebody who is never visited ukraine during the war and we have seen other world leaders do that and i was there last february talking to him and they said he should come and see this from self to understand what it is like and

i wonder how he views this likely right now knowing that somebody who has pledged this one day will take office. >> i think for president zelenskyy it is a challenging moment and it's interesting to note that when president zelenskyy spoke with president elect trump, trump had elon musk on the line and in some ways it could be a good thing because it allows everybody in essence to talk the same language and be in the same moment in time while they are discussing this. if it does have benefits for zelinski it could be that it least it gives him a bit of a pause so if he withdraws from ukraine or withdraws support, that could show weakness of the u.s. position and i don't think trump wants to show weakness so this is a dilemma he has ray has campaign rhetoric but on the other side he is a

possibility of this weakness for others around the world. >> it will be fascinating to see how he handles it once he does have the oval office >>. as always, thank you for your expertise. >> tonight we await more hiring pics from the president-elect and we will talk to one of the ones from the former time who survived only 11 days and the old one about potential chaos and what it is like to work during donald trump's west wing.

we are back on a busy night with new developments as trump is beginning to select who will staff a second term, some of whom are finnell familiar faces from his first term. i am hearing tonight but in the coming days, donald trump is expected to announce that he is bringing back tom homan. you might remember homan, who served as the acting director of immigrations and customs enforcement, previously, for trump. he is now expected to serve, though that could change according to my sources. homan is someone who has defended the family separation policy that was put in place when donald trump was first in office and also recently argued, when asked about trump's