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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. a defeat does not mean we're defeated. president biden trying to inspire democrats after one of their darkest days. more on his message as he prepares to step aside again. of course, he did it first for kamala harris. now for a man he once called a genuine danger to the country. >> i will do my duty as president. i'll fulfill my oath. and i will honor the constitution. on january 20th we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in america. plus, what do you get when you combine the world's richest man with the most powerful man in the world? we're about to find out. a closer look at the role elon musk could have in donald trump's administration. and the wildfire emergency out west. fast-moving flames, zero containment. as crews struggle to save a

terrifying 3,500 homes. we're live in california. so much to get to on a thursday. but we begin with u.s. politics turned on its head. the maga movement expanding. the democratic party contracting. the blame game playing out in public with a vengeance. behind the scenes 2028 presidential conversations are beginning including who on the left can lead a comeback. for the current president trump's resounding victory is a bitter pill. his legacy now clouded by criticism from the blame biden chorus. even as he today looked forward. >> campaigns are contests of competing visions. the country chooses one or the other. we accept the choice the country made. i've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. you can't love your neighbor

only when you agree. something i hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow americans. bring down the temperature. >> now both sides are moving into the next phase. as part of that president biden has invited president-elect trump to the white house. a meeting that never happened when the roles were reversed in 2020. i want to bring in nbc's mike memoli at the white house and carol leonnig, pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter for the "washington post" as well as msnbc contributor. mike, the president has two more months in office. how did this speech set the stage for what he's hoping to accomplish? >> well, chris, as i've been talking to white house officials prior to election day, they said they were looking forward to the end of the campaign because it would give them a freer hand for the president to really move forward on two main objects. one, implementing a lot of the legislation that's already been under way but to do so in earnest ahead of the next administration, but secondly to really begin shaping his legacy.

that's something that had at times been in conflict with the campaign. now of course that donald trump is the victor, not kamala harris, the white house has to look at this situation with another objective in mind, and the president was clear about this today. trying to reassure those who are upset, distressed frankly about this election result. he can't reassure the american people about what donald trump will or won't do but he can talk about what he is going to do, which is ensure a smooth transition. the other thing that i thought was interesting, what we heard from the president today, which really speaks to a concern of his, which is that all those hard-fought legislative wins which he thinks will put the american people on a better, stronger economic footing will be things that ultimately maybe donald trump can take credit for when he's in office. take a listen to how the president tried to shape his legacy on that front. >> you know, we're leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. i know people are still hurting. but things are changing rapidly. together we've changed america for the better.

now we have 74 days to finish the term, our term. let's make every day count. that's the responsibility we have to the american people. >> the term administration officials have been using for weeks is that they intend to run through the tape. the president the day he dropped out of this race in july told his chief of staff he wanted his last few weeks in office to be as productive as any time that came before it. the first order of business now is now bringing donald trump to the white house, a date and time for that meeting has not happened yet. next week the president will be meeting with a number of foreign leaders as he travels to south america for a number of international summits. another job he has on his plate, reassure our allies especially about what's to come next. >> so carol, i'm thinking back to 2016. fair to say trump and his team were caught off guard by this win. honestly, the transition was anything but typical. but even now there are reports that the white house is having to push trump officials to sign federal agreements to get the transition going. what's going on?

what should we look for during this transition period from the trump side? >> chris, it's a really important place to put our eyes and the reporting lens of the "washington post" and other media organizations. donald trump has always been skeptical of sharing too much about what his plans are, fearful as you know during the campaign of being associated too closely with project 2025, which was branded by democrats as an extremist agenda, an effort to try to sort of tar donald trump with that agenda, one he does quietly embrace but did not want to publicly embrace. and so this transition, you know, his hesitance is about not wanting to show any leg at the moment. the same thing happened in 2016. there was obviously a different dynamic. the trump-elect transition team

