US President Donald Trump held his first cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday. The meeting turned into a long question-and-answer session with reporters, lasting more than an hour.
Trump sat with his cabinet and Elon Musk, who was wearing a “tech support” T-shirt. He spoke on various topics, including government spending, immigration, the economy, and the war in Ukraine.
Here are some key takeaways from Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting:
Musk says DOGE is ‘tech support’
Wearing a black “Make America Great Again” cap, Elon Musk was among the first advisers to speak at the cabinet meeting.
His comments came shortly after an administration memo instructed federal departments and agencies to prepare for workforce reductions. The federal government has more than 2 million employees, many of whom are nonpartisan civil servants.
Musk downplayed DOGE’s role in government, explaining that its main focus is updating government technology.
On his first day back in office, Trump replaced the US Digital Service with DOGE, transferring its employees to the new department.
“I actually just call myself humble tech support here because, as crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work that the DOGE team is doing: helping to fix the government computer systems,” Musk said.
Trump speaks about cabinet choices
When asked which government department or cabinet members were the most resistant to his policy changes, Trump said, “So far, I’m happy with all of those choices.”
He acknowledged that some groups are more cooperative than others. He specifically praised Elon Musk, who is not a cabinet member, and secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Trump said his administration is working on reducing the size of the government. “We want to have a balanced budget within a reasonably short period of time… meaning maybe by next year or maybe the year after,” he said.
Zelensky to visit White House
Trump confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the White House on Friday.
He said the US and Ukraine will sign a minerals deal, though details are unclear. He described it as a way for the US to “get our money back” from the aid given to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
“We’re going to get a lot of money in the future, and I think that’s appropriate, because we have taxpayers that shouldn’t be footing the bill,” Trump said. “It’s all been worked out.”
Zelensky has called the deal preliminary and said he wants further agreements, including security guarantees.
Trump also ruled out providing any security assistance to Ukraine and rejected the possibility of Kyiv joining Nato. He also reiterated his claim that Ukraine was responsible for starting the war. “Nato, you can forget about. I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started,” he said.
Trump comments on possible cabinet disagreements with Musk’s DOGE
Trump supported Elon Musk and the department of government efficiency (DOGE), which is responsible for cutting government spending and reducing the federal workforce.
He dismissed speculation about any disagreements between Musk and other cabinet members. “They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this, and some disagree a little bit,” he said. “But I will tell you for the most part I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”
He invited cabinet members to speak up if they were unhappy, but no one did.
Musk described DOGE as a way for government agencies to remove fraud. He admitted there had been mistakes, mentioning that Ebola prevention efforts were accidentally canceled before being restored. “But when we make mistakes, we’ll fix it very quickly,” Musk said.
Federal workers and job cuts
Trump addressed an e-mail Musk sent to federal employees, asking them to list five things they had done in the past week or risk losing their jobs. Trump said the cabinet supports the move.
He speculated, without evidence, that some of the approximately one million workers who did not respond “don’t exist.”
“Maybe they’re going to be gone,” he said.
Trump said efforts are underway to identify those who have not responded. “We’re being a little more surgical in situations where people are doing classified stuff,” he added.
He encouraged other cabinet members to carry out similar reviews in their agencies. He also suggested that the Environmental Protection Agency, led by Lee Zeldin, might see a 65 per cent reduction in its workforce.
Trump plans EU tariffs
Trump announced plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union.
“We’ll be announcing it very soon,” he said. “It’ll be 25 per cent generally speaking and that will be on cars and all other things.”
He criticized the EU for limiting access to American cars and farm products. “They’ve really taken advantage of us,” he said.
Trump was also asked about tariffs on Canada and Mexico. He had previously delayed implementing them for 30 days after discussions with both countries.
“April 2, the tariffs go on,” he said. “Not all of them but a lot of them. And I think that’s gonna be amazing.”
