folks that he trust such as steve homan, susie wiles, elise stefanick. gives you an idea of what his administration will look like. >> and it also gives you a flavor of how he plans to do his business. he's making new demands for whoever is going to lead this senate that is now gop-controlled. and we've seen the responses from those who want the job. what can you tell us about this? >> well, certainly, the race now for control of washington moves to the united states senate. and the reason why is you have three gentlemen right now running to replace mitch mcconnell as the republican leader. that person will become the majority leader next year. will wield an incredible amount of power. will be the person who is charged with pushing through donald trump's agenda in the united states senate. right now, we have donald trump saying that he basically wants the new majority leader to work with him at every level. in fact, he is calling for recess appointments for his, for his folks and the reason why he's doing that is because he's concerned that he may not ge

in a statement to cnn, trump said, quote, i am honored to nominate chairwoman elise stefanick to serve in miss cabinet as u.s. ambassador to the united nations. elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart america- first fighter. so this is just one announcement, a sense of where he might be going in terms of foreign policy. let's get right to cnn's steve cotourneau for where this fits and what else might be coming, steve? >> yeah, john. stefanick is someone who has been increasingly close with trump over the years. she was actually one of his -- on the short list to be a potential running mate for donald trump. she campaigned pretty aggressively for that job. ultimately, though, did not make his final three, and obviously, was not the choice. but she was always in line for a potential job in the trump administration. and now she takes the job of u.n. ambassador, assuming that she is confirmed, that is also a job that nikki haley once had, interestingly enough, someone that ultimately grew to become one of donald trump's biggest rivals in the republican party, and who will not be pa

you have people like elon musk, you have rfk jr., tulsi gabbard, elise stefanick, senator tom cotton and the rest. what do you make of these folks here joining the administration? >> sara, i think it's better than it could have been. honestly, a lot of us were concerned that it would be campaign operatives that would come into senior positions, people who had no experience in government. just take an example. two people being considered for secretary of defense, tom cotton, as you mentioned, mike pompeo. pompeo. both have served for a long time in government, both have been trump loyalists, but both know the national security community extremely well and they're not the types you would consider to be unexperienced political operatives. i do think there is some cause for optimism there, and you mentioned elon musk. while a lot of folks may not like elon musk's politics, beyond elon, a lot of people in the technology sector that previously weren't politically active, are considering coming into the administration. folks that do have a lot of experience in emerging tech, competition in

talking about people like senator marco rubio, who trump has tapped for secretary of state or elise stefanick for u.n. ambassador, but some of his more recent picks could really cause some headaches up on the hill for trump and his team, in particular, of course, matt gaetz, julie had some great reporting there about how many republican senators have expressed that they have concerns about him actually being able to get confirmed. and matt gaetz is somebody who hasn't exactly lined up a lot of allies or friends on the hill over the years. and so him getting through, i think, trump's team and trump himself, are determined to see him become the attorney general, but how that happens remains to be seen. >> yeah. ali, you share a by-line on a report about trump's new department of government efficiency, which will be co-led by billionaire elon musk and trump's gop primary rival, vivek ramaswamy. they'll be tasked with reigning in the government spending and downsizing the federal workforce. but you write that there are serious doubts as to whether the agency can accomplish that. can you explain w