in 2016 really didn't even have sort of folders or binders of people to choose from for running the cabinet. they had to hunt and peck for that. and they were really struggling. this time they actually have thousands of names of people that they're considering for positions. but donald trump, ever the showman, is going to want to leak that out one by one, drib by drab. he knows how to play a media cycle. he knows how to get dramatic effect. and engaging too much with the democratic administration right now on transition makes him i think uncomfortable because he doesn't want to share his game plan or his blueprint or really just step into the light with that group. >> i also want to bring in presidential historian doug brinkley. it's good to see you as always. look, joe biden argued, so did many democrats for years, that donald trump's election in 2016 was a fluke, kind of an

aberration in american history. but do you now see maybe joe biden's election as the fluke in terms of where this country is heading? >> sure looks that way. i often thought that trump was an asterisk or an aberration, it was sort of the presidents club and this unusual phenomenon of donald trump who mixed many currents in america, isolationism, anti-you know, nafta sentiments lingering, and not wanting to do -- go into foreign wars like afghanistan, iraq. and lo and behold, it turns out we're living in the age of donald trump. there's no way history can short-circuit that he is the engine of popular culture, political culture, international affairs. his name rolls off of everybody's lips every moment. so he now is in the main game of american history. the question's going to be what

does he do with it? it's premature right now for him to talk to democrats about the nitty-gritty of the transition. everybody needs to take a week, two weeks, at least get thanksgiving done to calm things down. but there will be early indications of how trump wants to play things come december when he starts choosing who he'd like to be in his cabinet. there's this specter that not only does trump have three supreme court justices but alito and clarence thomas might step down in the next four years allowing a very, you know, hard right justice to get in. the votes could be there in the senate to get that done. then you'd be dealing with the supreme court with five trump appointees. we can't pretend anymore that he's just an oddity, the orange man running wild. he's representing our country. you saw harris do the right thing, fold in. joe biden will try to be

helpful. and there will be a boycott i think of his inaugural by some democrats. in 2016 john lewis and other groups of progressive democrats wouldn't engage in the trump -- or trump's first -- you know, the inaugural then. when trump first got inaugurated, you had a women's march. in january 2017. the largest public gathering in american history to protest trump's views on women. what's happened since that protest? well, the dobbs decision. kamala harris, we had our first woman vice president, but that issue on women's reproductive rights didn't put harris over the top. it kind of flattened out, which has to disappoint feminists in the women's movement mightily. >> carol, we know that donald trump has never felt constrained by historical norms. but the truth of the matter is as doug alludes to this is a man who won an overwhelming victory, who got a lot more votes than

his opponent. he is someone who has been given wide latitude in rulings by the u.s. supreme court. and he is someone who may well end up in control of the trifecta, the white house, the house, and the senate. given all of that, i think of the title of one of your books, which is "i alone can fix it." his mindset, go to that for us as he approaches what is a very different i think level of power than he had when he took office the first time. >> that's right, chris. you know, when i wrote that book with my colleague phil rucker here at the "post," we had a section that talked about donald trump's revenge tour after the first impeachment trial. he wanted to basically remove from government and go after publicly all of those people that he viewed as having tried to humiliate, shame or derail him and hurt and undermine his

presidency. and as he comes into the white house now, he has said on the campaign trail, sometimes in careful nuanced ways and sometimes in very brazen direct ways, that his enemies better be worried because he thinks that there are people that should be jailed that came after him. he's been -- he's talked about the biden crime family. he's talked about other democrats he feels went beyond what they should have. he's talked about the special counsel jack smith, a career prosecutor who followed the evidence in the mishandling of classified documents and trump's effort to overturn the january -- forgive me, the 2020 election results. and trump has said that that person also should probably be in jail or tossed out of the country. and so he comes into office with a larger revenge agenda than he has. and to your point, chris, far more power. there's a republican party now

that at one point in early 2021, after the january 6th capitol riot, viewed trump as a failed and flawed figure who was going to have to leave the political stage. but he resurged and returned with force. and now that republican party has to countenance that this is their not just, you know, leader in name. this is the power. this is the throne. and that gives donald trump so much more power than he had in his 45th -- when he was the 45th president. >> so facing that, doug, that brings us back to what the opposition does, and we heard from kamala harris last night trying to rally her supporters. we heard from joe biden talking about how the government must prevail, how democracy must prevail. but what does history tell us about parties that have found themselves on the losing side,

