What does a post-Trump Republican Party look like? The past week has given us a clear glimpse of the most likely trajectory, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: As the White House and President Trump's political ecosystem mobilized after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, rising power centers — which we'd been hearing about for some time — were suddenly in plain sight.

Here's what to watch, based on our conversations with top White House and MAGA officials, and reporting by Axios' Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt:

1. Turning Point-MAGA integration: Look at Monday's appearance by Vice President JD Vance as guest host of a memorial edition of "The Charlie Kirk Show" as an early step in the further meshing of Trump's political operation with Kirk's group.

• Turning Point USA was the brainchild and reflection of Kirk. His loss is a major personal and political blow to Trump and his political team, which relied on his organization to convert, amp up and turn out young voters.
• "We have four years to turn Trump voters into Republican voters," a top Trump adviser said. "And a big part of that was Charlie. He was the heart of that. Charlie would want us to carry on with his work. And we're going to."

2. JD as heir apparent: Vance, the GOP's most likely 2028 nominee, is expected to leverage his star power by crisscrossing the country ahead of next year's midterms — a platform in which he'll cast himself as a warrior against the left.

• Vance, 41, is building his political network as finance chair of the Republican National Committee, putting him in the room with top donors and state power brokers nationwide.

3. Marco Rubio as potential V.P.: Rubio, 54, is the most powerful secretary of state since Henry Kissinger — who, like Rubio, simultaneously served as national security adviser. After the slaying of Kirk, Rubio flexed his ministerial muscle by announcing he'll revoke the visa of any immigrant who mocks or celebrates Kirk's death.

• Moves like that, Rubio's mammoth policy portfolio, his sense of humor and his depth of both governmental and football knowledge (he's a Miami Dolphins fan) have made him a favorite of Trump's, and a constant presence in the West Wing.
• Trump sometimes likes to muse about Rubio or Vance or both running for president to succeed him. It's hard to see them running against each other right now: They're friends from the Senate, as are their staffs.
• But Rubio ran once before, in a brutal 2016 contest against Trump. So don't count it out. He could just as well bide his time and strike a deal with Vance and become his vice-presidential running mate. No one knows.
• "The question is: Does Marco run, and what does that look like?" said one person close to Rubio. "I don't know. No one knows. We're not sure if Marco knows. And anyone who says they know is lying."

4. Susie Wiles keeps running the show: Vance has told others he'd like her to manage his campaign, as she did Trump's with Chris LaCivita. If there's a Vance-Rubio ticket, instead of a fight, it probably gets her a lot closer to yes.

• Wiles has made it clear that her future in the White House, and what comes after Trump's term, is up to the president. So whether she stays past the midterms is firmly in the hands of the most mercurial mind in Washington.
• If she left, the favorites to succeed her are two White House deputy chiefs of staff, Stephen Miller and James Blair.

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5. Don Jr. is a JD guy: Donald Trump Jr., 47, was Vance's biggest cheerleader in the 2024 veepstakes, and there's no reason to believe he won't be behind Vance again come 2028, Jim and Mike continue.

• Don Jr. and Vance share an inner circle and were both close with Kirk. The Don-Vance ecosystem is more powerful than ever.

6. Family stays deeply involved: The president's son, Eric Trump, 41, has a book coming Oct. 14, "Under Siege: My Family's Fight to Save Our Nation," with a foreword by his dad. Eric Trump is a frequent family messenger on Fox News, and the book will keep him in the conservative conversation.

• Lara Trump — former RNC co-chair and Eric's wife — has a Saturday night show on Fox News and is likely to remain a MAGA influencer past 2028.

7. Podcasts and podcasters as center of gravity: President Trump's marathon appearances on male-oriented shows made 2024 the first "podcast election." That'll be even more true. Fox News' Greg Gutfeld said on "The Five" while discussing Kirk's death: "The media is dead to us on this story. They built this thing up. We're dealing with it. We are going to act. We don't care what the whataboutism is anymore. That s**t's dead."

• Alex Bruesewitz, the young Trump adviser who was the architect of the podcast strategy, has become a principal himself — a coveted guest for shows and events.

8. Even more combative MAGA: Vance used his time at the Kirk show's microphone to exhort MAGA supporters to expose liberals "celebrating Charlie's murder."

• "Call them out — hell, call their employer," Vance said.
• Vance showed he plans to carry on Trump's legacy of combative politics — and potentially even kick it up a notch. Vance took on liberals aggressively, asserting that "most of the lunatics in American politics today are members of the far left."

🎙️ The bottom line: Susie Wiles sent a clear message about MAGA's future posture during a rare public appearance, speaking on MAGA megaphone Scott Jennings' radio show the day after Kirk was killed.

