President Trump holds a Cabinet meeting.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you very much for being here.
00:05We had a very, very good Cabinet meeting.
00:07We're on our way to some tremendous numbers.
00:11I think, first of all, many companies are now
00:15moving into the United States.
00:16They're coming back.
00:17Some of them left us from many years ago, decades
00:21ago, and they're all — it seems they're all
00:23coming back.
00:24We have probably identified maybe $4
00:27trillion worth of companies moving back or
00:30going to move back.
00:32Many of them have announced it's going to be
00:33tremendous jobs, high-paying jobs, too.
00:36And you probably know the chip business — not
00:39because of the CHIPS Act, which was a disaster.
00:42You gave billions of dollars to companies
00:44that already have many billions of dollars.
00:46They just — they said, thank you very much.
00:48It was no incentive for them to use it.
00:51But what is good is the tariffs will make it so
00:54that they want to come back.
00:55That's why they're coming back.
00:56I think they're coming back because of the
00:58election that took place on November 5th and
01:01because of the fact that they have to come back
01:04because the tariffs are forcing them to come back.
01:06And remember, there are no tariffs if you build
01:09here, and that's a big factor.
01:11So we have record numbers.
01:13Howard was just telling me the numbers that we're
01:15talking about are crazy, beyond anybody's wildest
01:19expectation.
01:20So they'll be doing a lot of — a lot of building.
01:24All sorts of businesses, including the basics of
01:27automobiles.
01:28We have, as you know, Indiana's — Honda is
01:31coming in with a massive plant in Indiana.
01:34But there are many plants that are happening, and
01:38literally some are started already.
01:40General Motors is already redoing plants that were
01:43half-abandoned or they have plants that weren't
01:47being fully utilized.
01:49They're going to be — they and others are going
01:51to be making parts and other things in those
01:53plants so that it's one-stop shopping, finally.
01:56It's ridiculous.
01:57You had to go to Mexico.
01:58You had to go to Canada.
01:59A car went all over the place.
02:00It was like — I don't know how that would have
02:03worked, but that's the way it sort of ended up.
02:07We had a deal, and we have a deal.
02:09It's fine.
02:10But people took advantage of the deal.
02:12They cheated.
02:13And when you cheat, the deals are unfortunate.
02:17But now what's happening is the numbers are beyond
02:20our wildest expectations.
02:22Now, having to do with cutting, we've done a lot
02:26of cutting — a lot of cutting from people —
02:30ideally, the people that aren't doing the job.
02:32In many cases, people weren't attending jobs.
02:35In some cases — in many cases, people didn't exist.
02:39They had on-the-government roles — people that
02:41don't even exist.
02:43But of the ones that did exist, as you know, many
02:46didn't come to work.
02:47Many had no intention of coming to work.
02:49Many were paid and working someplace else.
02:52There were lots of bad scenarios, but they're
02:54being weeded out.
02:55And I think we're probably ahead of schedule on that.
02:58And, to me, something that was just terrible is the
03:02contracts that we're finding — the fraudulent
03:04contracts that we're finding, where millions
03:07and millions of dollars — and even billions of
03:09dollars, in some cases — were given out.
03:11And we'll — I think we'll start with that.
03:14I'd like to start with Doug Burgum, Secretary of
03:18the Interior.
03:19He told us about a couple of contracts that we have
03:23now found.
03:24When he got there, they saw this with Chris and
03:26everybody, and they couldn't believe it.
03:28Doug, could you just relate what you told us a little
03:30while ago?
03:31Secretary Burgum No, I'm happy to, Mr. President.
03:34There's a federal consulting group, which
03:35was a group inside of Interior, but it was
03:38managing contracts from many different agencies
03:41that flowed through here.
03:43One of those contracts was for — to do surveys of
03:47individuals.
03:48Eight hundred and thirty million dollars for
03:50surveys.
03:51And so part of the question was, hey, could we
03:53actually see the surveys?
03:54And then the surveys came back, and it was — a
03:57survey was like an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven
03:59sheet of paper with 10 questions that anyone's,
04:02you know, child in junior high could have put
04:04together, or AI could have done for free.
04:07Eight hundred and thirty million dollars.
04:08So that's one — one that we've stopped.