in this case very much on the losing side? how do they begin a comeback? >> well, let's look at jimmy carter. when he lost in 1980 to ronald reagan, that was considered a big deal. i mean, the whole map of america turned red. it wasn't just sherrod brown leaving washington. it was birch bye and george mcgovern and frank church, gaylord nelson, all of the liberal war-horses. and reagan did try to do very draconian things. he had james watt at interior who's very much like the heritage foundation project, but he ended up firing james watt. he had al haig who was running this vigorous foreign palace war hawk and after reagan got shot he dumped al haig in favor of george schultz. i don't think the press should get ahead of the thought that trump's going to live up to all

of the campaign rhetoric to go after people and have an -- it's one thing to have an enemies list but to actively go after people creates all sorts of problems. he's going to target 100 different people. no. he's not steve bannon. bannon's going to be out there taking victory laps, but trump's going to have to go in and first off do away with biden's executive orders. then he's going to issue a bunch of trump executive orders. and those are going to be challenged in the courts. groups like the aclu will be intervening. and trump will have some kind of limitation. and then he's smart enough, trump, to see the opening in international affairs with the problem with the war with russia and ukraine and gaza-israel. can he enter a world stage as a statesperson? he's a man envious that barack obama won a nobel peace prize.

can trump, you know, create friendship between -- permanent friendship between saudi arabia and israel? can they create a demilitarized zone in the ukraine that both zelenskyy and putin agree with? these kind of things will be on his mind too. just not i'm going to bust cbs because they clipped a "60 minutes" and made kamala harris look good. on the darker side of that there will be some examples. and it might be general milley or it could be kelly. it could be one or two journalists. it could be nancy pelosi's husband. he'll find a weak spot to send a loud message that part of that huntdown of who -- or his critics, he's going after. there aren't going to be hundreds of them, though. there will be a few. a few's a few too many. but i don't think we need to exaggerate the -- you know, what he's going to be capable of

doing on destroying media and journalists' lives. >> time will tell. douglas brinkley, it's always great to see you. mike memoli, carol leonnig. thank you so much. coming up in 90 seconds, control of the house still in limbo. a check of where the balance of power stands and what the outcome means for filling top jobs in the upcoming trump administration. coming trump administration when anyone in this house wears white, it doesn't stay white for long. white? to soccer? i'm not gonna slide tackle. but now with tide oxi white, we can clean our white clothes without using bleach even works on colors. i slide tackled. i see that. it's got to be tide. at humana, we believe your healthcare should evolve with you, and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits, but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan pays for some or all of your original medicare deductibles, but they may have higher monthly

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we still don't know which party is going to control the house but it's going to be an uphill climb for democrats. they need 31 of the remaining 39 seats to secure the majority. republicans only need nine to finish the sweep of power in washington. let's bring in nbc's ali vitali at the big board. what are the key races everyone's going to be looking at in the coming hours, days, weeks. >> the math you're doing all stems from the fact everyone on both sides is trying to get to 218. clearly this just went from 187 to 188. so i'm going to be interested to see which of these races was just called. this is regularly -- >> deena titus. >> deena tight nuss nevada. that makes a lot more sense. that was one of the ones we were waiting for. but this is one of the more chaotic maps we have access to. it is also my favorite because i love the house. but these are some of the other uncalled races we are watching for and it sort of tells the story of why democrats have a slimmer path than republicans do to keeping the majority.

