Donald Trump's advisers are hoping to get bipartisan support for at least some of his less controversial nominees — starting this week with Scott Turner, Trump's pick for Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Driving the news: They're reaching out to some key Democrats this week to arrange meetings with Turner to discuss housing and other issues on which they might find some common ground.

• Turner is scheduled to meet with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the incoming ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, as well as every Republican on the panel, starting with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a person familiar with Turner's confirmation plan told Axios.

Zoom in: Turner's meeting with Warren will be among a very few that have occurred between a Senate Democrat and a Trump's Cabinet nominee. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) broke the ice last week by chatting with two of Trump's picks.

• Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard are among those facing particularly rigorous scrutiny from Senate Democrats. Others — including Turner — are less likely to face many hurdles.

What we're watching: Besides Warren and the Senate Banking Republicans, Turner is scheduled to meet with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) as part of a jam-packed schedule that includes meetings with 12 senators over four days.

• Turner — a former NFL player who ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump's first term — hopes that the closed-door meetings with Democrats will help build support for certain measures beyond the 53-47 GOP majority that reflects the Senate's partisan divide.

What they're saying: "As the ranking member, Senator Warren plans to meet with all the major nominees who will testify in the Banking Committee," a Warren spokesperson told Axios.

• "She will determine support based on each nominees' track records of standing up to special interests and fighting for an economy that works for working people."
• Senator Andy Kim (D-N.J.), another member of Senate Banking, told Axios that he's "more than just open to meeting with these nominees. I expect to, and I expect to hear from them how they'll put the needs of working families before politics and partisanship."
• "The incoming HUD secretary has a big job to help unlock a much-needed decade of building to drive down costs and making the American Dream of affording a home within reach for everyone," Kim added.

The big picture: Warren, Kim and Fetterman are among the few Democrats who have expressed a willingness to meet with — and possibly support — some of Trump's nominees.

• Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she'll support Sean Duffy's nomination for Transportation secretary after meeting with him last week, and Fetterman has said he'll back Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for ambassador to the UN.
• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump's pick for secretary of State, and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), the nominee for Labor secretary, have been praised by Trump critics and also are likely to get Democratic votes.

Between the lines: Axios has learned that Turner will focus on four major themes during his meetings with senators:

1. Working with states to ban urban camping and help get people off the streets through rehabilitation programs.
2. Ensuring undocumented immigrants — whom Trump has vowed to deport — are ineligible for public housing to help end sanctuary cities, and reinstate rules that prevent immigrants dependent on public benefits from receiving legal status.
3. Revitalizing rural and urban communities and encouraging private capital investment to create opportunities for upward mobility.
4. Overhauling homelessness policies and holding corrupt public housing agencies accountable.

Zoom out: The emerging focus on getting at least some Democratic support underscores how differently Trump's current batch of nominees is being received than his first-term picks.

• In 2017, 36 of the chamber's 52 Republicans supported every Trump Cabinet nominee, according to data compiled by the New York Times. David Shulkin — Trump's pick to lead the Veterans Administration — was confirmed 100-0.

A group of Donald Trump's MAGA allies is seizing on his election to push a new ETF focused on investing in companies that reject diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which Trump has railed against.

Why it matters: The fund — pitched to potential investors last week during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago — is the latest example of a Trump-inspired backlash to corporations and retailers that some conservatives see as promoting overly progressive social agendas.

Zoom in: Trump's team says the president-elect isn't involved with the ETF, which is dubbed the Azoria Meritocracy fund.

• But the fund's CEO and co-founder James Fishback is a friend of Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy. And last week, Trump himself popped into the meeting of potential investors, who included Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Invest.

Fishback says the new fund will mirror the S&P 500 index — but will exclude three dozen companies that it sees as using DEI quotas in hiring or promotions. They include:

• Starbucks, which has said it wants to "achieve racial and ethnic diversity of at least 30% at all corporate levels and 40% of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025." (Starbucks, in a statement to the Financial Times, said its diversity goals had expired and were not renewed.)
• Best Buy, which aims for "1 in 3 new corporate salaried positions to be filled by BIPOC," or Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
• The United Rentals equipment company, which wants 40% "gender and ethnic diverse representation" in U.S. sales and management roles.

What they're saying: "When great companies ... throw hiring standards out the window as they race to 'out-woke' one another, the inevitable result is mediocrity and underperformance," Fishback said.

• Fishback noted that if the excluded companies change their hiring practices they could be added back into the actively managed fund, which launches early next year.

Trump supporters see the fund as an opportunistic reflection of Trump winning the election and following through on his promises to resist DEI initiatives.

• "What makes the promise of those elections actually be fulfilled is the starting of new institutions," said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.

The big picture: A growing crowd of conservative players are putting their names or money behind similar efforts.