04:11And that contract was going out after you were
04:14inaugurated, sir.
04:15So it was jumping out.
04:16It's probably a fraud.
04:17It's a fraud.
04:18But we've had many fraudulent contracts that
04:20were caught by the work that Elon and his people
04:24are doing.
04:25And working with our people has been brought to
04:28light.
04:29The fraud — not just waste and abuse, the fraud
04:32has been incredible.
04:34You mentioned one, Madam Secretary.
04:36Secretary Burgum Well, yes, sir.
04:38Well, let me just add to that, and thank you.
04:40We just had a wonderful Cabinet meeting, all
04:42aligned on — on certainly the effort to realign
04:45the government.
04:46But even at the U.S.
04:47Department of Agriculture, we've canceled a
04:49$300,000 contract educating on food justice for
04:53queer and transgender farmers in San Francisco.
04:56A similar contract we canceled in New York.
04:59Again, educating transgender and queer
05:02farmers on food justice and food equality.
05:04I'm not even sure what that means, but — but
05:07apparently the last administration wanted to
05:09put our taxpayer dollars towards that.
05:11We canceled a $600,000 contract in Lou — out of
05:13Louisiana that was studying the menstrual
05:16cycles of transgender men.
05:18A $600,000 contract.
05:20We canceled another contract out of a
05:23university in the middle of the country that
05:25focused on getting more diversity, equity, and
05:27inclusion into our pest management industry.
05:31Again, these are nonsensical.
05:33It makes zero sense to use taxpayer dollars to
05:36fund these.
05:37I know these are just a few examples of the
05:38hundreds and hundreds that we have found.
05:41The clear case of fraud was with the Small
05:44Business Administration, where they were handing
05:46out loans — $330 million worth of loans to people
05:50under the age of 11.
05:51I think the youngest, Kelly, was a nine-month
05:53year old who got a $100,000 loan.
05:56That's a very precocious baby we're talking about here.
05:58We're tackling the fraud, waste, and abuse in the agency.
06:05We've seen, you know, hundreds of billions of
06:08dollars of fraud go unprosecuted.
06:10And so we're taking that on.
06:12We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud, and we
06:15continue to crack down on it and make sure people
06:17are held accountable.
06:19The President And you have a lot of that, and you
06:23found far too much of it.
06:25It's a pure fraud.
06:27We like to use the words, waste and abuse, because
06:29they make — they sort of sound good.
06:31But many of these things are pure fraud.
06:35Now, there was a contract that you've heard about
06:37where Stacey Abrams got $2 billion just before we
06:41took over, and it was a rush to get her the money.
06:45And that was environmental, and nobody
06:48knows what she was doing.
06:50But $2 billion.
06:51If you got $2 million, that's a lot.
06:52If you got $200,000, that's a lot.
06:55But this was — $2 billion was given.
06:58Lee, do you want to talk about that?
06:59And the other one that was even worse.
07:01EPA has now canceled over $22 billion worth of
07:04contracts, $2 billion going to this NGO that
07:08Stacey Abrams was tied to.
07:11They received only $100 in 2023, and then the Biden
07:15administration gave them $2 billion.
07:17The director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction
07:20Fund saw his former employer get $5 billion.
07:24So $20 billion went to just eight NGOs, and
07:27they're all pass-throughs.
07:29And then they were giving it to other entities.
07:31Many of them were pass-throughs.
07:32And what you have is all these extra middlemen.
07:35They're taking their cut.
07:36And the taxpayers are getting screwed.
07:38They're losing out on all this hard-earned money.
07:41They can't afford to have the federal government waste.
07:44The partnership with DOJ and Elon Musk has been
07:48incredible at EPA.
07:50Their team is very talented.
07:52We wouldn't have been able to do it without them.
07:54And, of course, this mandate from President
07:56Trump to make sure that we identify every last penny,
07:59whether we're saving $50,000, $5 million, or
08:03$22 billion.
08:05We will not rest until every last penny is saved.
08:07Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to do
08:10this for the American public.
08:11The President So we have a lot of that.
08:16We're getting down to a point we think probably
08:20over the next two or three months we'll be pretty
08:22much satisfied with the people that are working
08:25hard and want to be members of the
08:28administration and our country, really.
