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days since the presidential election, donald trump's mar-a-lago estate has become the center of the u.s. political world, filled with people angling for jobs in his new attestation, and there's helping to influence trumps pics for those top spots. trumps advisers have been holding meetings with the election team, and presenting him with a wide range of policy and personnel choices. trump is expected to announce several key positions in the coming days. some believe he will bring back, among them, tom hohmann, who served as acting director of i.c.e., that is immigrations and customs enforcement, during trumps first at ministration. sources claim that hohmann may serve as a czar-like position in fulfilling trumps campaign promise to carry out, quote, the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in u.s. history . one person who does not seem to have any desire to

fill a spot in the administrator and is nonetheless playing a key role in the transition process. >> reporter: donald trump's mar-a-lago home has been teeming with allies, members, and potential new officials over the last 48 hours, as many people are angling for a top spot in his second administrator and. were, trying to influence him in who he will select for those roles. but, the one person who has really been looming over all of it has been elon musk. of course, elon musk was on stage with donald trump, his top campaign advisers and his family on tuesday night when he declared victory during the election, but he has also been at mar-a-lago and around donald trump in the days since. i am told , many days this week he dined with donald trump, just the day after the election he brought his children to trumps florida home where donald trump gave them a tour of his resort, but he has also been sitting

in, many times, when he has been with donald trump on some of the calls from foreign leaders, including ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. i am also told that elon musk has been weighing in on some of donald trump's potential pics, making it clear to the resident elect who he believes should have that role , and he has also been calling up allies of donald trump himself, including lawmakers, and starting to exert his influence in that way, as well. one thing that we saw happen on sunday, is that he came out and waited into the senate republican leadership fight but he quickly endorsed florida senator rick scott after scott had supported an idea from donald trump to allow for resort recess appointments, trying to make sure that he can swiftly confirm some of his nominees , and many times, bypass the senate confirmation process. three of the men are vying for that spot, but elon musk said that he supports rick

scott. all to say, musk has been a very influential voice close to donald trump specifically. in these final weeks before election day where he has been out there, campaigning for the former president, and now, he is spending a lot of time with donald trump, and making it clear that he is going to be a top person who donald trump relies on as we look ahead. sources familiar with the conversations says that musk is not expected to take on some formal role in donald trump the second attestation for donald trump has mused before that he would love for him to be a cabinet secretary, however, musk and others believe he could have just as much power on the outside. alayna treene, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> i'm joined now by mark longwell, a democratic strategist who worked on bernie sanders 2060 campaign and asa hutchinson, governor of arkansas and now resident at the harvard institute of politics. asa, let me get begin with you. elon musk, besides

the enormous amount of money he donated to trumps campaign and of course, the role that x played in delivering trumps message, including some of it, frankly this information in the run-up to the election. why elon musk in such a senior role, such an influential role for trump ? is that a good thing, in your view? >> first of all, i believe with the reporter that elon musk role will be from outside the government he does not want to go through senate confirmation, he does not want to have the disclosures that are required of and at ministration official. but obviously, he will carry a big stick within the administration, from the outside , and his role will be a broad portfolio. trump obviously listens to him, respect him, obviously there is conflict of interest here, but what you will see in a second

trump administration is very bold actions that might do away with traditions, and some of the guardrails that you usually see in the at ministration. it won't be the wild west, but it will be close to it. >> mark, let's talk about one of those guardrails, a site referenced there, he has an enormous amount of business with the u.s. government. space contracts, as well as with teslak, trump has promised to go to war to some degree on electric vehicles, so he has skin in the game . what are the guardrails, if any, to adjudicate or modify, or somehow provide some standards in that relationship, and how he might push his own interests or how he might expect favors in return from trump.

>> it's one of the most extraordinary situations that we've had in history, really . billionaire individual who has literally billions of dollars at stake in terms of government contracts, whether they are satellites , space related -- i would just say, you know, trump ran the early part of his campaign blasting the transition to electric vehicles but he backed off of that once musk endorsed him. so, i think it is very troubling , this billionaire outsider, who also, let's be clear, owns one of the key social media news influencing, with x, but we have in our society. so, i think it is troubling all the way around , and what we can do to stop it, i'm not quite clear. >> he backed off the blanket

attacks on electric vehicles but he still tried to appeal to union voters in states such as michigan concerned about transition to the electric vehicles, that raises the issue as to whether he can provide cover for tesla but not other automakers who make electric vehicles. it's a long list of things . governor hutchinson, you referenced that big picture, in terms of a disappearance of guardrails. so, tell me , do you think in the republican party, given that republicans will control the senate, and likely the house, are there republicans who you believe maintain an interest in guardrails, and a willingness to back them up? you know, republicans who attempted to stand up for trump have been voted off the island, as it were. but, do you believe that republicans in the senate and the house might be willing

