President Trump held the first meeting of his Cabinet Wednesday, and the portion of the meeting open to the press provided some insights into the still-developing dynamic and direction of the new administration. Here are a few highlights:
* Elon Musk, who is not a member of the Cabinet, was the first to speak other than Trump. Wearing a t-shirt reading “Tech Support,” the DOGE overseer said his main goal is to cut the deficit, which he said threatens to “bankrupt” the country. "That's the reason I'm here. And taking a lot of flak, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way," he said.
* Asked about the fate of the million-plus federal employees who have not responded to Musk’s request for a status update on their work, Trump said they may be fired. “I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded to Elon, they are on the bubble. You know, I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it,” Trump said. He suggested that maybe the employees “don't exist.” He also said he supported massive job cuts in the federal workforce because the country has declined dramatically. “The country has gotten bloated, fat and disgusting and incompetently run,” he said, adding that the problem should be blamed on his predecessor.
* Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pitched the new “gold card” program that would allow wealthy investors to pay $5 million to obtain special green cards that pave the way to citizenship. Lutnick said the proceeds could be enormous, and the funds would be used to reduce the deficit and even eliminate the debt. “If we sell 200,000 of these Gold/Green Cards, that’s $1 trillion to pay down our debt,” he said. “That’s why the president is doing it, because we are going to balance the budget, and we are going to pay off the debt under this president.” Trump speculated that the proceeds could be as much as $50 trillion – “which means our national debt is totally paid off, and we have $15 trillion above that,” he said. (Peter Baker of The New York Times noted that Trump has promised to pay off the national debt before, including during his 2016 campaign. “Instead, during his first term, he added $8.4 trillion in new borrowing over 10 years,” Baker wrote.)
* Trump said his plans to impose tariffs on trade partners around the world are moving ahead. He indicated that he could hit the European Union with a 25% tariff targeting “cars and all other things.” He also claimed that the EU “was formed in order to screw the United States; I mean, look, let’s be honest.”