even if you look at some of these uncalled races, let's just assume that they stand as they are with in this case of alaska and california with the republican challenger beating the incumbent democrats. that would mean that republicans in this instance would be able to notch two more flips. but then you come over to the republican side control -- the republican-controlled side of the map and you look at new york 4 and new york 19. in both of these instances the democratic challengers are actually beating the republican incumbents. now, again, votes are still being counted here. these are not races that we have officially called. but let's assume that democrats are able to notch two in their flip column. these both would effectively cancel each other out, and it's a reminder of why democrats have even as they make gains a tough road to get into the majority. when you talk about the flips that have already happened, though, this is also the story of redistricting. because partly when you look at these cluster of races we've put on the board, these three in north carolina were basically

redistricted to be red anyway. the same can be said of alabama's 2nd congressional district. so while these have been races that are flipping, it's not like they're telling us anything integral about the way that the electorate is reacting to tough competitive races. they were just sort of designed to be that way. michigan's 7th was an open seat. pennsylvania's 7th was one of the key ones around allentown that we were watching. incumbent susan wild ultimately beaten by her republican challenger. and the same story can be told slightly north of where she was in the 8th congressional district where the republican was able to beat the incumbent democrat. that's the area around scranton, pennsylvania. these are the ways the top of the ticket can sort of create headwinds or tailwinds, making it easier or in this case harder for democratic incumbents to end up holding on. and that's why we're looking at a map that looks frankly a little bit more similar than it does different and we're likely in for a very, very tight majority whoever wins it. >> how you are other still standing i don't know. but ali vitali, it is great to have you on the program.

thank you. >> thanks. >> you know, however the balance of power shakes out in the coming days it could have a big impact on who president-elect donald trump picks for key administration positions. nbc news is reporting that trump is keeping in mind the margins in congress and possibly not choose candidates he might like if the votes are going to come down to moderate republicans like senators lisa murkowski and susan collins. and we also have new nbc news reporting about the names under consideration. it includes some faces you might recognize and some who are already saying, mm, no thanks. nbc's vaughn hillyard is reporting from west palm beach. also with us, former chief of staff to vice president mike pence and "meet the press" contributor marc short. okay, vaughn, i want to talk about who's on trump's short list. it was interesting that in just the last, i don't know, hour or so a couple of people, it wasn't that they were asked but they were sort of out there in the zeitgeist, were already sending signals i'm going to stay where

i am. >> exactly. this is a moment here for these next couple weeks before thanksgiving i think where we can expect a little bit of chaos down here in palm beach, florida. it was eight years ago at trump tower where we were watching potential cabinet administration officials come and go from the elevators of trump tower. that operation has moved down here to palm beach and will be at mar-a-lago. and there's now a transition team that is beginning to go through the names of potential cabinet administration officials. number one, we are told, i'm told by harold lutnick who is one of the transition co-chairs, that they intend to put forward a list of people to donald trump who he has a previous relationship with. not new names like we saw in 2017 of individuals who maybe had past, you know, deep histories in these particular departments but individuals who donald trump could trust as being loyalists. take a look more at some of those names. when you're looking at secretary of state potentially the like of senator marco rubio of florida. of course rick grenell who is the former acting director of

national intelligence. and you're looking at robert o'brien who was his former -- one of his former national security advisers. for secretary of defense. there's a congressman from florida here who we saw on the campaign trail a lot for donald trump in the last months. but also was a frequent tv -- someone who was frequently aparke on tv on behalf of donald trump's candidacy and that's congressman mike waltz. mike pompeo could still potentially be involved as a potential secretary of defense. we are told here, our team, that senator tom cotton has taken his name out of the running to head the pentagon. and if you look over at the attorney general, that is where there is going to be a lot of conversation taking place over who exactly donald trump will not only trust in that role but also somebody who would be able to go forward with the jeffrey clark-like kind of mindset of what the doj should be in taking direct instructions from donald trump. you see it marc paoletta. john ratcliffe potentially. but also i am just told just in

the last few minutes along with our hallie jackson that matt whitaker is also a name who's engaged in conversations here in palm beach. matt whitaker folks will recall was the acting attorney general for a period of time after jeff sessions was ousted as a.g. back in 2017 in the first administration. when it comes to chief of staff the name susie wiles, if folks haven't become familiar with susie, she was sort of the behind-the-scenes operator, co-campaign manager for donald trump the last two years. we've been used to palace intrigue stories when it comes to donald trump's campaigns and the white house. she was somebody here who very much allowed anybody that wanted access to donald trump to have that access. some of the more right-wing provocateurs you could call them but as well as sort of the mainstream conservatives. everybody who i have talked to over the past two years has been very happy with the role she played in not trying to keep anybody away from donald trump but allowing it to be sort of a

