US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Abril Elfi 1:38 PM – Wednesday, February 26, 2025
President Donald Trump held his first Cabinet meeting of his second term, congratulating his administration on their accomplishments so far, as well as standing up for Elon Musk and his efforts to root out government waste, fraud, and overspending — in tandem with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
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Trump held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday.
“We put together a great Cabinet,” Trump said as he began the meeting. “And we’ve had tremendous success.”
At the beginning of the meeting, X owner and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk began speaking about DOGE’s goal to cut the deficit, warning that if enough cuts aren’t made, the U.S. could “become de facto bankrupt.”
“That’s the reason I’m here. And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way,” Musk said.
It’s been only 37 days since Trump took back the White House.
Nevertheless, DOGE has already saved the U.S. federal government $65 billion, according to estimates. Musk has also previously expressed support for paying U.S. citizens “$5,000” dividends. However, considering the steadily increasing quantity of government cash preserved, it is unclear if the money being distributed to Americans would be even more than $5,000 — if the dividends proposal is approved.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Musk was asked by a reporter if any Cabinet members were unhappy with him being included in so many initiatives of the new administration, especially as an unelected official — prompting Trump to interrupt.
“Anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, then we’ll throw them out of here,” Trump said, eliciting varying levels of applause from Cabinet members seated around the table in the Cabinet Room. “They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this. And some disagree a little bit. But I will tell you for the most part, I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”
Trump also highlighted that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin plans to cut up to 65% of the agency’s workforce.
“He thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from the environment and we’re going to speed up the process, too,” Trump said.
On Mondays and Fridays all of last year, @EPA HQs only had 8.9% daily attendance. Not under @POTUS’ watch.
It’s time for our talented staff to return to work in the office full-time.
Part of being good stewards of tax dollars means showing up every day to do our job. pic.twitter.com/4A7m0B1BVo
The president also explained that he will not be making “security guarantees to Ukraine beyond very much.”
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that, because it’s in, you know — we’re talking about Europe, [it’s] their next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well. And as you know, we’ll be making a… We’ll be really partnering with Ukraine, in terms of rare earth [minerals]. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth,” Trump said.
Trump continued, explaining that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is going to have to” make concessions in the negotiations to end the Ukraine war.
“Yeah, he will,” Trump said when asked whether Putin will make concessions. “He’s going to have to. And I think, I believe that, because we got elected, that war will come to an end. And I also believe [that] 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 — and he would want to take the whole thing.”
Trump vowed on Wednesday that his administration will make no cuts to entitlement programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
“We’re not going to touch it,” Trump assured.
He also noted that the 25% tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods that the U.S. imports will be imposed on April 2nd, which is the deadline that his administration has set for an announcement on retaliatory tariffs for all other countries as well.
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