Joe Biden is still president, but you wouldn't really know it.

Elon Musk and his partner, the president-elect, Donald Trump, are making it clear that they are already in charge.

Musk, the world's richest man, is also the most powerful man in Washington right now.

We'll explain how this came to be.

Next.

This is Washington Week with the Atlantic.

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

Everyone's favorite subject, government shutdown, is on the table this week, as is the role of Elon Musk in the coming administration.

Also in the news this week, Donald Trump's

desire to prosecute Liz Cheney for investigating Donald Trump. Joining me to discuss all of this,

Azma Khalid, a White House correspondent for NPR and co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast.

Mark Leibovic is my colleague and a staff writer at the Atlantic.

Ashley Parker is a senior national political correspondent for the Washington Post, and Vivian Salama is a national politics reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Thank you all for being here.

The topic is Elon Musk. I want you all to watch a clip from Rosa DeLora, the Democratic Congresswoman

from Connecticut, which will give you a sense of what people are saying on the hill and off this

week about this new Mar-a-Lago dynamic.

The Democrats are in the minority in this body. When you have the pen, which is what the Republicans have, they write the bill.

They write the bill.

They post the bill.

They agreed on a bill.

And you know what?

They got scared because President Musk told them.

...