President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, two billionaires with strikingly similar DNAs, are fusing into a new, powerful governing-media paradigm, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: This Trump-Musk fusion seems to grow stronger by the day. The two are working together to shape the new White House, the new Senate and the new Cabinet, plus future foreign relations and governing blueprints.

The pair plots and plans at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, where Musk is often camped out. He's one of only a couple of confidants who attends Cabinet-selection sessions in Trump's makeshift Situation Room. The two amplify their thinking and desires on Musk's X.

• You saw this with Trump demanding on X that Senate Republicans allow recess appointments for his cabinet picks, Musk quickly amplifying it — and all three candidates for majority leader quickly falling in line.

🔎 Behind the scenes: Musk, rocking an "OCCUPY MARS" T-shirt, loves to think out loud as he drops innovative — sometimes quirky — ideas for rewiring the federal government.

• Musk thinks differently and is bringing fresh eyes and his unique brain to government structures and systems that can be 70+ years old.
• We hear Trump drinks it in, debating and stress-testing the torrent of ideas from Musk, whose instinct is to start with a blank sheet of paper when determining government staffing.

📱 "I'm happy to be first buddy! 😂" Musk tweeted after a reporter gave him that nickname.

• Kai Trump — Trump's 17-year-old granddaughter, a talented golfer with a big online following — tweeted a photo with Musk at one of Trump's golf clubs on Sunday: "Elon achieving uncle status 😂."

🔭 The big picture: Some of Musk's ideas are impractical. But some of them are sure to be tried, Trump advisers tell us.

• We're told Trump is clear-eyed that Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, benefit from federal incentives and contracts — and could reap a windfall from deregulatory moves by Trump. Plus Musk is trying to maximize the value of his X purchase.
• It's unclear if, or how much, Trump cares about this conflict of interest. And Trump has his own platform, Truth Social, home to most of his social media posts.

Musk, who threw himself into the presidential campaign this past year, has his hands in several Trump projects:

1. He's helping pick the Cabinet and top White House staff.
2. Trump handed Musk the phone during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week. Musk is expected to attend Trump's meeting at Mar-a-Lago this week with Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei.
3. Musk is working on a project that would sit outside the official government to use technology to find trillions in possible budget cuts — his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, in homage to the Musk-friendly cryptocurrency).
4. He's mobilizing his 204 million followers on his X platform to try to elect dark-horse Senate majority leader candidate Rick Scott, a staunch MAGA ally, in tomorrow's secret ballot election.

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Musk visited Trump Tower and the White House back in 2017, at the dawn of the first Trump presidency. But they fully embraced each other in the final months of this past campaign, forming a political alliance unlike any of the modern era, Jim and Mike write.

• Musk poured more than $119 million into a super PAC backing Trump.

Top Republicans tell us Musk made a real difference in Pennsylvania by revving up turnout at a time when the campaign thought the Keystone State might determine who won the presidency.

• Musk amped up swing-state registration with his controversial $1 million-a-day sweepstakes. He headlined his own rallies — and we're told he was greeted so effusively that they seemed like Trump rallies.

🔎 Between the lines: The 78-year-old Trump and 53-year-old Musk might seem like an odd couple at first blush. But, they have striking similarities, according to Republicans close to both men.

• Both understand the power — and tricks — of social media.
• Both had tough, dominating dads.
• Both are rich and have their tentacles in numerous businesses.
• Both revel in stirring the pot — and spreading fact and fiction at scale.
• Both lack the empathy that holds others back.
• Both believe the country and government need a massive shock to be saved.
• Both view themselves as immune to rules and norms that hold other people back.

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President-elect Trump is expected to name Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as secretary of State — a hawkish but mainstream Republican choice that world leaders will find reassuring.

• Why it matters: Rubio, 53, the son of Cuban immigrants, would be the first Latino to be America's top diplomat. He's a hardliner on China, Iran and Cuba, and was one of three finalists to be Trump's VP.