08:30And they're doing a lot of good people.
08:32We have a lot of great people.
08:34We want to keep the best.
08:35We want to keep the good ones.
08:37And we want to get rid of the ones that don't exist.
08:39And we want to get rid of the ones that do exist,
08:41but don't work.
08:42And we have quite a few of them.
08:45Would anybody else like to say something before we
08:47take some questions from the press, please?
08:50Doug Collins.
08:50The Press Yes, Mr. President, I think one of
08:51the things that you've always told me is take
08:53care of our veterans, and that's what we're doing
08:54at the VA.
08:55And one of the things, though, is you also have
08:56to know who your employees are.
08:58You have to know the very fact of who you are.
09:00We're 470,000, roughly, when we started this,
09:03larger than the active-duty Army.
09:05When you think about that and the perspective.
09:07But, however, this is an interesting point.
09:08When I first got there and we started looking at
09:10this, how you take care of people, we didn't have an
09:12HR system that could actually give us a rundown
09:14on who actually was working where, that we've
09:16had to work without working with our VA employees
09:19who are those liaisons.
09:20We've been able to put together an organizational
09:22chart, which we can start looking at that.
09:24But the interesting part about it is it's about
09:25taking care of veterans.
09:26And what you've told me to do is how do we get the
09:28people in the right places?
09:30And I think when we look at this, GAO has told us
09:32we were high risk for years.
09:34The previous administration put literally
09:36tens of billions of dollars and tens of
09:38thousand employees over the last four years, and we
09:40saw our statistics basically go stay the
09:43same or go down.
09:44Backlogs went up.
09:45You know, maybe the question is not money and
09:47employees anymore.
09:47Maybe it's the organization and how we
09:49effectively deliver for the American people.
09:51That's what we're going to do.
09:51The President.
09:52The Vice President.
09:53And, you know, one thing I want to add to it is
09:56it's not necessarily a very popular thing to do.
09:58You know, you're talking about employment.
09:59You're talking about people and the lives of
10:01people.
10:02And yet, I think the American public
10:04understands we're trying to save our country and
10:08make our country great again.
10:10I mean, you could say it, but we're trying to save
10:12our country from this extraordinary thing that
10:15was happening.
10:17What they were doing to our country was just a
10:19horrible thing.
10:21And I have no idea how it plays out in the public.
10:24I have, I guess you see poll numbers that are
10:26very good numbers, but I don't know what that
10:28means long term.
10:29But it's something that has to be done.
10:31If we don't do it, we're not going to have much of
10:33a country left.
10:34So we have to do it.
10:35So we're doing things that I think a lot of
10:37presidents wouldn't be inclined to do.
10:39But we're doing it to really, you know, I don't
10:43want to use cliche.
10:45I don't want to say we're doing it to make America
10:47great again because I say that on the campaign
10:49trail.
10:50But there's really no other words that could
10:53express it better than that.
10:54It's we're doing it to help our country and our
10:58country was was riddled with fat like no country,
11:03probably anywhere in the world.
11:05And we're getting rid of the fat.
11:07And at the same time, we're bringing in we're
11:09going to be bringing in millions of very good,
11:12high paying jobs.
11:13And we're going to be taking in a lot of money.
11:15Our country is going to be very strong.
11:16We've been ripped off by every country in the
11:19world.
11:20And we're going to be taking advantage of
11:21everything.
11:22And we're going to be taking advantage of
11:23everything.
11:24And we're going to be taking advantage of
11:25everything.
11:26And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:28And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:30And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:32And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:34And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:36And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:40And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:44And we're going to be taking advantage of
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11:51And we're going to be taking advantage of
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12:00And we're going to be taking advantage of
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15:44And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:45everything.
15:45And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:46everything.
15:47And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:48everything.
15:48And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:49everything.
15:50And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:51everything.
15:51And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:52everything.
15:53And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:54everything.
15:54And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:55everything.
15:56And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:57everything.
15:57And we're going to be taking advantage of
15:58everything.
15:59And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:00everything.
16:00And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:01everything.
16:02And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:03everything.
16:03And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:04everything.
16:05And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:06everything.
16:06And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:07everything.
16:08And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:09everything.