• Rather than join his father's administration, Trump's son Don Jr. joined the 1789 Capital venture firm, which invests in a "parallel economy" of companies and products with conservative values. He also joined the board of the MAGA-friendly shopping platform PublicSquare, causing shares of its stock to jump.
• Ramaswamy's Strive Asset Management is known as an anti-ESG firm, meaning it rejects companies' environmental, social and governance policies that Strive says conflict with investors' interests.
• Vice President-elect JD Vance and mega-investor Peter Thiel are among the most prominent backers of Strive, which has more than $1 billion in assets across several ETFs. One of its funds, in a seeming echo of Trump's "Drill baby, drill," slogan, invests heavily in oil and gas companies and operates under the ticker DRLL.

Between the lines: Trump's election and pressure from conservative activists are leading some of the biggest players in corporate America and higher education to drop or trim their DEI policies.

• Such programs have been designed to counter decades of bias and underrepresentation affecting minorities, women and LGBTQ+ people.
• They've also been shown to reduce employee attrition and increase motivation. But Trump and his allies have cast the programs as creating bias, particularly against white people.
• Walmart rolled back its DEI programs last month, announcing it would not renew a racial equity center or participate in the Human Rights Campaign's annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees.
• Conservatives also are reviving an effort to push for "fair access" rules aimed at ensuring that politically controversial businesses such as gun manufacturers and fossil fuel companies can't be blocked from banking services.

A board member for a veterans group told Fox News in 2016 that Pete Hegseth had resigned "voluntarily" from the group and was not fired as its leader, according to a private letter obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The eight-year-old letter has surfaced as President-elect Trump's team is trying to save Hegseth's nomination as Defense secretary amid accusations about Hegseth's drinking and conduct toward women.

Zoom in: Randy Lair, a trustee for Concerned Veterans for America, said in the letter than he was writing to Fox News, where Hegseth was a contributor, to "set the record straight" about Hegseth's departure from the group.

• The January 2016 letter appears to be in response to respond to allegations made known to Fox at the time that Hegseth was pushed out as the head of the veterans' advocacy group because of his personal misconduct — claims made public by The New Yorker this week.
• The New Yorker reported that Hegseth was ousted from the group because he was repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity — to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization's events.
• Hegseth has denied that claim.

In his letter to Fox, Lair wrote that Hegseth, who led the CVA from 2013 to 2016, resigned as CEO "as a result of a difference of opinion as to the future of the organization and so that he could focus on other endeavors, including his relationship with Fox News."

• He said Hegseth was not terminated and that CVA and Hegseth mutually agreed that the end of 2015 was the best timing for him to resign.

The big picture: Wednesday was a crucial day for Hegseth's nomination, as Trump's team had him meeting Republican senators on Capitol Hill and making media appearances to defend his character.

• He was scheduled to meet with four Republican senators, some of whom have made clear he will need to answer for allegations of alcohol abuse and mistreatment of women.
• They include the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and Armed Services members Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). Hegseth also met with John Thune (R-S.D.), who will be the Senate majority leader in the congressional session that begins next month.
• Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the 100-member Senate next year, so Hegseth — who's very unlikely to get any support from Democrats — can't lose more than three GOP votes to be confirmed.

Hegseth's media blitz included his mother, Penelope Hegseth, who appeared on Fox News to defend her son and play down a letter she wrote to him several years ago criticizing his character and treatment of women.

• Hegseth also met with Trump, and told Sirius XM's Megyn Kelly afterward that Trump had told him, "I got your back."

President-elect Trump announced Saturday that he plans to replace FBI director Christopher Wray with Kash Patel, former chief of staff to the acting secretary of Defense.

Why it matters: Trump's decision to name a hardline loyalist to the key position — which requires Senate confirmation — amounts to a massive middle finger to the intelligence community, a longtime Trump nemesis.

What they're saying: "I am proud to announce that Kashyap 'Kash' Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Trump said in the announcement.

• "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People," Trump added.
• "This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.

The big picture: Patel has echoed Trump's rhetoric of cleansing out the so-called "Deep State" and made similarly drastic proposals for the FBI.

• "I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals," he said earlier this month.

How it happened: Patel has been the top choice for FBI director for Steve Bannon and his allies, who for weeks have been lobbying Trump to pick Patel despite his tough road to Senate confirmation.

• Patel served in Trump's National Security Council during his first term, as an adviser to the acting director of national intelligence and as chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Chris Miller.

Patel, the child of Indian immigrants and a former public defender, spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration's attention as a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, AP notes.

Go deeper: Trump calls on FBI head to resign for comment on Biden's competency

Editor's note: This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Matt Gaetz's crash to earth as Donald Trump's pick for attorney general has put a new spotlight on Trump's flirtation with recess appointments, in which he'd try to seat top administration officials while Congress wasn't in session to bypass Senate scrutiny.

