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Should Donald Trump make good on his threats to sue media organizations and critics whom he believes have disparaged him, he will end up "looking like the fool that he is."

That is the opinion of conservative lawyer and Trump critic George Conway during an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday morning.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) attacked Hunter Biden when asked about billionaire Elon Musk's outsized role in influencing President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mullin touted Musk as the solution to government spending after the billionaire temporarily derailed a bill to prevent a government shutdown.

A decision by Lara Trump to withdraw her name from consideration to fill Sen. Marco Rubio's seat representing Florida was greeted with skepticism and no small amount of mirth on MSNBC on Sunday morning.

Late Saturday night, just days after she reaffirmed she was very interested in taking Rubio's place after he was nominated by her father-in-law to be his next secretary of state, the wife of Eric Trump issued a statement explaining, "I could not have been more honored to serve as RNC co-chair during the most high-stakes election of our lifetime and I’m truly humbled by the unbelievable support shown to me by the people of our country, and here in the great state of Florida," before announcing a "big announcement" to come in January.

Reacting to a fire-breathing speech given by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) in Phoenix on Saturday, both former RNC head Michael Steele and ex-Rep. Dave Jolly (R-FL) both laughed off the MAGA lawmaker's threats aimed at his colleagues.

On Saturday, Donalds told a crowd at a Turning Point USA gathering, "In Washington we have one simple job that we got to do and we've got to deliver the agenda that you worked hard for, that you gave up your time for. And I'm going to tell you this, we're going to accomplish that agenda in Washington, D.C., and if any of my colleagues decide to get in the way, you will hear it directly from me and they will be held accountable."

After viewing the video clip Steele, the co-host of MSNBC's "The Weekend," smirked and asked, "What the hell are you gonna do?"

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He repeated, "What the hell you going to do? You don't represent the 720,000 people who live in the Maryland Fifth Congressional District. I mean, what -- what are you going to do? I mean this sort of, you know, banal kind of threats and crazy talk –– the reality of it is, you negotiated a bill to put the nation's fiscal house in order, budget, right? And along comes Elon Musk who says, 'Oh, no, we're not doing that.' I guess Byron gets all on board with it, then what do they do? They wind up with the exact same bill."

Jolly chimed in by explaining, "Byron Donalds is a member looking for his place in the world and hasn't found it. He's run for speaker a couple times, he maybe runs for governor –– he doesn't know. He hasn't landed anything in the [Donald] Trump orbit so when you can't find your place in politics you get angry. He's not going to do anything about it."

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Republican lawmakers have set themselves up for failure in the next year, according to a former Republican staffer.

Brendan Buck, a former key adviser to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), appeared on MSNBC Saturday. Buck, who was counselor to Ryan and press secretary to former speaker John A. Boehner, has previously defended the president elect against allegations of parallels to Nazi leaders.

There is a "break" from Donald Trump happening among Republican lawmakers, according to a congressional insider who broke down the recent votes for a bill to fund the federal government.

United States Representative Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), who previously called out President-elect Donald Trump's "incoherent" plans for immigration on CNN, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday.

According to multiple journalists appearing on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon, there is a growing belief that Donald Trump won't be getting everything his heart desires from GOP lawmakers when he is sworn in on January 20.

Speaking with host Alex Witt, Melanie Zanona of Punchbowl News claimed that the sheer number of Republican House members who balked at the version of the budget bill the president-elect was demanding has given them a sense of what host Witt called "strength in numbers" from his attacks.

"On that one bill that had the debt limit demand, you had 38 Republicans who voted against it, so that was a little surprising even for some of us on Capitol Hill to see that level of Republicans," Zanona told the host. "Most of them were fiscal conservatives, people who have made, you know, cutting back spending really a hallmark of their congressional careers, a lot of Freedom Caucus members."

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"But there were some surprising votes in there as well," she elaborated. "There was a member of the leadership team, Rep. Blake Moore from Utah. There were some retiring members which are some interesting votes."

"I think the big picture here is that there are some moments where there's going to be some willingness to defy Trump," she predicted. " don't think there's going to be a lot of those moments, but there's going to be some clashes between the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch."

"As far as the primary threats, I was talking to some members on Capitol Hill this week, and they said ' Well, guess what? Trump can't primary all of us.' In the end I think it was 170-something Republicans who voted for that final bill."

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During a discussion with the president of the House Majority PAC which is aiming at retaking control of the House from the GOP in 2026, former RNC head Michael Steele said there is a looming civil war coming in the Republican Party at the same time due to the machinations of Elon Musk.

With the Democratic campaign strategist Mike Smith explaining which GOP House members he thinks are vulnerable in the 2026 midterms, MSNBC co-host Steele said Democrats may get an assist if Musk makes good his threat of on primarying Republicans who have balked at his demands.

"There are races that people don't think are going to be competitive, and that's why we laid down a marker to say raise your hand, we're going to be in the states talking to you, trying to figure out how do we build a robust campaign," Smith explained.

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"The other part that I find interesting, and this is one of the things that I think the Democrats should keep an eye on, is that you're already beginning to see emerge within the Republican Party two camps.," Steele replied. "There's the hard-core MAGA Trump, Trump, 'Yeah, baby, get the hat. I got the hat,' right? But there's now emerging Musk Republicans."

"I find that to be interesting.," he continued. "I will be very curious to see how that plays out in the types of candidates Republicans have emerging in primaries competing against each other for those seats that the Democrats are looking at."

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As part of a discussion on MSNBC on Saturday morning, the former head of the Republican National Committee suggested that Donald Trump is letting billionaire adviser Elon Musk call the shots because he's not the man he used to be.

During a spirited debate over Musk leaning on GOP lawmakers to pass a budget bill to his and Trump's liking –– while also noting they had some disagreements about the debt limit –– MSNBC "The Weekend" co-host Michael Steele pointed out that Musk was the most prominent critic of Republicans who had agreed to a compromise deal with Democrats.

With co-host Symone Sanders Townsend admitted she was surprising herself by defending the president-elect, she insisted that the billionaire Musk needs Trump more than Trump needs him.

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"Like he needs them, he's the one with these government contracts that he wants to keep and this access he wants to continue to have," she stated. "He put the pressure on people and got it out. Elon Musk is playing the H-E-L-L out of Republicans in Congress and the president-elect, and I'm wondering when Trump is going to show up, honey."

"Where is the Donald Trump from 'The Apprentice,' the man talking about hired, fired, hired, fired, you go. The Donald Trump I thought the people elected –– not me but the other people –– he's the one that would usually like to lay down the law and be clear about where he stands. He posts through it all," she insisted.

"Well, maybe he's too old for the job now," Steele interjected.

"He is aging," Sanders Townsend conceded.

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A CNN anchor politely interjected as a Republican strategist bemoaned that Democrats are pre-writing "dystopian fan fiction" about President-elect Donald Trump's incoming pick to lead the FBI.

Trump nominated Kash Patel to be his next FBI director. Patel has vowed to “come after” the media and the so-called "deep state."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) warned CNN's Jim Sciutto that Republicans could very well slash critical programs like Social Security and Medicare in the next Congress — but Sciutto wanted to know what exactly Democrats plan to do about it.

"So let's talk about what comes next, because Republicans in their private meeting, they made a handshake agreement to cut $2.5 trillion in spending next year when they presumably hope to raise the debt limit to get to that figure," said Sciutto. "It strikes me and a lot of others that entitlements could be endangered. Does this mean that Republicans, despite what they say, are going to propose cuts to Medicare and Social Security, perhaps Medicaid?"