These are challenging days for Democrats ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Their party has yet to land on a clear message or a leading messenger, leaving the president-elect mostly unchallenged,

At the Atlantic, Russell Burman details this reasoning in his new article “Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All ”: Now a clearer picture of the election has emerged, complicating the debate over whether Democrats need to reinvent themselves—and whether voters really abandoned them at all.

Elon Musk says comments of “President Musk” is part of a media conspiracy to “drive a wedge between” him and Donald Trump, but he hasn’t outright rejected his new moniker. Comments about Musk’s political influence rolled in after he went on a posting spree Wednesday to threaten GOP lawmakers with retribution if they didn’t reject a stopgap budget he felt had too wide of a scope.