big tent -- not only at mar-a-lago but on the campaign trail. i'm told that susie wiles is expected to be very much potentially the next chief of staff. but brooke rollins is still somebody engaged in this process. brooke rollins was rung america first policy institute which was the organization in which a great many officials from the first administration, they came and made up this kind of conservative think tank that was prepared to run a second trump administration. we at nbc have had a great many sources tell us that susie wiles is the clear favorite to be the next chief of staff here. but there is still a lot of conversations about staff, his cabinet and administration officials are going to play out here in florida in the coming weeks. chris? >> vaughn, thanks for that. marc, let's talk about the idea of i guess insider versus outsider. obviously if you have an insider, if you have people with experience, they have experience. donald trump didn't feel that worked out so great for him last time. he thought that people who came from outside of government,

people like ben carson and steve mnuchin were much more loyal to him. and we all know he prizes loyalty. i wonder when you look at some of the names that are out there right now what your thoughts are in terms of bringing people in to the government who might not have experience, maybe he wants them to shake things up or probably does. >> well, because i think the american people partly elected donald trump the first time to shake things up and i think that's part of his appeal for a lot of voters. i think it will probably be a mix. and i think frankly the first administration was a mix as well. i do think when it comes to the chief of staff role i do think the president -- it is somewhat of a casting call in some of these selections. i think if you look the first go-round at rnc chairman, a four-star general, two members of congress, that there is probably a model that was more having a principle. somebody who's been an effective campaign manager for him and served him so well behind the

scenes may be a better model than people that are out front for managing that white house staff. >> there's a thing about loyalty, and everybody wants it, right? and many great leaders engender it. which doesn't mean that the people who are loyal to you won't tell you what they think. and i think one of the questions that are raised by some of the loyalists who donald trump likes to have around him is that when he needs someone to tell him something else, look at this problem, this issue in a different way, that there is a fear. and we saw it in the first administration. if he feels like you've turned on him or he feels like you've done something wrong, you may be gone, gone fast and gone forever. so how do you balance those things? >> well, i honestly don't think it's that hard, chris. i think there's a perception of the president wanting his loyalty and how it's defined in different ways. but i think the president was

actually more open than commonly per received to suggestions of disagreement. but i think he preferred that be done in private. i think when those disagreements are aired in public and it appears as if you're trying to show him up he takes it differently. you go back to his very public firing of steve bannon, that was after steve had had a profile of himself in "time" magazine claiming he was the brains behind all that trump was doing. when you do those sorts of antics that ends up getting you on the wrong side. but i think if you're willing to be more in private expressing disagreement i think he's usually pretty respectful of that. >> vaughn, i'll bring you in on this. because yes to some of the things obviously but also the question of there were people who found themselves gone because they felt that they were protecting the country. they were protecting the constitution. >> i would have thought i would have been having a conversation

with marc short about what his role in the second administration would be, if i may. but those are conversations that marc and i are not engaged in. instead i think that that is where we saw in the aftermath of 2021 and the january 6th attack only a few key staffers come down to mar-a-lago as donald trump was effectively in isolation, and we saw even up on capitol hill, right? some former cabinet officials that created that organization, america first policy institute as well as project 2025, in order to sort of give those types of officials a place to go and still be engaged in policy think. but to the point that donald trump is now the next president-elect here i think that that is where there is a rather small group of -- or small pool of people to actually choose that have both things, history with donald trump and experience in these departments or agencies. and then also that loyalty to donald trump. that pool is a much smaller pool than donald trump had to work with in 2017.