Why it matters: It would be just the type of power play that Trump has forecast for his second term — but it wouldn't be easy.

• After Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, both chambers of Congress — which will be controlled by Trump's Republicans — would need to agree to adjourn the Senate for at least 10 days. That hasn't been done in more than a decade.
• Trump also could go nuclear, testing the limits of his constitutional power by adjourning Congress himself.

But there would be some major obstacles.

• Republicans will hold a small majorities in both the House and the Senate, so it wouldn't take many dissenters to derail a call for a lengthy recess — especially one aimed at bypassing congressional power.
• In the Senate, where Republicans will have a 53-47 majority — GOP lawmakers concerned about some of the president-elect's picks already are signaling they may not agree to let Trump go around them to get his top officials in place.
• A lot of that reluctance had centered around the much-despised Gaetz before he withdrew Thursday, but even GOP senators have expressed concern about the sexual assault allegations surrounding Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.

Zoom in: Some of Trump's most loyal backers in the Senate are reluctant to give up their power to review his nominees.

• Recess appointments are "logistically complicated," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Axios.
• Despite the early signals from Trump, Hawley doesn't expect recess appointments to come into play unless "Democrats try to grind down the process and drag it out."
• "Let us get first our Senate into the majority, hold the hearings, start confirming people... We want to get as many confirmed, as quickly as possible," incoming Senate Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told Axios, suggesting the recess option would be a last resort.

Flashback: Recess appointments — which are good for the two-year congressional term in which they're made — aren't new. They've long been used to enable presidents to get around the minority party when the Senate filibuster still required 60 votes to confirm executive branch nominees.

• Senate Republicans helped establish the framework for recess appointments in 2012, when they challenged then-President Obama's push to make appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while lawmakers were out of town.
• Forty-two GOP senators signed court briefs arguing that Obama's appointments were unconstitutional because he made them during three-day breaks in Congress' calendar — which the senators argued didn't count as a "recess."

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed with Republicans, ruling in 2014 that the Senate must break for at least 10 days — with no "pro forma" sessions — for a president to make recess appointments.

• By then, recess appointments were largely irrelevant because Senate Democrats had killed the filibuster on executive branch picks.
• Under the filibuster a nominee used to need 60 votes in the 100-member Senate. Today, nominees only need a majority.

Fast-forward 12 years and Trump is reviving the idea — and trying to get congressional leaders on board.

• Both incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have pointed to the Supreme Court's ruling when asked whether their thinking had changed since they signed briefs opposing Obama's tactic.
• Thune noted that what Republicans took issue with back in 2012 was Obama installing people while the Senate was still meeting for pro-forma sessions, which isn't the approach Trump is considering.

Zoom out: Trump allies are exploring whether the president — as a very last resort — could use a clause in the Constitution to adjourn Congress even if the Senate doesn't agree to do so.

• The clause allows the president on "extraordinary occasions" to adjourn the House and the Senate if there is a "Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment."
• That could land the Senate in uncharted legal waters.

The bottom line: Senate GOP leaders' strong preference is to go through the regular Senate confirmation process.

• Thune told South Dakota news station KELOLAND News that he wanted to "grind it out the way we normally do it."
• But if Trump's patience on his nominees wears thin, he could try to force Congress' hand.

Elon Musk has quickly become an influential figure in President-elect Trump's inner circle, but there are signs of tension between Musk and a longtime Trump adviser over Cabinet appointments to the new administration.

Why it matters: The friction between Musk and Boris Epshteyn — a top adviser who's pushed for Cabinet picks that include Matt Gaetz for attorney general — surfaced in public last week. It signaled a rivalry stemming from Musk's growing influence on the president-elect, to the dismay of some Trump loyalists.

• Musk — who fueled Trump's election effort by giving at least $119 million — has questioned whether Epshteyn has had too much influence in Trump's selections, especially his top Justice Department picks and the White House counsel, three people familiar with the conversations told Axios.
• At the same time, Musk has begun to push for his own Cabinet favorites.
• Epshteyn has bristled at Musk's questioning the qualifications of Epshteyn's favored candidates, two of the sources said.

Zoom in: Their rocky relationship came to a head last Wednesday during a heated discussion at a dinner table in front of other guests at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, three people familiar with the episode told Axios.

• At one point during what the sources described as a "massive blowup" and a "huge explosion," Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking details of Trump's transition — including personnel picks — to the media.
• Epshteyn responded by telling Musk that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Zoom out: The rift between Musk and Epshteyn wasn't a surprise to Trump senior staffers and confidants who've seen tensions between them bubble up during the transition meetings at Mar-a-Lago that began shortly after the Nov. 5 election.