16:09And we're going to be taking advantage of
16:10everything.
16:11The President is taking over her student loans,
16:15which is a lot of loans.
16:16It's a big job.
16:17And, Kelly, we appreciate that.
16:18You're going to do fantastically well.
16:20And Bobby is going to be taking over their various
16:24medical aspects and health aspects of the
16:27educational process.
16:28So he's going to do a fantastic job of it.
16:31So thank you very much.
16:33The President I'd just say that I'm very
16:36grateful to you and very grateful for the
16:38partnership with DOJ and with the ELON.
16:41We've identified extraordinary ways in my
16:44department and HHS.
16:47The expenditures, the budget of HHS during the
16:49Biden administration went up by 38 percent.
16:53The employees went up by 17 percent.
16:56And health care went down.
16:58We have 40 comms departments.
17:01We have 40 procurement departments.
17:03We have 40 IT departments.
17:07And we have 40 procurement, HR, none of
17:12them talking to each other.
17:14We are, with ELON's help, eliminating the
17:17redundancies.
17:19We are streamlining our department.
17:21We're going to go back to providing gold standard
17:24science.
17:24We're going to get the money to the scientists
17:26and to the patients, rather than to the
17:28administrators and to the bureaucrats.
17:31And we're going to restore gold standard science,
17:34and we're going to make America healthy again.
17:36Thank you very much.
17:38That's great.
17:39If you might, Madam Secretary, say a little
17:42bit about what's happening and how well we've done at
17:44the border.
17:45Secretary Sebelius Sir, this last week, I was in
17:47Arizona, California, Alaska, and Florida, and
17:52CBP literally has almost 100 percent operational
17:56control of the border, which means that our
17:58country is secure and that we know who's coming into
18:01this country and that they love our country and they
18:03want to help keep it great into the future.
18:06We are, in the month of March, the last couple of
18:09weeks, increased our deportations by 50 percent.
18:12So we're now not even just getting the worst of the
18:16worst out.
18:17We're making sure that there's consequences for
18:19being here and committing crimes in our communities.
18:21And we're, the numbers are continuing to escalate
18:24and to go up.
18:25Sir, this next week, I'm headed, or this week, I'm
18:27headed down to El Salvador.
18:28I'll be in the prison where we sent TDA members.
18:31I'll be meeting with the President and also
18:33Colombia and Mexico and talking about building
18:36these relationships so that we can continue to get
18:39people out of this country that don't belong here and
18:42take them home.
18:43And also, you had talked to me about sending the
18:45message worldwide about the fact that people
18:48shouldn't be coming to this country and they
18:50shouldn't be coming here illegally.
18:51So we are in several other countries around the
18:53world with a message right now that's saying, if you
18:56are thinking about coming to America illegally and
18:59coming here, don't do it.
19:01You are not welcome.
19:02We have a legal process to becoming a United States
19:05citizen, and there are consequences if you come
19:07here illegally.
19:08And America has changed because we're putting
19:10Americans first.
19:11So we've also, the Coast Guard has done phenomenal
19:14work.
19:15I don't know if you all have reported on it, but
19:17we have broken historic records in the amount of
19:19drug interdictions that they have brought in.
19:21We've repositioned the fleet to go after the
19:23fentanyl crisis and to go after the southern border
19:27and securing it.
19:27And they've done amazing work as far as that.
19:31When we were down in Florida, they brought in a
19:33half a billion dollars worth of cocaine that they
19:37had done in 14 interdictions and had
19:40brought them in, going right directly after the
19:43cartels and doing great work there.
19:46And we have a cutter that we have sped up the
19:49process, sir, the icebreaker that will be
19:51hitting the waters here this summer.
19:53And we've got two more that will be coming.
19:55But, you know, Russia is using their cutters and
19:58icebreakers up in the Arctic to do surveillance
20:01on us.
20:01And we're going to reposition our fleet to
20:03continue to partner.
20:04I want to thank the Secretary of Defense and
20:06the Navy for all of their help and partnership to
20:08we.
20:09We do operations together because they're obvious
20:12Navy warships are in certain regions, but our
20:14cutters are faster and can work together in a
20:17partnership that's securing America.
20:19So and we're going to eliminate FEMA.