and so when you're looking at not just the cabinet level you're also looking at the staff level and that is where i think some of these difficult conversations are going to be had as to exactly who can fill these political appointment positions. we're talking about 3,000 of them. in which they trust that these individuals are not only prepared for the job but also loyal to the agenda that donald trump wants to implement come 2025. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you as always. marc, you're going to stay with me. we have a couple of more races to call now for the house of representatives. there are now 36 uncalled seats because democrats have won two more at this hour. the incumbent, don davis from north carolina's 1st district has beaten laura buckout. and in nevada the house 4 steve horsford, a democrat, beats john lee. so two more on the democratic side. bringing them, though, still within 19 of where they would be just to catch up to where the

republicans are once again. two more calls. 36 house races still to be determined. and coming up, the vance effect. how donald trump's vp is ushering in a new era of the maga movement. ement. medicare plan recently? with ehealth, you can compare medicare plans side by side for free. so we invited people to give ehealth a try and discover how easy it can be to find your medicare match. this is pretty amazing. i can go on a vacation with this money. i have quite a few prescriptions. that's why people call us. we're going to compare plans, and i'm gonna try to get you as much bang for your buck as possible. that's great. this one here covers all your prescriptions, your doctors as well. oh, wonderful. i have a hard time with this. that's okay, that's what i'm here for. based on our conversation today, i would highly recommend this plan. you're so helpful. you know, you don't know. i'm excited for you, sir. again, my name is sham. and if you have any other questions, give me a ring. thank you very much. oh, my god, that was super easy. uhhh!

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let's go boys. the way that i approach work, post fatherhood, has really been trying to understand the generation that we're building devices for. here in the comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home wifi solution for millions of families, like my own. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪ less than two years into his political career j.d. vance will soon be next in line to the most powerful position in the world. and at just 40 years old vance

will be the youngest person in decades to be vice president, ushering in a new generation of the maga era. as donald trump jr. put it to the "new york times," "what we have in j.d. is we now have an america first bench. we now have people who can carry that torch. people unafraid to stand up to the tyranny of our government and fight." i want to bring in dasha burns. marc short is also back with us. dasha, has trump chose nen his one-time opponent, now his natural successor? certainly at least temperamentally. >> he does, chris, seem to be the heir apparent to the maga movement. that's especially true if you listen to don jr. or eric trump. those are two figures, trump's sons, who pushed very hard for vance to be his vice presidential nominee. and that was controversial. not a lot of republicans were on board with that initially.

he had a lot of baggage carried with him. he has said some very, very critical things of the former president in the past. but they actually felt like that was a strength, not a detriment for him, because so many americans have felt distrustful of the former president or didn't like the former president, now president-elect. but he could sort of explain in explaining his transition to being a staunch trump supporter, maybe bring some people along with them. when you look at the demographics that turned out for the former president, you look at especially young men, that was a clear strategy in picking vance as well. trying to bring some of these younger right-leaning men and have that 40-year-old, that younger generation as a complement to former president trump. and when you think about how -- we talked a lot about how broey, right? this campaign was. j.d. vance was a big part of that.

think about his past comments about women, childless cat ladies. think about how he played the big role of leaning into this unfounded conspiracy theory about migrants eating cats and dogs. he was a firebrand and he is a firebrand. that's something the former president really likes, that he doesn't back down, is very much aligned with how trump operates, with how his movement operates. and now he is the one sort of carrying the torch. it doesn't mean he's necessarily a shoo-in for the next republican nominee for president, but he certainly is part of that next generation, chris. >> dasha, thank you. and i think we can all say that whoever you are in that position four years is a long time to either make your profile better or make it worse. it's tough, right? if you look at the history of vice presidents, part of the problem a lot of people see for kamala harris was that much of

america didn't know her. first of all, do you think that will be a problem for j.d. vance? you never want to outshine donald trump or your boss, who's the president, anyway. what are the pros and cons for j.d. vance as the number two? >> well, i think that obviously he was an asset to the president on this campaign. i think he is a fierce surrogate for him. i think he was on the ticket for what most people view as a remarkable sweeping victory. i think obviously the coronation of who will be next is a little bit early because you're probably going to have a pretty turbulent four years and there's going to be a lot of challenges presented to you in the course of those four years. and i think as well, chris, that as significant a comeback as it is for donald trump i think if you look at some of the numbers sometimes we overanalyze this, and i think his favorable-unfavorable is still 44-54, which in some ways makes the victory even more astonishing that it was so broad when his unfavorables is a

