President Trump and Elon Musk, arguably the two most unorthodox and influential American leaders of the 21st century, are practicing and fine-tuning a fused theory of governing power:

• Masculine maximalism.

Why it matters: Trump and Musk believe powerfully in maximalist action and language, carried out by strong (mostly) white men as blunt, uncompromising instruments to prove new limits both to power and what's possible, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• "Fix Bayonets," Steve Bannon, a first-term Trump official whose "War Room" podcast makes him one of the most widely followed outside MAGA voices, texted us. "We are 'Burning Daylight' — short window to get this done."

Trump, first in business and then politics, and Musk, first in business and now politics, are feeding off each other's natural instincts to do, say and operate by their own new rules.

• These instincts made them rich, famous and impervious to traditional rules, norms and even laws. Their success makes dissuasion by others futile, administration officials tell us.
• Trump and Musk view masculinity quite similarly: tough-guy language, macho actions, irreverent, crude — and often unmoved by emotionalism, empathy or restraint.

🖼️ The big picture: So much has happened so fast, in so little time, that it's hard to measure what matters most in the first 24 days of the Trump presidency (not even a month yet!). But stepping way back and appraising the totality of actions, the biggest shift is the instant imposition of this new power theory across all of government and the Republican Party:

• There's no opposition to this maximalist approach among Trump's staff or major MAGA media voices. And it's extremely limited among Republican lawmakers: Some have privately expressed concerns about DOGE, and winced at Vice President Vance's salvo about judges not being "allowed to control the executive's legitimate power." But even most GOP senators who expressed initial reservations about cabinet picks have turned supportive.

🎧 Behind the scenes: Charlie Kirk — founder and president of Turning Point USA, MAGA's youth wing, and host of one of the most powerful MAGA podcasts — told us the "flood the zone" aggressiveness of the administration's first month will only increase as more top officials get confirmed and rolling. "This is just setting the foundation," Kirk said. "He's set a pace and said: My team can see the tempo I want."

• Kirk, who is very close to Trump, told us Trump's maximalist instincts are being amplified by his battle-hardened staff and Cabinet. "You have an entire Avengers team of people able to fulfill the president's wishes and orders," Kirk said. "When you're in exile for a couple of years, and have people writing your political eulogy, you enter with increased motivation and energy."
• Kirk, whose social media feeds are one of the most vivid reflections (and drivers) of MAGA sentiment, said his callers and followers are thrilled with what they're getting: "They knew he was serious. But they didn't know they'd get it so quickly, decisively and declaratively."

🥊 Reality check: Trump is very intentionally testing the limits of executive power. The WSJ editorial contends: "Trump may be wrong, but there is no constitutional crisis as the cases make their way through the courts."

What to watch: Democrats are beyond baffled on how to deal with Trump, Musk and maximalist power simultaneously. The opposition lacks anyone with a remotely similar social media and traditional media star power, or a coherent legislative way to slow or stop them.

• So Democrats are down to betting on the courts — or a future maximalist public backlash to maximalism.

Column continues below.

The Trump-Musk formula is now manifested everywhere, Jim and Mike write:

1. Power asserted, power claimed: Trump and Musk, much like they did in the private sector, set their own new limits of authority by stating them emphatically and acting aggressively.

• Trump and Musk have moved to cut at least 10,000 federal workers, while vowing "large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)" as part of "workforce reform" ... and offered deferred resignation packages to more than 2 million federal workers. (A federal judge on Wednesday let the "buyout" program proceed. The administration said it's now closed.)
• Trump and Musk sought to freeze federal grants and loans that total in the trillions ... and targeted "hundreds of billions" in fraudulent federal spending. Musk's DOGE gained access to Treasury's highly sensitive payment system.
• Trump threatened a global trade war ... stunned the world by saying the U.S. would "take over" Gaza ... stripped security details from his own former secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and other former officials ... revoked the security clearance of former President Biden, ending his classified intelligence briefings ... and fired more than a dozen inspectors general — watchdogs who root out Executive Branch abuse.
• Trump's Pentagon deployed active-duty troops to the Southwest border. Trump's Justice Department pushed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. And Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who went to prison for political corruption.
• Trump, after campaigning as an American First hardliner, often sounds like limitless expansionist: saying the U.S. would "take over" Gaza ... and pushing to buy Greenland, make Canada the 51st state and take back the Panama Canal.

2. Precedents are for chumps: Both think conventional, polite, rule-following CEOs and leaders are suckers and conformists. They believe wimps and posers play by the rules, worry about hurt feelings or damaged lives, and seek consensus.

• So far, Trump and Musk have every reason to feel vindicated: Most Republicans in Congress have sat by idly, or applauded gleefully, as the two laid claim to congressional powers of the purse and Cabinet scrutiny.
• Trump and Musk are freezing programs and firing federal employees — with scant scrutiny and little transparency.
• A Wall Street Journal editorial points out that Trump deliberately incited legal challenges with his executive order ending birthright citizenship, and by firing a member of the National Labor Relations Board: "Trump believes he'll win on both issues because he thinks previous Supreme Court rulings were wrongly decided." The Journal says Trump is on new legal ground by targeting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and USAID — both of which were established by Congress.

3. Let men be men: Yes, there are some powerful women around Trump — led by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. But the vast majority of the public and private action is carried about by aggressive, white men.

• They include Musk and his all-male DOGE posse; Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff who also is homeland security adviser and immigration lead; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News star and decorated Army combat veteran who's bringing some of Trump's most disruptive dreams to life.