20:21So we've got a lot, a lot to do, but it's all good.
20:24And we're working hard and we're going to make sure
20:27that we're continuing to do exactly what you
20:28promised.
20:29That's great.
20:29Great job.
20:31Yesterday, there was a plaza that, you know,
20:33well, there'd be hundreds of thousands of people
20:36standing at that plaza pouring into our country.
20:39Totally unchecked.
20:41Many people from jails and prisons and mental
20:43institutions and gang members and horrible,
20:47horrible.
20:48And they just pour into our country.
20:49Yesterday, I was speaking to somebody.
20:52I was checking on the border and they said there
20:55was literally nobody in this massive plaza.
20:57You know, we're talking a plaza that would hold
21:03hundreds of thousands of people.
21:05There was literally nobody there.
21:07There was one person sweeping it, but there
21:09were no people.
21:10It's been amazing.
21:11It's been an amazing transformation very
21:13quickly.
21:15And we're getting the bad ones out first and we're
21:17taking them out.
21:18And there's some really bad ones, really bad
21:20ones.
21:21Murders, murders of more than one people.
21:23At least 50 percent murdered more than one
21:26person.
21:27These are the people that were letting in through
21:28their open border policy.
21:29It was terrible.
21:31But I want to just congratulate you and Tom
21:35Holman on the job you've done.
21:36You've been a jury.
21:37It's Boston.
21:38Boston this weekend, hundreds of dangerous
21:41criminals were removed for killers taken out of the
21:44country just by what they did in Boston this last
21:46few days.
21:46Yeah.
21:47And these are killers that there's no reasoning.
21:49It's not like, oh, let's talk them out of it.
21:52These are stone cold killers.
21:53They don't care.
21:54They don't even think about it.
21:54They kill somebody.
21:56They go to sleep.
21:57They wake up.
21:57They don't even remember they killed them.
21:58These are bad people that should have never been
22:01allowed into our country.
22:03Pam is doing such a fantastic job.
22:05I thought maybe you could say a few words.
22:07Thank you, President.
22:09As far as the we are hearing a lot about fraud,
22:11waste and abuse, a lot of waste and abuse.
22:13But there is a tremendous amount of fraud.
22:15And, Elon, thank you for your partnership.
22:18Thank you for your team.
22:19You have uncovered so much fraud in our
22:21government and we will prosecute you.
22:24We have an internal task force now working with
22:27every agency sitting here at this table.
22:30And if you've committed fraud, we're coming after you.
22:33Thank you, Elon, for that.
22:34On the violent crime level, thanks to President
22:37Trump's directive, we are seeking the death penalty again.
22:40So all of these horrible, violent criminals that
22:42you're hearing about around the country, they will
22:44face the death penalty federally within our country.
22:47And the drug dealers need to get out of here
22:49because we are coming after you.
22:51We're going to have 94 great U.S.
22:53attorneys around this country and everyone will
22:56be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
23:00Thank you, President.
23:02Your directive.
23:02I couldn't have said that better.
23:04That's that's very good.
23:07It's done a fantastic job.
23:08Thanks, ma'am.
23:09Do you have any questions, please?
23:10Mr. President.
23:11Yeah.
23:12Yeah, please.
23:13Mr. President, what can states do now to
23:15implement your Department of Education executive order?
23:18Well, I think what's going to happen is we are
23:21cleaning out a lot of things like the loans,
23:23student loans, which will be handled very
23:26professionally by people that do that.
23:29And then, as you know, RFK Jr.
23:32is going to do a fantastic job having to do with
23:34health and the other things.
23:35And, frankly, better than the people at the
23:38Department of Education.
23:39You see the buildings all over D.C.
23:43And then the rest is the states are going to start
23:45coming in and taking all of the information on all
23:47of their students.
23:49And I think a lot of that information is going to
23:51be shipped to different states like Iowa, like
23:55Indiana, like so many that they're so anxious to get.
23:58They're calling us and they're so anxious to get
24:01it.
24:02We'll be shipping the records of the children
24:04that they're taking care of, that they want to take
24:06care of.
24:07And the process will begin.
24:08And I think it won't be that long before the
24:10states will be really running the Department of
24:14Education.
24:14Our teachers are going to be taken very well care
24:16of.