• "I called everybody in before they went home last night and said: 'Go home, hug your children, hug your spouse, be careful, take precautions,'" Wiles recalled. "'And don't let your voice get softer. Charlie would want everybody to speak as they had been — and more.'"

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Defense tech upstart Anduril Industries, just eight years old, is scheming to build and fly robo-wingmen for the military, Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest writes.

• The company — based in Orange County, California — was founded by Palmer Luckey, who made billions selling his virtual reality startup to Facebook.

🔭 Zoom in: In the past few weeks, Anduril publicized ...

• A $1.1 billion deal with Australia for a fleet of its Ghost Shark extra-large autonomous submarines.
• A $159 million prototyping arrangement for the U.S. Army's Soldier Borne Mission Command effort to build a night vision and mixed reality system.
• A contract for "conceptual designs" of U.S. Navy drone wingmen that would fly alongside fighter jets.

The big picture: Anduril, with headquarters in Costa Mesa, is the 93rd-largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense revenue, according to the Defense News Top 100.

• Now it's muscling into competition with ever bigger players. It was valued at $30 billion+ in June.

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The mood among the country's highest earners is souring, Axios' Emily Peck writes from new Morning Consult data.

• Why it matters: The U.S. economy depends on rich people spending money. Any decline in sentiment could spell trouble ahead.

🧮 By the numbers: Consumer sentiment among those earning $100,000 or more is still in positive territory, but has fallen about 10 points over the past month, according to Morning Consult's index.

• The research firm measures people's feelings about their own personal finances, business conditions overall and whether a major purchase is a good idea.

Keep reading.

A week after Israel's missile strikes in Qatar, it's clear not only that the assassination attempt against Hamas leaders failed, but that it backfired, Axios' Barak Ravid writes.

• Why it matters: The strike increased the feeling inside the Trump administration and around the world that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is reckless and has become a destabilizing force in the region.

💡 How it happened: Israel's plan was to take out several of Hamas' top leaders all at once as they met to discuss President Trump's Gaza peace proposal.

• Five Hamas members were killed, along with a Qatari security officer. But the key targets all survived. The failed attack led to the indefinite suspension of negotiations. Hamas' negotiators went underground, and outraged Qatari mediators suspended their efforts.

Keep reading.

Hedge fund Alden Global increased its takeover offer for Dallas Morning News publisher DallasNews yesterday to $20 per share, topping a $16.50-per-share proposal from Hearst, Axios Pro Rata author Dan Primack writes.

• Why it matters: A bidding war for newspapers seems almost as antiquated as print editions (something Alden is pledging to maintain in Dallas).

Hearst in July announced an agreement to buy DallasNews for $14 per share. Alden subsequently submitted an unsolicited, nonbinding $16.50-per-share bid.

• DallasNews stuck with Hearst, which yesterday increased its own bid to $16.50 per share.

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Alex Pfeiffer — White House principal deputy communications director — is joining Watchtower Strategy, a rising public affairs firm in President Trump's Washington, as a managing director specializing in strategy and crisis communications.

• Why it matters: Pfeiffer is one of the most senior officials to leave the administration, which has had little Year 1 turnover — and is a veritable Rock of Gibraltar compared with Trump I.

Pfeiffer, 29, quietly departed in early September after three years with the Trump operation — starting with the MAGA Inc. super PAC in 2022.

• Pfeiffer joined the Trump campaign in West Palm Beach, Florida, in August, then moved into the White House on Inauguration Day. Pfeiffer earlier worked for Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

👓 Between the lines: Watchtower, a public affairs firm formed in January to help C-suites navigate government, has deep wiring into Trump World, Capitol Hill leadership and upper echelons of the Fortune 100.

• Arthur Schwartz, a Watchtower partner, told me: "Alex is one of the most effective communicators in the Republican Party, and we're thrilled to share his talents with our clients."

The Watchtower chairman is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The CEO is Dan Conston. In addition to Schwartz, other partners are Jeff Miller, Cliff Sims and Brian O. Walsh.

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Almost 34 million viewers watched the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Fox last weekend — the network's best-ever audience for a regular-season Sunday game.

• Among the factors juicing viewership (with Taylor Swift watching from the VIP suite of Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium): The game was a rematch of the last Super Bowl ... the lead-in was overtime Cowboys-Giants ... and Fox is aggressive about promoting across its platforms.
• It's the most-watched Week 2 NFL telecast on record, and the most-watched telecast of any kind since the Super Bowl, Fox Sports said.

By comparison, about 24.6 million tuned in to watch President Trump's inauguration in January, according to Nielsen.

• His joint address to Congress in March had 36.6 million.
• The Oscars got just under 20 million viewers.

📺 Stunning stat: NFL games represented 72 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts last year.

• 16 were political events.