4. Humiliate the humbled: Both Trump and Musk use public appearances and social media posts to bully and pummel critics across politics, media and culture. They scoff at calls for humility and grace when blessed with power.

• In the case of transgender people, they want to restore "biological truth" and "the immutable biological reality of sex," as a Day 1 executive order put it, by making it "the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female."
• Both men like to provoke outrage — and outrageous responses. That makes Trump and Musk the center of the national conversation — and baits hyperventilating critics into outrageous responses.
• Trump and Musk have followed through on their promise to decimate DEI, targeting hundreds of such jobs. The Free Press wrote that the Trump administration, "and many of its highest-profile supporters, are fueling the idea that any minority with a job might not actually deserve it. These people see DEI everywhere."

5. Fused styles, fused worldview: As captured by Vance's AI speech in Paris this week, the most surprising twist in the Trump governing agenda reflects a fusion not just of the Trump and Musk styles but also their worldviews — nationalism with techno-optimism.

• Trump was indifferent or outright hostile to many Big Tech companies in his first term and most of his campaign. But now: Quick, vast AI expansion sits at the heart of his evolving economic agenda and philosophy.
• At the same time, Musk has been a vocal champion of nationalism. They're of one style, and increasingly of one shared mind and ideology.

💡 Join Jim & Mike next Wednesday for a webinar on "How Trump Thinks" — with special guest Marc Caputo, one of the best-wired Trump reporters — as part of our AM Executive Briefing membership series. Subscribe here.

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President Trump's vow to deport "millions and millions" of unauthorized immigrants is meeting harsh reality and already stretching the limits of the government's resources less than four weeks into the new administration, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes.

• Why it matters: A lack of funds, detention space, officers and infrastructure to handle arrested immigrants is frustrating many involved in the effort — and made goals such as 1 million deportations this year seem unrealistic.

🔎 Zoom in: That urgency led the White House to ask Congress for an immediate infusion of $175 billion to help ICE acquire more detention space, boost staff and address other needs.

• "At the end of the day, we've gotta just spend money," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said in a brief interview at the White House. "Unfortunately the American taxpayers are going to have to pay the bill on this."

ICE agents and cooperating agencies say they're arresting 600 to 1,100 people a day, according to disclosures from the White House and ICE on X.

• That would put the administration on track to arrest roughly 25,000 immigrants in Trump's first month of office — far off the reach-goal of deporting 1 million a year that Vice President Vance pitched on the campaign trail.
• Since Trump took office Jan. 20, a lack of detention space has led to more than 460 arrestees being freed under the "catch and release" program.

Go deeper: 5 biggest obstacles to mass deportation plan.

The egg crisis is getting so acute that it's almost a better deal to have a burger for breakfast than an omelet, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes.

• Why it matters: For at least the last 40 years, in terms of price per gram of protein content, it's generally been cheaper to feed people an egg than many other protein sources, like beef.

🍳 By the numbers: Axios analyzed 493 months of CPI data, going back to January 1984, to calculate the cost per gram of protein content for a dozen eggs and a pound of ground beef.

• Eggs have always been the just slightly cheaper of the two — until yesterday, when January CPI data came out and the lines crossed for the first time.

Between the lines: The price of eggs has soared over recent months to record highs as the bird flu pandemic ravages flocks and crimps supply.

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President Trump said he might meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• Trump made the comment a few hours after speaking with Putin in their first publicly disclosed call since Trump took office.

Why it matters: Trump said they had agreed on "starting negotiations immediately" to end the war in Ukraine, which is approaching its third anniversary.

🇺🇦 Trump seemed to make key concessions on Ukraine's behalf ahead of any such talks, saying: "I don't think it is practical for Ukraine to have NATO membership" and that it's "unlikely that Ukraine gets all of its land back."

• But Trump later said he thought "some of that land will come back" to Ukraine.

Keep reading.

The New York Stock Exchange is announcing plans to launch an equities exchange in Dallas, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

• Why it matters: The move comes amid growing interest from corporate America in the Lone Star State, viewing it as business-friendly.

The NYSE, part of the Intercontinental Exchange, said NYSE Chicago will reincorporate in Texas and be renamed NYSE Texas.

• A rival effort to launch a stock exchange in Texas, known as TXSE, has raised $161 million in capital and landed investments from the likes of BlackRock, Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab.

Keep reading.

When "Saturday Night Live" celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend, it's likely many viewers won't tune into NBC's "SNL50" special at all, instead discovering clips via YouTube or social media, Axios' Shane Savitsky writes.

• Why it matters: Late-night TV is a tough business these days, as viewers and revenue continue to decline. But "SNL" has led a shift toward digital, away from its dying time slot.

🎥 The big picture: The early digital stumbles and experiments from "SNL" helped to form the backbone of how we consume content online in 2025.

• The show's "digital shorts," spurred by the addition of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island in 2005, were its first real foray into the power of viral video.

Keep reading.

For the first time in recent history, the percentage of top-grossing films featuring female protagonists equaled the percentage of films with male protagonists, according to a pair of annual studies released yesterday. (AP)

• Why it matters: Movies like "Wicked," "Inside Out 2" and "The Substance" lifted Hollywood's theatrical releases to gender parity in leading roles in 2024.

🧮 By the numbers: Of the 100 top domestic grossing films in 2024, 42% had female protagonists, and 42% had male protagonists, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

• The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that 54% of the top 100 films at the box office in 2024 featured girls and women as protagonists ± a massive jump from the year before (30%).

Go deeper.