negative 10. and i think it's really far more a repudiation of the last four years by the american people. and so to suggest as to who's going to set up a coronation four years from now is really premature. >> yeah, you make a really good point. fewer people voted this year than voted four years ago, and you do wonder if there were two candidates that people liked and felt excited to vote for if those numbers might have been bigger. time will tell. but we have four years to take a breath. marc short, it's always good to talk to you. thanks so much. >> thanks, chris. >> coming up, he is the billionaire who calls himself dark gothic maga. we've got new reporting on elon musk and what role he could play in the trump administration when pulitzer prize-winning journalist david fahrenthold joins us. next. renthold joins us next can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation.

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the richest man in the world now has the ear of the soon to be most powerful man in the world. the unprecedented alliance between president-elect donald trump and elon musk could lead to a dramatic makeover of government as we know it. and it could raise serious questions about conflict of interest as musk gets richer. following the election results yesterday his personal wealth grew by more than $26 billion. so what's next? joining us "new york times" reporter david fahrenthold who's been doing extensive reporting on this. always love having you on the

show, david. i want to set up for our watchers, our viewers some of what we've heard lately from trump and musk about this. >> we have a new star. a star is born. elon. >> you. you're the greatest cutter -- i mean, he look at what you do, you walk in and you just say you want to quit? they go on strike. i won't mention the name of the company but they go on strike and you say that's okay, you're all gone. you're all gone. every one of them is gone. >> we have to reduce spending to live within our means. and you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship. but it will ensure long-term prosperity. >> so the way musk lays it out there it sounds, right? like most americans probably believe. you should be able to pay your bills. i have to pay my bills. the government should pay its bills. but donald trump says he wants to appoint him to run what he calls the department of government efficiency.

so what could that look like? >> well, it's important to note that this was elon's idea. this was something he sort of forced on trump. they were in a podcast interview back in august and elon said several times, hey, what about this department of government efficiency? and then trump would go off into some digression and elon would say no, back to that government efficiency, we should have it and i should run it. so it's his idea. he hasn't said that much about how it would work but it's clear he has huge ambitions wants to cut $2 trillion in federal spending that nearly half of all government agencies are unnecessary. it is clear he has a really expansive ambition for this job. that said, it's not clear that he would ever have the legal authority to do any of that on his own or that the people who would have that authority like congress would be interested in following his suggestions. >> yeah, and let's just talk about the implication. let's just talk about like major cuts to the federal government. it could impact i think it's somewhere around 450,000 federal employees just living in d.c., virginia and maryland. of course there are federal offices all around the country. i think it's just shy of 3

million jobs, something like 2.9 million federal jobs and yet you report musk has talked to trump about actually hiring some people including his own spacex employees. tell us about that. >> it's really important to see this in the context of what is musk's relationship with the federal government and the answer is that musk has an enormous relationship with the federal government already. they are very lucrative for him. he makes billions of dollars in contracts from nasa, the defense department paying his rocket company spacex to shoot their satellites into operate. he also has fights with all kinds of different agencies where he feels like these regulators, the faa, the fish and wildlife service, the national highway transportation safety administration are holding up or slowing down things he wants his companies to do. so this -- even if he doesn't cut a dollar from the budget, the mere fact that musk will have the chance to oversee all these agencies gives him leverage over them. that could be leverage he could use to get investigations to go away, to get purchase orders to go up. or as you mentioned, to try to get some of his own people,

spacex people placed in the agencies that are spacex's customers. basically he's on both sides of the transaction now. >> the other side of the transaction is that trump has not hidden how he feels about people who are successful, people who are famous. at one rally i think he said we have to make life good for our smart people, and he thinks elon musk is very, very, very smart. so do various investigations and reviews, for example, of his companies and how they operate, do those go away potentially? >> well, none of it's happened yet. so it's possible they don't. but it's clear that is what musk is after. when people ask him what are you going to do, tell us an example of something that's inefficient in government that you're going to cut, he'll name some agency that's overseeing or slowing down or regulating him. so it's clear that he sees that in his own interests and this job cutting government to be sort of intertwined and the things that slow him down he feels like are the first ones to go. so yes, i would expect there would be some pressure from trump or musk or both for these