to rescue some guardrails? >> clearly donald trump goes in with a serious mandate , different than the first term. he won the popular vote, he surprised everybody with the strength he is showing, with the electoral college. clearly, that resonates with republican house and senate members, so they are very attuned to that in their states and districts, as to the level of support of donald trump. so he will have deference, he will have a lot of swagger as he goes into his agenda and its broadly supported whether it is border security, whether it is forming these justice department or in the international arena, so he has broad support going in and he is going to have a season , but it will be tested, and we will see whether the republic and will stand up and whether

it is recess appointments that they push back on or whether say this another one , that the attestation tries to bypass congress it will be tested and it is unknown as to the outcome right now. >> mark, who leads the way for democrats , at this point? let's be frank, it is not clear. so, who do you think is a chance to lead the way , not just in terms of walking the democratic party back to electoral viability in the next presidential cycle, but in terms of leading -- i think resistance is too strong of a word, but trying to hold back some of the more extreme parts of the trump agenda from the democratic perspective? >> well, listen, i think that we are in for a long period of reassessing and rebuilding the party. clearly, this was a devastating defeat. it looks

like the republicans will control both houses of congress . but if trump were to say , obviously have governors in major states across the country that i think are already -- you know, kevin newsome in california, pritzker in illinois, even now, our nominee for vice president, tim walz in minnesota, who have signaled that they are not going to roll over and let donald trump trample the prerogatives and rights of the citizens of their states. so, i think that will be one nexus and i also think that the house will be right on the knife's edge. you know, it does look like the republic and are going to grab it, but we still have an outside shot. whichever way it goes, it will be razor thin. i think hakeem jeffries is a new and younger leader, and i think he could be a forceful figure, in terms of putting these guardrails that governor hutchins has talked

about , to try to put some of those in place. >> the mass deportation plan is one that was quite public during the campaign, governor hutchinson, beyond that, what do you consider trumps most likely domestic priority you are most focused on? >> well, of course, border security would be top , as you mentioned, but the economy is something that he will look for the extension of his tax cuts, he will ask congress to support that , and he has also promised things like eliminating the federal income tax on tips . that is something that he has to have congressional support for , so i think that he will first look at executive action to have some quick wins, it will probably be in the area of reforming the regulatory environment, doing away with some of the mandates, and also,

making sure that the justice department is reformed and they are looking at the attorney general to do that. you're going to be looking at executive actions for quick victories. longer-term he will have to work with congress to get some of his economic package through. >> mark, you can make a pretty good at that trump will set his sights on obamacare, despite the fact that it's quite popular , even in some red states in terms of those who have taken advantage of it. came really close during the first turn, it took john mccain's vote to save it. is obamacare survive this trump administration? >> yes, it does. and in fact, i don't know the mind of donald trump , but i think on the list of priorities , governor hutchins test upon some of them, i think immigration will be right at the top of the list and behind that, he has talked a lot about tariffs but i think he has a big agenda. i am not

so sure that he wants to walk into probably one of the toughest buzz saws out there. healthcare is one of the few issues which is still a winning issue for democrats and i think there is now support for the affordable care act and if it is tough even without john mccain in the senate, and it could be a tough lift. you, i'm hopeful that it stays in place. >> we will see soon enough. mark, asa, get back to watching football, and i look forward to talking to you >> thank you. we do have news just in to cnn, a source tells cnn the donald trump has offered the post of u.s. ambassador to the united nations to one of his most vocal supporters in congress in recent years,

congresswoman elise stefanik. new york republican, top trump ally, there is no word so far as to whether she has accepted that position, which of course is cabinet level. donald trump and joe biden are set to meet on wednesday. one of the issues sure to be discussed is the president-elect's commitment, if he has one, to supporting ukraine. we will have more on that, next.

ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says russia has launched a record number of 145 rounds saturday night. the port city of odessa residential outings and shops were damaged by those russian drones. zelenskyy says in the last week russia has launched a total of more than 800 guided bombs, 600 drones, and 20 other missiles, many deliver lee fired at civilian targets as has been so often the case in this warp ukraine launched its largest drone attack on moscow overnight on saturday. russia's defense industry says it shot down all 34 drones, but shrapnel caused some buildings to catch fire and the attack also disrupted flights from two moscow region airports on sunday. joining us now from

washington is kurt voelker. he is a former u.s. ambassador to nato as well as former u.s. special representative for cranial negotiations became the focus going forward is what will the new president-elect do regarding ukraine and russia? good to have you on, sir. so, what is your best guess as to what trump's plan is? i spoke to a number of trumps former senior advisers who told me trump would most likely end u.s. military aid to ukraine , and seek some sort of accommodation to russian territorial gains so far. do you agree with that assessment? >> i don't agree with that assessment. of course i am willing to be proven wrong, but what i see is a situation where trump wants to end the war. he wants the war to be over . the only reason there is a war , is because vladimir putin is willing to attack and take what he wants from ukraine. so, if you want to end the war, you have to convince putin that it is not in his interest to

continue the war, that there will be cost to putin if he doesn't. what we know so far is that according to reports, trump spoke with putin on thursday, and said, don't do anything new . that is already a beginning of that conversation. you, vladimir, need to stop the war. we hope that is the way that plays out, but, we don't know everything and we won't know everything, but in terms of the dynamics, putin is the one who is waging the war , putin is the one who must be convinced it is not in his interest to do so. >> that is a fact. of course it is russia that invaded in february of 2022. but as you know, many in trumps orbit have attacked the ukrainian president, they have made claims about him using this money to purchase yachts, which is not true. they have also in public made the case that it was ukraine's fault, to some degree, or nato's fault of

that russia invaded. you know that school of thought that is quite active on the right and donald trump himself has often attacked the ukrainian president . do you believe that was just campaign talk , or that it exposes his actual view of the conflict? >> i honestly think that we need to break this down. what you said about the views of some people on the far right is exactly right. may have said those things, they believe those things, they think zelenskyy is corrupt, or not a serious leader, taking american money, blah blah blah. trump has never said those things. and so, we need to appreciate the fact that he is maintaining a distance between those points of view. he has also not criticized vladimir putin, my view is that the reason why he has not criticized putin is because he knows he ultimately

has to reach a deal with putin and so he is not demonizing him, but that does not mean that he misunderstands the situation on the ground. i think that we have to see how this plays out, and i would like to remind viewers that it was actually president trump, who reversed the obama administration's arms embargo on ukraine. for years, we had a ban on legal assistance to ukraine which trump reversed, not because he was all of a sudden challenging vladimir putin, quite the opposite, he was even having his press conference in helsinki in 2018 when he was very warm to vladimir putin, but he was setting the stage for future negotiations. >> to be fair, he had did allow the supply of lethal aid to ukraine, but as you know, he also suspended military assistance to ukraine as he was pressuring zelenskyy to pressure for evidence against

the man who would be running against him so it has been an uneven record at best as regards ukraine. we should note is not just folks floating out in the right wing quitters here who have made such claims petitti vance, in the last days of the campaign, said something along the lines of good guys and bad guys in a war, which as you well know was started when russia invaded. i just wonder, when you put that together, and you also add into it, the president of -- frequent criticism of nato and statements along the line of if you don't pay enough money, russia can do whatever it wants to east. raises questions about his commitment to ukraine to expect for sure. for sure. and i think that the point that i would go to is where trump consistency says every time he's asked about this, he says oh, this would never have happened if i were president. >> what do you think he means

by that? i think that he means that is weak and he would be strong and he would be seen as strong in the world. now, that may be his own vision of himself , but if that is his vision, that he is going to be strong in contrast to biden's weakness, that means there needs to be a stronger posture toward vladimir putin, and he often points to afghanistan as a catastrophe for the biden administration, this american withdrawal and embarrassment, and he wouldn't do that, but he cannot afford for ukraine to be his afghanistan. >> is a fair point. kurt, always good to hear your point of view. thank you for joining us this sunday night. >> jim, thank you so much. >> i'm sure we will talk again. another region we are following closely as the middle east, and it has certainly changed a lot since trump left office. america's approach to the region could be the same

during a second trump at demonstration capasso, exactly? how will he approach it differently? what we can expect, coming up.