24:17And I said, you know, personally, I don't care
24:19union, non-union.
24:20It doesn't matter.
24:21Teachers are so important to this country and to me.
24:25And we're going to take great care of our
24:26teachers.
24:27And I know it's very important to Linda.
24:29So I think you're going to see a tremendous change
24:32very quickly having to do with education.
24:34And the process has already begun, very
24:37strongly begun.
24:38I think we've done, you know, whatever it is,
24:41eight weeks.
24:43People are amazed at how much we've done in terms
24:45of the safety of the country.
24:46In fact, I would like to ask maybe Marco to say a
24:50few words on what's happening with respect to,
24:53in particular, Russia, Ukraine, where we have
24:56some pretty good news.
24:57I think we want to get it stopped.
24:59We're losing 2,500 young people.
25:03And these are Russian and Ukrainian people, largely.
25:06They're not American people.
25:07But on a human basis, we want to get it stopped.
25:10And we want to stop spending billions and
25:13billions of dollars to a country that we think it's
25:17time and we're doing pretty well.
25:18Marco, do you want to say something?
25:19Yeah, Mr. President.
25:20First of all, I think the American people should be
25:22proud that we have a president that's
25:24promoting peace and the end of conflict on this
25:26planet.
25:27This is a war that's gone on for three years, as you
25:28pointed out, that, as you rightly pointed out,
25:31would have never happened had you been president.
25:32But now it's here and it needs to be brought to an
25:35end.
25:36There is no military solution to this war.
25:37It has to end through negotiation.
25:39And there's only one leader in the world that's
25:41capable of bringing the two sides to a table, and
25:43that's our President, the President of the United
25:45States, President Trump.
25:46And that's what he's done.
25:48And so today, even as we speak, we have teams on
25:50the ground in Saudi Arabia meeting with the
25:52respective sides in the hopes of making progress
25:56towards this outcome that we all want to see.
25:58And I think that the country owes you great
26:02debt of gratitude and the world, really, because I
26:04mean, you're the only leader in the planet that
26:06can bring the two sides together to bring an end
26:07to this conflict.
26:08And that's what you've done.
26:09And you've done it despite, you know,
26:12impediments from other countries and others who
26:14maybe have different opinions about how this
26:16should go.
26:16But ultimately, I think that the only chance we
26:19have for peace is through the President's leadership.
26:21And you've shown that.
26:21And we hope it'll bear fruit.
26:23And today will hopefully be one step more in that
26:25direction.
26:26The President Thank you, Marco.
26:28And on the Middle East, another hotspot that we
26:31didn't have a problem with.
26:32There was no problem in the Middle East when we
26:34left.
26:34And now there's a lot of problems in the Middle
26:36East.
26:37But we're working on that.
26:38But I think we've seen significant progress.
26:41And I think you'll have start.
26:42We're going to start.
26:43We were talking with the Vice President a little
26:46while ago.
26:47And you're going to see countries start to fill up
26:50the Abraham Accords.
26:51More and more countries want to join.
26:53That was a great success, tremendous success.
26:55And then Biden and his group did zero with it.
26:58That should have been filled up within a year of
27:01the election.
27:02Would have been filled up.
27:03So countries are starting to want to get involved
27:07very much with the Abraham Accords again.
27:09So that'll be great.
27:10J.D., do you want to say something?
27:12Yes, sir.
27:14Just on that topic, if you think about what happened
27:16with the Abraham Accords, one of the great
27:17diplomatic breakthroughs under the first Trump
27:19administration, really in the last 30 or 40 years
27:22of American history in the Middle East, and the
27:25Biden administration did absolutely nothing with
27:27it.
27:28Built on it, not at all, added zero additional
27:30countries.
27:31Purely out of political spite, the Biden
27:32administration, I think, hurt the United States and
27:34really hurt the project of world peace.
27:37That has changed.
27:38Luckily, about two months ago, we got a new
27:39president.
27:40And that president has given us the task of
27:43building out the Abraham Accords, adding new
27:44countries to it.
27:46And really, what you see is a lot of these these
27:48countries that have historical, ethnic or
27:51religious hatreds want to build.
27:53They want to build new artificial intelligence.
27:55They want to build new real estate projects.