Rubio has served in the Senate since 2011. He ran for president in 2016 before dropping out and endorsing Trump.

• Rubio voted against $95 billion in Ukraine aid in April and has called for Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war with Russia — even if that means Russia keeps some of the territory from the invasion.

👓 The big picture: Less than a week into the transition, Trump has filled a swath of big White House and national security jobs.

• Susie Wiles, co-campaign manager, will be White House chief of staff.
• Tom Homan, former acting ICE director, will be "border czar."
• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 4 House Republican, was picked for UN ambassador.
• Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump's border policies, will be deputy White House chief of staff for policy.
• Former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) will run EPA.
• Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Green Beret and a China hawk, will be national security adviser.

🇮🇱 Go deeper: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's confidant Ron Dermer met Trump in Mar-a-Lago yesterday, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• More on Rubio ... Quick bios of other six picks.

Wall Street bonuses are set to rise sharply after two years of declining payouts, Axios' Emily Peck writes from projections released this morning.

• Why it matters: It's been a good year for most of the financial industry, and big bonuses can mean a big boon for the New York economy.

🔮 What we're watching: Next year the big question mark is how the policy changes from the new administration — tax cuts but also tariff increases and possibly more lax regulation — will change the game.

• Keep reading ... Get Axios Markets.

Elon Musk leads Fortune's first list of the 100 most powerful people in business, out this morning.

• Why it matters: Leaders on the list "share one defining trait: their actions and words influence what others think and do," Fortune executive editor Lee Clifford said.

The top 10, all CEOs:

1. Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX 
2. Jensen Huang, Nvidia
3. Satya Nadella, Microsoft
4. Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
5. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase
6. Tim Cook, Apple 
7. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta 
8. Sam Altman, Open AI 
9. Mary Barra, GM
10. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet

🔎 Between the lines: The list includes leaders from 70 American companies, 15 from Asia, 14 in Europe and one from the Middle East. 18 are women.

• Full list.

A second Trump administration presents a dilemma for scientists and career staff at top federal health agencies, who expect big changes: Stay and fight — or leave, Axios' Caitlin Owens, Alison Snyder and Tina Reed write.

• Why it matters: A brain drain of the nation's top scientific minds could hobble research and dissolve institutional knowledge at agencies such as the FDA, NIH and CDC.

Trump has said he'll let transition team member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "go wild" on food and medicine. Republicans have been chomping at the bit to reform the CDC and overhaul the NIH post-pandemic.

• RFK Jr. has said "entire departments" at the FDA "have to go."

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Advocates and lawyers are preparing to defend immigrants against mass deportations, Axios' Astrid Galván reports.

• Why it matters: Roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. In addition to mass deportations, President-elect Trump's proposals would change how the U.S. has conducted immigration enforcement for decades.

Immigrant advocates say they've been here before and have been preparing for the possibility of a second Trump administration for years.

• "We're ready to fight" mass raids and deportations "both at the legal level, at the advocacy level, and (by) going to the streets," says Maribel Hernández Rivera, the ACLU's director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration.

Reality check: Trump is coming into office with more seasoned staff to carry out his goals.

• Even though immigration enforcement is the job of the federal government, some of the states with the largest shares of undocumented immigrants, including Florida and Texas, now have GOP governors who would likely aid deportation efforts.
• The administration also can work with like-minded local police and sheriff's departments to implement 287(g), a program that allows them to turn immigrants over to federal authorities if they're arrested on suspicion of a crime.

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Abolitionist Harriet Tubman — the first woman to lead an American military operation during a war — was posthumously awarded the rank of general yesterday, Axios' Rebecca Falconer writes.

• "She continues to be our north star towards justice," Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a Veterans Day event promoting Tubman to brigadier general in the state's National Guard.

Her great-great-great-grandniece received the commissioning proclamation on her behalf.

• Tubman, who was born in 1822 and lived to be 91, is best known for her role as a conductor in the Underground Railroad network of antislavery activists and safe houses.

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