you are watching cnn newsroom. it has been yet another deadly weekend in lebanon . lebanese media reports that israeli strikes have claimed at least 80 lives with video from the town of ullmark in central lebanon, north of beirut. it is a shiite muslim majority village, outside of hezbollah's usual

strongholds to the south and east. on saturday alone more than a dozen separate locations were struck by israel in lebanon. >> and then in gaza, the idf hit two homes there, killing at least 41 people. what you are seeing there is the aftermath of one of those strikes in central gaza. the other home was in diwali a, where one ngo says pattern parents and grandchildren were among those killed. it's a pattern we have seen so often in more than a year since the war there started. israel said it was targeting terrorists. israeli prime minister minister, benjamin netanyahu is eager to turn the page and is often difficult relationship with the biden administration, and sees donald trump as a close friend and ally back in the white house. the president-elect has already been speaking about

what lies ahead for the u.s. and israel. >> prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he and president-elect trump have spoken three times in recent days, the two figures are now collaborating. netanyahu described the conversations is very good and important and, quote, aimed at strengthening the alliance between israel and the united states he added that he and trump see, quote, i to i on the iranian threat and the dangers that it poses. netanyahu was among the first leaders to graduate trump after his u.s. election victory last week, calling it the world's greatest comeback. many israelis expect the trump administration will offer full throated support to the jewish state, especially amid an ongoing israeli confrontation with iran and its allies in the

region. matthew chance, cnn, jerusalem. >> full throated support. stephen cook from the council on foreign relations joins us now. stephen, that is a view we hear inside israel and inside this country, that donald trump will give netanyahu free reign to conduct his ongoing wars in gaza and lebanon, and perhaps against iran . do you believe that is true? >> know. i think it is a lot of spinning that is going on among supporters of both israel and president trump. we know that president trump has, when he has spoken to prime minister netanyahu, even before the election, but certainly since the election, has told prime minister netanyahu to get the war in gaza over by the time he is inaugurated president. now, he doesn't have any control over what the israelis do, or american policy until then, but there is that signal that trump

will support whatever it is the israelis feel they need to do, but that they need to wrap things up by january 20th, 2025. in lebanon, there seems to be the potential for a diplomatic deal underway in the way that israelis are fully in support of. when it comes to iran, president trump has pursued in his first term what is called maximum pressure, but maximum pressure was not really aimed at anything other than bringing the iranians to the table so that the president could negotiate a better deal than the one that his predecessor, barack obama had negotiated with the iranians over iran's nuclear program. the idea that the president-elect was somehow stronger when he was first in office than any of his predecessors when it came to any of these issues really just have to go back to his bellicose rhetoric. he doesn't have anything to do with his policies. >> so, to questions about around the first, on any

potential negotiations. the world has changed in the last four years. the fact is that israel gretchen sorry, iran is far closer towards a nuclear weapon than it was under the jc poa which donald trump duop in his first at demonstration. it has many hundreds of kilograms of fissile material necessary to build a bomb. it could be days or weeks away as you know. out of donald trump navigate that new reality, and his ear and even willing to make a deal, given the threat it sees ? israel has certainly exposed weaknesses in iran's defenses with its recent attacks. >> undoubtedly the case, but these are details president trump, when he was first in office, did not pay much attention to. the president is mostly interested in negotiating a deal, so that he can say he got a deal. he fashions himself as a master negotiator, the book that put

him on the map is called the art of the deal, and he has everything to prove in coming back to office, that he can turn up the pressure on the iranians and bring them back to negotiate a deal. the head of his state department transition team has as much as admitted that the pressure will come on very quickly, but this is not a president who is interested in either regime change or war with iran. >> the trouble is, though, when talking about strategic interests, right ? iran is making a strategic calculation that it needs nuclear weapons for the regime to survive, much like korea. russia is making a strategic decision, it means to crush ukraine , because he doesn't want it to move in effect, to the west, in europe. it wants to maintain control of its near abroad. the best negotiator in the world cannot change strategic interests .

so, how does donald trump practically make progress . let's talk about iran, given that is your expertise, regardless of his sensibilities. >> you know, i am not here to defend the president-elect or his approach to the world. i am merely pointing out that his approach to the world is based on this idea that he can negotiate any conflict he sees as essentially a transaction and a business deal. i agree with you that it is highly unlikely that the iranians would go for a deal with the guy who breached the original deal they had with the unit states but nevertheless, it seems to be the same direction the president wants to go. we are going back to the way things were after 2018, after he busted the deal. they're

going to turn on maximum pressure believing the iranians will have no choice but to come back to the table. >> briefly, as regards israel and iran, as you know, the biden administration applied a lot of pressure on israel to not attack too broadly against iran in the run-up to the election, for instance, nuclear facilities or oil facilities but does donald trump attempt the same , or does he say listen, do what you got to do. >> i think that when it comes to iran, the president-elect has, time and again, shied away from confrontation . i think that the pressure will be on the israelis, once again, to avoid those kinds of targets should they feel the need to go back to iran. if you remember just a week or so ago we were expecting uranian retaliation against israel, that has not happened. and i think it is because the israelis did so much damage to the iranians. i don't expect that trump will give the israelis a green light on iran's nuclear program. >> stephen cook, interesting, thank you so much for joining.

