Trump praises Doge in first cabinet meeting and claims ‘billions’ in savings without evidence – live
Trump praises Doge and claims ‘billions’ in savings without evidence
Donald Trump praises Doge during his first official cabinet meeting, and says that the initiative has “cut billions and billions and billions of dollars” without evidence.
“We’re looking to get it maybe to a trillion dollars,” Trump says.
This comes as it has been reported that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting bonanza appears to be having less impact than the world’s richest man is claiming, with a review finding that almost 40% of the federal contracts scrapped so far will save the American taxpayer not a penny.
Key events
Trump calls Putin ‘cunning’ and a ‘very smart guy’
Trump calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”.
During remarks, Trump said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.
Trump also said that he has “great respect” for the fighters in Ukraine, and called them “great fighters”.
“But without our equipment, that war would have been over, like people said, in a very short period of time.” Trump said.
Marina Dunbar
Canada’s Liberal party, which looked bound for a loss only weeks ago, is seeing a significant comeback amid US president Trump’s threat of tariffs.
The Liberals are now tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls.
Among them is an Ipsos survey showing the left-leaning Liberals have 38% public support and the official opposition right-of-center Conservatives have 36%. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks while running advertisements comparing Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, to Donald Trump.
Read more about it here:
Tariffs to move forward on Canada and Mexico, Trump says
Trump states that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon.
“It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”
Trump once again asserts that he wants Canada to be the 51st state.
“If they had to pay their way, they couldn’t exist,” Trump said.
Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
“I never comment on that,” Trump said. “I don’t comment before I don’t ever put myself in that position.”
He then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Musk says Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers
During the meeting, Musk said that he is going to send another email, referring to the email he sent last week asking federal workers to list five things they did last week or risk termination.
“We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said on Wednesday.
Trump told the room that the federal employees who have not responded are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.
Yesterday, the White House said that more than 1 million federal workers responded to the ultimatum email.
The email caused confusion this week and the US office of personnel management (OPM) directed agencies that responses to the email were optional.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick talks about the new “gold card” plan that Trump first discussed on Tuesday.
Lutnick said that about 200,000 of these gold cards “is $1tn to pay down out debt”.
“We are going to balance this budget,” Lutnick said.
On Tuesday, Trump unveiled his plans for a “gold card” similar to a green card, but for wealthy foreigners willing to pay about $5m.
Trump tells the room that he is currently “impressed with everybody” in his cabinet.
“I’m very impressed by everybody so far,” Trump said. “I’m very happy with all of my choices.”
The president then praised Elon Musk’s cost cutting efforts, and praised Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Elon Musk said that he asked Donald Trump if it was OK to send out the email blast last week to federal employees, to which the president said yes.
“We got a partial response,” Musk said.
Trump says environmental agency to cut majority of staff
Trump says that Lee Zeldin, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), plans to cut up to 65% or so of his employees.
Zeldin, Trump said, “thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people” from the EPA.
“We’re going to speed up the process,” Trump added.
Cabinet members were asked if they were happy with Elon Musk a few minutes into the meeting.
Musk started to answer the question, but Donald Trump interjected and said he might want to let cabinet members answer, before joking that if anyone disagreed, he might “throw them out”.
That drew applause and laughs from cabinet members.
Trump continued, “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.”
Musk then praised the president, and said that Trump had “put together, I think, the best cabinet ever.”
“And I don’t give false praise,” Musk said.
Trump to meet Zelenskyy at White House on Friday
Earlier in the cabinet meeting, Trump confirmed that that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will come to the White House on Friday.
“We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. It’s now confirmed, and we’re going to be signing an agreement,” Trump said.
Musk says that Doge “won’t be perfect” but says that “when we make mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly.”
Musk says that Doge accidently cancelled Ebola prevention, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.
“But we do need to move quickly if we’re to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026,” he said. “It requires saving $4bn per day every day from now through the end of September.”
Elon Musk delivered remarks during the first cabinet meeting, despite not being a member of the cabinet.
In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support, and said that if costs dont get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”.
“It’s not an optional thing, it’s an essential thing,” Musk said. “That’s the reason I’m here and I am taking a lot of flack and getting a lot of death threats, by the way, but if we don’t do this, America will be bankrupt.”
Musk described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.
Trump praises Doge and claims ‘billions’ in savings without evidence
Donald Trump praises Doge during his first official cabinet meeting, and says that the initiative has “cut billions and billions and billions of dollars” without evidence.
“We’re looking to get it maybe to a trillion dollars,” Trump says.
This comes as it has been reported that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting bonanza appears to be having less impact than the world’s richest man is claiming, with a review finding that almost 40% of the federal contracts scrapped so far will save the American taxpayer not a penny.
In his first official cabinet meeting, Trump says that “we have to get the prices down” such as the “price of eggs and various other things”.
“Eggs are a disaster,” Trump said, adding that Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary will present a chart later.
President Donald Trump is holding his first official cabinet meeting.
Trump administration issues memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs – report
The Trump administration has reportedly issued a memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs of government employees, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.
In the memo released on Wednesday, the administration directs federal agenciesto submit reorganization plans by 13 March and to prepare to eliminate roles. The memo was first reported and published by Fox News.
The memo points to the executive order signed by Trump in February, which directed agencies to “eliminate waste, bloat and insularity” in order to “empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.”
“President Trump required that ‘Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force, consistent with applicable law’” the memo adds. “President Trump also directed that, no later than March 13, 2025, agencies develop Agency Reorganization Plans.”
The memo states, however, that government positions “necessary to meet law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety responsibilities” are exempt from the order, along with officials “nominated and appointed to positions requiring presidential appointment or Senate confirmation”, officials in the Executive Office of the President and employees of the US Postal Service.