• Epshteyn — who coordinated the legal defense in Trump's criminal cases — was a big influence in Trump's presidential appointments last week.
• Those appointments included Gaetz as attorney general and William McGinley as White House counsel. Trump's criminal lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, were appointed to top Justice Department posts.

Musk, meanwhile, is making a late push for Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick to be chosen for Treasury secretary instead of fund manager Scott Bessent, a Wall Street favorite who met with Trump in Florida on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• "Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas (Lutnick) will actually enact change," Musk posted on his X platform. "Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt."

State of play: Many people in Trump's orbit like having Musk around, or have found ways to work with him. Musk is well-liked by Vice President-elect JD Vance, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and Trump's family members, including his sons Don Jr. and Eric.

• Trump's granddaughter, Kai Trump, even posted that Musk had reached "uncle status" along with a photo of Kai, Musk and Musk's son on a golf course.
• But Musk's involvement in the transition process and near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago has begun to wear on some who've been in Trump's inner circle longer than he has — and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition, NBC reported this week.

The president-elect included Musk on a recent call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

• Musk also plans to work with Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate, to cut a massive $2 trillion in federal spending from their perch as leaders of a non-governmental "Department of Government Efficiency."

What they're saying: Epshteyn referred Axios to Trump's transition team for comment.

• The transition team did not comment. Musk didn't respond to a request for comment.

In vintage 2017 fashion, President-elect Trump has set Washington ablaze by announcing, in rapid succession, three of the most provocative nominations in modern political history.

Why it matters: Early signs that Trump 2.0 was assembling a curiously conventional cabinet — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for secretary of state, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) for national security adviser — has gone up in flames.

• Instead, Trump has veered sharply toward loyalists and disruptors — Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.
• They're the types of unorthodox figures that Axios dubbed Trump's "island of misfit toys" during his first term — only this time, there are far fewer restraints.

The big picture: The picks announced over the past 48 hours all have one thing in common: A hunger to tear down and revamp the agencies Trump has tapped them to lead — and to do so in a way that's in line with his incendiary campaign rhetoric.

1. Gaetz, who resigned suddenly from the House last night, is a darling of the MAGA movement who's despised by many of his colleagues for his brash antics. His nomination set off outrage among both GOP and Democratic lawmakers.

• The Florida Republican was investigated by the Justice Department for alleged sex trafficking, but prosecutors declined to bring charges. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating him for alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use and has been preparing a report on its findings.
• In a statement, Trump signaled Gaetz's top priority will be "ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System" — a reference to Trump's own criminal prosecutions — and rooting out "systemic corruption" at the Justice Department.
• Even while decrying the alleged politicization of President Biden's DOJ, Trump repeatedly has floated the idea of prosecuting his political enemies — and has suggested that his attorney general would lead the charge.

2. Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran and Fox News host, wrote a best-selling book this year accusing Pentagon leaders of sabotaging military readiness and recruitment by prioritizing social justice and diversity.

• Hegseth has called for the firing of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Brown — the first Black service chief in U.S history — and any officer "involved in any of the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) 'woke' shit."
• He also declared on a podcast that women shouldn't serve in military combat roles, arguing it "hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated."

3. Gabbard, a former Democrat and Iraq War veteran, has been nominated to take on what Trump sees as his greatest adversary within the U.S. government: the intelligence community.

• Gabbard, an avowed anti-interventionist, has drawn criticism for secretly meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and suggesting in 2022 that the U.S. and NATO are to blame for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
• She hasn't held any senior national security roles, but would be tasked with Trump's mission of purging the intelligence community — or what he and conspiracy theorists call the "Deep State" — of "corrupt actors."
• The news of Gabbard's nomination was gleefully broken by Trump ally Roger Stone on the far-right show "InfoWars," hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

What to watch: All three nominees, to varying degrees, could face a rocky road to Senate confirmations.

• Trump's fallback plan is to pressure the Senate to allow him to make recess appointments — essentially bypassing the nomination process — to have the nominees serve in an "acting" capacity for up to the two years of the congressional session that begins in January.
• Before his election Wednesday as Senate GOP leader, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said that "all options are on the table" for swiftly confirming Trump's nominees, including recess appointments.

Between the lines: Emboldened by his decisive victory in last week's election, Trump is testing just how far he can bend elected Republicans to his will.

• The uproar the nominations have caused in Washington and beyond — particularly the notion of Gaetz as the nation's chief law enforcement officer — will test the reach of Trump's post-election power.
• "He was elected to turn this place upside down. Americans don't trust the Justice Department right now, and Matt has the talent to go in there and make a difference," Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said on Fox News.
• "If Donald Trump says, 'Jump three feet high and scratch your head,' we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads," Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) told reporters.