>> thank you. we talk about a lot of big relationships , the u.s. and russia, u.s. and around but how about the u.s. and china? we will look at how the rivalry with china could play out under a new trump administration. there are a number of fronts . that story, when we come back.

china is bracing for the

unpredictable in its relationship with the u.s. under a second trump administration. the president-elect has been vocal about his intention to impose sky high tariffs on the world's second-largest economy, but, beijing may be looking for ways to exploit trump's love of dealmaking, even, perhaps, it hopes, on the question of u.s. support for taiwan. cnn international correspondent will ripley joins us from taipei. i wonder, what has been the mood and reaction there in taipei to trump's election? he is certainly unlike president biden, who repeatedly said the u.s. would defend taiwan militarily, trump has not said that. has been told by tromsø and former senior advisers that he had no interest in defending taiwan militarily. are they afraid there? >> afraid would not be the right word, jim, but i think there is a lot of caution .

there is a lot of uncertainty. there is optimism that under the first trump term, remember, it was president comes at penetration that green lit $5 million in weapons sales to taiwan, weapons being sold occurred in the trumpet a lot of the policies were continued under the biden administrator and. so the next go around here in taiwan, they feel like they have had bipartisan support. you have a lot of high-profile lawmakers visiting the democracy, but the uncertainty about whether this transactional approach with resident trump were to feel like you could make a deal with beijing it would be so beneficial to the u.s. that i wanted thrown under the bus, certainly even though that is never spoken publicly by government officials who are very careful about every single word they utter on this topic, particularly being caught in between beijing and washington, certainly behind the scenes there is a lot of conversation about how to make the best case through unofficial channels to president trump and his people, that it is in the u.s. best interest to stand with taiwan, no matter what beijing decides

to throw their weight over the next few years. >> it is theoretical at this point, because the policy is not public, trump's approach, but, what do folks talk about, hypothetically, as would be parts of a chinese deal , that would somehow reduce support for taiwan. what would they offer in return? >> obviously from the perspective of people here who are watching what is happening in unit states, they believe it is all about the economy, dollars and cents. so, what taiwan has to offer in terms of the most advanced chips in the world, even though president trump has. recited taiwan's chip industry led by tsmc, a world leader in producing these sorts of chips, there has been interest editions about whether they have actually been ending up in the hands of waterway, a chinese company the united states is not want to get a hold of these tips for military

reasons, in terms of what the deal could look like they think they don't know because all the old rules go out the window. when it comes to president trump and his decisions, his impulsiveness, the fact that he is a leader who detests alliances with partners but he feel like are not pulling their fair share what they are doing in taiwan are preparing for the fact that they might have to spend a significant amount on things like defense, they might have to look at other ways to sweeten the deal, if you will, but that is a tough bargain for a small economy when compared to the behemoth sitting next door. >> no question. will ripley from taipei, thank you for joining us. another story we are following tonight, the powerful earthquake has rocked cuba's eastern coast just as the island is trying to recover from widespread blackouts. the impact of recent hurricanes. we will bring an update after the break.

a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck just off the coast of eastern cuba on sunday. the president says the trauma caused landslides to which damaged homes and in the structure but this comes as the island is still recovering. to

current gains in recent weeks, widespread power outages. for more on this i am joined by stefan about savona, joining us fromthis is an enormous earthquake, a 6.8 magnitude quite close off the coast. do we know the extent of the damage at this point? >> jim, exactly. the quick hit just about 35 kilometers, or 50 miles south east of the cuban coast. is a 6.8 magnitude quake which is powerful but at this point, there are no reported alerts for is an all meat which is what the authorities are most afraid of. there were looking mostly a damage coming from the sea. they are still evaluating the situation but like you said, the island of cuba has been through a lot in the past few weeks. it was just on tuesday and wednesday that rafael, the powerful category three hurricane struck the west coast of cuba, wrecking havoc, and you need to add that cuba is dealing with continuous blackouts with chronic shortage

of illiteracy because they are not getting petrol to fuel the generators, to power up more illiteracy. so, a very difficult situation in cuba but at this point, jim, we are not seeing reports of deaths from the island nation, but we are seeing images of cracks in the buildings, debris on the streets, and you can tell that the situation will continue evolving in the next few years . we will keeping you up-to-date as it happens . on monday and tuesday perhaps it was just a very fortunate coincidence that these powerful lakes did not cause too much damage at this point. >> no question, if that bears out, which we can i wish we could say confidently. stefano, thank you so much. thank you to all of you for watching newsroom, i will be right back with more news, right after this.