Donald Trump Begins First Cabinet Meet With Prayer, Discusses Russia War, Tariffs
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday held his first cabinet meeting.
Which commenced with a prayer. Multiple videos on social media showed Trump bowing his head in prayer at the beginning of the cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC. With the President, were also seen Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and House and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner.
Elon Musk also starred at Trump’s first cabinet meeting, with the US President insisting his team was “thrilled” with the extraordinary power given to his billionaire advisor despite reported tensions over his sweeping government cuts. The tech tycoon was seen wearing a black “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.
He was later asked by Trump to stand up and talk about the controversial program of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The DOGE emails have caused confusion across Washington, with government departments on Monday largely telling staff to either ignore them or downplay the risks of not answering them.
Trump insisted, however, that employees who didn’t reply were “on the bubble” and risked losing their positions. Trump also turned to the top team gathered around a huge wooden table for the first meeting of his second term. The meeting — and an hour-long question and answer session with media brought in under new White House rules controlling which reporters get access to Trump — was more broadly a chance for him to tout a dramatic start to his second term.
Trump proclaimed progress on negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to visit the White House on Friday to sign a deal giving Washington access to Kyiv’s rare minerals. He also revealed that he was set to impose 25 per cent tariffs on many imports from key ally Europe — and proclaimed that the “European Union was created to screw the United States.”