27:57They want their citizens to become rich and
27:59prosperous and peaceful.
28:00And they're setting to the side some of those old
28:02hatreds under the leadership of President
28:04Trump.
28:05So it's early, but we made a lot of progress and
28:07we'll keep on making progress, sir.
28:09One of the thank you, Judy.
28:10One of the things that's very important, I think,
28:12to mention, I saw a show yesterday and they had a
28:15Democrat congressman on his own Fox.
28:18And he said, well, President Trump said
28:20prices would be coming down.
28:22And instead, he's focused on other things.
28:24Well, we are focused on a lot of other things like
28:26peace, like all of these companies that are moving
28:29in and jobs.
28:31But what he didn't say is that prices have come down
28:33very substantially.
28:34And if you look at when I came in after one week,
28:38they were screaming at me about eggs.
28:40Eggs had nothing to do with me, but they were
28:42through the roof and you couldn't get them.
28:44And now they're down about 35, 40 percent, maybe even
28:47more than that.
28:48I'm going to let Brooke, if you would just discuss
28:52that and groceries generally.
28:54Prices are coming down and energy prices are coming
28:56down.
28:57And I hope the Fed lowers interest rates and then
29:00you're going to see interest rates coming
29:02down.
29:02And I'll have you speak about that in a second.
29:04Scott.
29:05Brooke, go ahead.
29:05Well, sir, thank you.
29:06I think the first thing that's really remarkable
29:08to note is that the prices of eggs under the four
29:11years of Joe Biden increased two hundred and
29:13thirty seven percent, two hundred and thirty seven
29:16percent in those four years.
29:18And yet it wasn't covered in the press at all.
29:21No one talked about the price of eggs in the
29:24summer of last year, for example, from the media.
29:27So, of course, the president wins and he is
29:29inaugurated.
29:30And the next day, everyone is yelping about why the
29:33price of eggs are so high.
29:35So.
29:35So it's certainly one of many, many issues we took
29:37on under the four years of Joe Biden.
29:39We had the cost of input go up 30 percent for all
29:42of our agriculture products.
29:43At the same time, the trade deficit increased
29:46forty nine billion dollars.
29:48So it was zero under the first Trump
29:51administration.
29:51And then under Joe Biden, we sold forty nine billion
29:54dollars less of our ag products around the world.
29:56Then you combine that with the avian bird flu.
29:59And I know I've talked to a lot of you in the press
30:00on this over the last three or four weeks.
30:02But listen, here's the deal.
30:03The president, under his vision and support, we
30:07released about a month ago a very significant plan
30:10on how to bring the price of eggs down.
30:13It included five prongs.
30:14I won't go into it now because I don't want to
30:16bore everyone.
30:16But but since that day, since we released that
30:19plan regarding biosecurity, repopulation,
30:22importing eggs, research and deregulating, taking
30:25those onerous rules off of our farmers, our egg
30:28laying farmers.
30:29Since that time, the price of eggs, the wholesale
30:31price of eggs has come down.
30:33Fifty three percent.
30:35So we're going to keep working on it.
30:36Listen, it's not something you solve overnight.
30:39Avian bird flu and some of the other animal
30:40diseases.
30:41We're working across the government, several
30:43partners out in the Cabinet on that, especially
30:46my friend, Secretary Kennedy, over at HHS.
30:48But we have a long term solution.
30:50But at least for now, in the short term, thanks to
30:53President Trump and so many that have worked so
30:55hard, the price of eggs are coming down as well as
30:58the price of groceries.
30:59So thank you, sir, for the opportunity to lead on
31:01that.
31:02And the number is fifty three percent and they're
31:04readily available.
31:05So that's I think it's a fantastic job.
31:07And overall, groceries are down.
31:10That's right.
31:11They're coming down.
31:12So the consumer is finally seeing some good
31:14news instead of year after year of prices going up
31:17because of grossly incompetent leadership.
31:21Scott, you want to talk about interest rates,
31:23where you see it all going?
31:25Yes, sir.
31:25So we are under your direction.
31:28We're reprivatizing the economy.
31:30We're bringing down government spending.
31:32We're bringing down excess employment in the
31:34government sector.
31:35On the other side, we're going to re leverage the
31:38banking system.
