President Donald Trump held his first Cabinet meeting of his second administration on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Treating the session in a Q&A manner, Trump spoke alongside his cabinet—and billionaire Elon Musk who is not part of the cabinet—to address a wide variety of topics. Here’s a summary of the main subjects that were discussed.
Elon Musk Dominates the Meeting- Discussions of DOGE and Trump’s Vehement Support
As the first to speak at the meeting after Trump’s introduction, Elon Musk took the chance to address and defend his organization, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is tasked with reducing the federal workforce and spending. Musk defended this program’s often controversial actions, warning that the country will go into bankruptcy if cuts aren’t made. “The overall goal with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit,” Musk said.
Amid current criticisms of Musk, however, Trump remains steady in his support. When Musk was questioned by a reporter if any of the cabinet members were dissatisfied with his presence, Trump interrupted. “They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this . . . for the most part, I think everyone is not only happy, they’re thrilled,” Trump said.
Reiterates Plan to Dismantle the Department of Education
Trump continues to support his plan to abolish the Department of Education. “We want to move education back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said. He cites a statistic where the U.S. ranked 40 out of 40 in education quality under the Biden Administration. However, this is a false claim, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) PISA test in 2022, the U.S. ranked 16th out of 81 countries in science, 9th in reading, and 34th in math. However, Trump claims that with his plan “you’re going to see education go way up.”
Warns of Major Job Cuts
President Trump addressed Musk’s email to federal workers asking them to name five things they had done at their job in the last week or risk getting fired. He warned that the 1 million employees who didn’t reply “are on the bubble” of losing their jobs, speculating (without any substantial evidence) that they might not even exist. “Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist,” he said.
Furthermore, he said that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin plans to make extreme cuts to the staff. “Spoke with Lee Zeldin, and he thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental,” Trump said.
Musk supported Trump’s plans for major workforce cuts. “If the job is not essential or they’re not doing the job well, they obviously should not be on the public payroll,” Musk said.
Trump Confirms Ukraine President Zelenskyy to Visit the White House
Trump confirmed that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be visiting the White House on Friday, Feb. 28. The meeting will discuss a deal regarding “rare earth [materials] and other things.” Trump said this “very big agreement” will allow the U.S. to “get our money back,” referring to the money the U.S. has given to assist Ukraine against 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 . . . at more than the Europeans are paying,” he said.
When he was further asked about Ukraine and what type of security guarantees he’s willing to make in terms of helping end the Russo-Ukrainian War, he replied that he wouldn’t guarantee much. “We’re going to have Europe do that because . . . Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well,” Trump said.
Proposes Canada becomes the U.S.’s 51st State
Trump once again brings up incorporating Canada into the U.S. “Without us, Canada can’t make it . . . . And I say Canada should be our 51st state. There’s no tariffs, no nothing. And I say that we give them military protection,” he said.
Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare Vowed to be Left Untouched
When asked if the spending bill passed on Tuesday, Feb. 27, that intends to cut $2 trillion in mandatory federal spending would affect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, Trump promised to leave it untouched. “I have said it so many times. You shouldn’t be asking me that question . . . We’re not going to touch it,” he said.
However, Trump did claim there would be investigations into fraud in those programs, particularly Social Security. “We are going to look for fraud . . . people that are illegal aliens and others, criminals on many cases,” he said. He echoed Musk’s previous sentiments (with no evidence to support) that many dead Americans are still receiving Social Security. “You see that people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks for Social Security—some of them are actually being sent checks,” Trump said.
Trump Stands on His Support of Tighter Immigration Laws
Trump continues to support strict border control policies. “We set records on the least numbers of illegal aliens coming in . . . . And we did this all within a period of weeks because we took over a mess.”
Announces New Way of Immigrating to the U.S.
Trump announced that his new “gold card” route to immigration would begin in about two weeks. This new policy will essentially allow foreigners to gain American citizenship for a fee of $5 million. With this program, Trump aims to decrease the federal spending deficit. “If we sell 10 million . . . . That means our debt is totally paid off and we have $15 trillion above that,” Trump said.
This “gold card” would replace EB-5, a visa program that allows foreigners to apply and gain U.S. residence if they become permanent investors in the United States. To qualify for EB-5 they must invest a minimum of $1 million in a U.S. business and make at least 10 permanent full-time jobs for U.S. citizens. “For $1 million investment, you got a visa and then . . . ended up with a green card. So it was poorly overseen, poorly executed, then you had our border open where millions of people came through,” Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, said of the EB-5 visa.
Tariffs on the European Union to Begin Soon
Trump said he is planning to enact tariffs of 25% on the European Union (EU) and will announce it very soon. “It’ll be 25 percent, generally speaking. And that’ll be on cars and all other things,” said Trump.
He said that the EU was formed to “screw the United States.” “They’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way. They don’t accept our cars. They don’t accept, essentially, our farm products . . . We have about a $300 billion deficit with the European Union,” Trump claimed. (It’s important to note that there is no evidence to support this $300 billion deficit assertion)
Trump later declared that the EU cannot successfully retaliate against the U.S. in the form of tariffs. “They can try, but the numbers can never equal ours . . . . We are the pot of gold. We’re the one that everybody wants . . . it cannot be a successful retaliation because we just go cold turkey. We don’t buy anymore,” he said.
Tariffs on Canada and Mexico to go into Effect in a Month
When asked if he would still be implementing tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico despite the 90 percent drop in border crossings, Trump confirmed he would. “I’m not stopping the tariffs, no. Millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border,” Trump said. “If you’re out of the country, you got to pay tariffs.”
He announced the 25% tariffs will go into effect for Canada and Mexico on April 2.
Plans to Take Back Military Equipment Left in Afghanistan
Questioned if he would take Bagram Air Base, the U.S.’s former military base in Afghanistan, back, Trump said he wanted to take the American military equipment left there. “We left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind . . . . You see them display it every year on their little roadway someplace where they have a road and they drive . . . waving the flag and talking about America,” he said. “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
He then claimed that the Taliban was selling American equipment. “They’re selling 777,000 rifles, 70,000 armor-plated, many of them were armor-plated trucks and vehicles,” Trump said.
Since Bagram Air Field is now occupied by the Taliban, retrieving the left behind equipment as President Trump suggested will likely require a re-invasion of Afghanistan.
Claims Russia will have to Make Concessions
Trump finished the meeting off with remarks regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War. When asked if Putin would have to make concessions and compromise to resolve the war President Trump replied, “He will. He’s going to have to.” However, when asked what these concessions would involve he did not answer. “Oh, I don’t want to tell right now,” Trump said. “But I can tell you that NATO, you can forget about.”
Additionally, he claimed that because he was elected the war would end. “If we didn’t get elected, if this administration didn’t win the election by a lot, that war would go on for a long time,” Trump asserted.