investigations to go away. that's not guaranteed that they will. but it certainly seems like i would not want to be the person who is investigating mr. musk's companies while he is in a position of power in the government. >> yeah, and just very quickly to give the bottom line, he contributed in one way or another about what, $100 million to donald trump's campaign? >> more than that. >> david fahrenthold, always great to have you on the show. thank you. and still ahead, how the top ten richest people on the planet are already cashing in after donald trump's victory. and we're standing by for a big decision at the top of the hour. the fed expected to cut interest rates. what exactly they do we'll tell you as soon as it happens, and what it means for your bottom line. but first, evacuations are under way in southern california as powerful winds massive life-threatening wildfires. a live report on the conditions from ventura county after this. s

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people are trying to ban books from public schools and public libraries. yes, libraries. we all have a first amendment right to read and learn different viewpoints. that's why every book belongs on the shelf. yet book banning in the u.s. is worse than i've ever seen. it's people in power who want to control everything. well, i say no to censorship. and i say yes to freedom of speech and expression. if you do too, please join us in supporting the american civil liberties union today.

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you're helping to protect the rights of all people. the aclu is in all 50 states, d.c. and puerto rico defending our first amendment right of free speech and all of your constitutional rights. because we the people, means all of us. so please, call or, go online to myaclu.org today. fierce winds are fueling a massive wildfire that's threatening a mind boggling 35 money homes. it's already destroyed some houses and has consumed 14,500 acres in southern california. ventura's fire captain has described the mountain fire as trying to put out a blow torch with a squirt gun. thousands of people have been forced from their homes. those high winds certainly are not helping. nbc's morgan chesky is live in

camarillo heights, what's the latest where you are? >> reporter: the damage is stunning when you realize how quickly this fire has spread, barely more than 24 hours, and we have seen at least a dozen homes on this street that have been leveled as a result of this mountain fire. we are standing in front of one right now, and as we push in, you can see it's all but incinerated here as a result of this fire that started just around at 9:00 a.m. yesterday. these santa ana winds, chris, as you mentioned, topping 50, 60 miles an hour pushed these flames into this neighborhood, tearing through these homes one by one. fortunately, we know evacuations were effective in getting people out of this area. no injuries reported as of right now, whether it be homeowners or firefighters of which there are hundreds fighting this blaze. an incredibly concerning situation right now, and we are at zero percent containment. because the winds are so

incredibly high here, planes have not been able to make water drops. they have been relying on helicopters that have been equipped with the infrared technology that allowed night drops here. again, because of the santa ana winds, they have only been able to do so much in trying to slow the spread of this fire that's currently making its way to the northeast, east portion. we can hear one of those helicopters flying over us right now. chris, there is some hope that these winds might die down over the weekend. but this is the time of year where they could be coming back next week and proving to be an issue as crews make their way through this area, trying to make sure there are not any hot spots in place and there aren't flare ups posing an issue going forward. right now, this mountain fire, incredibly concerning and incredibly dynamic fire here, north of los angeles, chris. >> those winds are carry what looks like not much, just a spark. it can set a whole other area

ablaze. morgan chesky, stay safe out there. thanks for your reporting. coming up, why the biden administration is preparing for a potential surge of migrants at the border. we have more nbc news reporting. stay close, more "chris jansing reports" right after this. repor. t is proven to moisturize dry skin all day. you'll love our formula for face, too. aveeno® ♪ music ♪ ♪ unnecessary action hero! ♪ ♪ unnecessary. ♪ was that necessary? no. neither is missing your daughter's competition to do payroll. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you don't have to miss your daughter's big day. time to shine. get paycom and make the unnecessary unnecessary. why use 10 buckets of water

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