Republicans are mired in chaos and infighting as they humiliate themselves on the national stage again without being able to pass a spending bill to keep the federal government open. Elon Musk is only making matters worse, but that hasn't deterred a faction of the Republican Party from wanting to give him a more formal leadership role. Musk, meanwhile, is only a portion of the corporate feeding frenzy taking advantage of Donald Trump's weaknesses.

After Elon Musk expressed his opposition to a new spending bill, Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters followed suit, undermining House Speaker Mike Johnson and steering the U.S. toward a federal government shutdown. Meanwhile, Democrats are stepping away from the Republican chaos, leaving the GOP stuck in its own inability to govern.

Donald Trump is pressing his grievances with the media through lawsuits, but his case against the Des Moines Register over poll results he didn't like is so poorly conceived from a legal standpoint that his real goal of using the court system as an intimidation weapon is hard to miss.

As some Senate Republicans recoil at some of Donald Trump's more extreme picks to serve in his administration, Trump is turning up the pressure on anyone who would dare defy him. Eric Cortellessa, staff writer for Time, and Tara Palmeri, senior political correspondent for Puck News, discuss.

Despite making a promise of lowering prices an inflation a central part of his presidential campaign, and admitting that that promise was key to his being elected, Donald Trump is now waffling on whether that's even possible. Michelle Goldberg, columnist for the New York Times, and Faiz Shakir, founder and executive director of More Perfect Union, talk with Alex Wagner about Trump's walk back and what his post-election rhetoric suggests about his actual economic priorities.

Alex Wagner reports on Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, who espouses conspiracy theories about the "deep state" and describes the organization he is potentially about to lead as essentially corrupt. Plus, the shifting of voters within the groups that make up the Democratic Party coalition in the 2024 election are prompting a new consideration of how to understand voting blocs like Latino voters and Black voters and women voters and whether those groupings are as relevant as they once were, and as relevant as public policy would suggest. Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School, discusses.

A move by Rupert Murdoch to secure the conservative editorial leadership of his media empire, including Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal in the U.S., in the hands of his son Lachlan, was dealt a blow by a judge who accused the Murdochs of acting in bad faith. Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters discusses with Alex Wagner the significance of the ruling to the future of conservatism and MAGAism in the U.S.

Rep. Jamie Raskin talks with Alex Wagner about the race between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Gerry Connolly for the Democratic Party's top spot on the powerful House Oversight Committee. Raskin left his spot on that committee to become the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, and explains that the leadership shuffle is about gearing up for the fight against Donald Trump's capricious agenda. 

Donald Trump has made clear that his company will be pursuing business opportunities in other countries while he is president and making decisions about the relationship between the U.S. and those countries. Meanwhile the people he is choosing to run his administration are consistently conflicted with responsibilities that overlap with their own interests. 

So much attention has been devoted to the personal shortcomings of Donald Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, that there hasn't been room to look at his opinions on key issues for the military, including the role of women. Senator Elizabeth Warren, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, talks with Alex Wagner about why Hegseth's views could threaten U.S. military recruitment goals. 

While Donald Trump's most extreme picks to serve in his administration are struggling in the spotlight, Trump's revenge agenda is likely to survive even if the nominations of some of his preferred foot soldiers do not. In light of Trump's enthusiasm for payback that could take the form of baseless criminal prosecution, some people are encouraging President Biden to issue pardons to Trump critics, particularly those on the black list of Trump's choice to lead the FBI, Kash Patel.