31:39We're going to have all the new manufacturing jobs.
31:41So everyone who's laid off the from the government
31:44will have an opportunity to go into the private
31:46sector.
31:47And that is going to lead to disinflation.
31:51We're going to inflation is under control.
31:53We're going to get the affordability crisis fixed.
31:56So lower energy deregulation, more private
32:00sector jobs that will naturally get interest
32:03rates down, interest rates down.
32:06Mortgage rates are down almost every week since
32:08January 20th.
32:10The energy costs are down about 15 percent.
32:13Crude oil is down about 15 percent.
32:15And as we keep that going, interest rates are going
32:18to keep declining.
32:20It'll it'll be good for mortgages.
32:22It'll be good for credit card debt.
32:23It'll be great for auto loans.
32:25It's great.
32:26And you're doing a really, really good job.
32:30I hope I'd like to see the Fed lower interest
32:32rates.
32:33That's just my opinion, because things are coming
32:37down.
32:37We have inflation under control.
32:40Tremendous amounts of money will be soon coming
32:42in from tariffs, which is about time that we were
32:45able to partake.
32:46We've been ripped off by every country on that on
32:50that basis.
32:51And it's about time.
32:53But that will be, I think, very treated very
32:56fairly.
32:57We'll be very fair.
32:58But the money that we're talking about is rather
33:03astronomical.
33:05And it should be because we put through years and
33:07years.
33:09I was able in the first term.
33:11We had a great first term with the highest stock
33:13price increase ever.
33:15All the different things that we had.
33:16But one of the things we took in a lot of money in
33:19tariffs.
33:20And I had just started that process.
33:22And we had to slow it down because of the COVID.
33:24We did.
33:25We didn't go forward.
33:26We had a we did a very good job with COVID.
33:28But that was something that happened to the whole
33:30world.
33:31It was a shame.
33:32What a shame.
33:32All those people dead and all of the problems that
33:36it caused for countries far worse.
33:38I mean, some countries still haven't recovered.
33:42Economically, they haven't recovered.
33:44But we were we took in hundreds of billions of
33:47dollars in tariffs just starting the process.
33:49But this is a program that's going to be, I
33:52think, unbelievable for our country.
33:55And I think it's it's treating other countries
33:58very fairly.
33:59Very, very fairly.
34:00I'd like to ask, if I might, Sean Duffy, to say
34:04a few words about the air traffic control situation.
34:07You know, there were some mishaps, one in
34:10particular, the helicopter crashing into the plane.
34:12We have a system that's 40 years old.
34:15They spent tens of billions of dollars trying
34:17to patch it up and, you know, make it work.
34:20But it doesn't work.
34:21And my pilot says they use different systems.
34:23They don't want to use our system.
34:25It's so obsolete.
34:27And it's an obsolete, horrible thing that
34:30happened with respect to it.
34:31And we were going to I said, day one, if this
34:35happens, when we are successful, we're going to
34:38have to get a brand new, modern, top of the line
34:43air traffic system.
34:45And I think I can say that I've been working a
34:48little bit with Sean on it, but Sean's been
34:50working hard on it.
34:51And with his new person at FDA, who's going to be
34:54terrific, by the way.
34:55And maybe you want to talk to them about that
34:58because we need safety in the air, total safety in
35:00the air.
35:01And this will give that to you.
35:02Sure.
35:03Thank you, Mr. President.
35:04We had a conversation on Friday.
35:06Again, our our air traffic control system, as we
35:10talked about, maybe privately or publicly with
35:12all of you.
35:13But we have decades of ideas and billions of
35:17dollars and no progress is ever made on any of these
35:20initiatives.
35:21Air traffic control is the same thing.
35:22And so we're having a conversation about building
35:25a state of the art, brand new, best technology,
35:29envy of the world air traffic control system.
35:32And what's interesting from from the Doge team is
35:34they'll look and say, well, what is the problem?
35:36Why hasn't this been built?
35:37This is about safety.
35:38This is about people's lives.
35:40All of you fly.
35:41Your family flies.
35:42Why hasn't it been done?
35:44And the problem is, in government, it takes way
35:46too long.
35:47So technology changes and money changes and
35:49administrations change.
35:51We have to do this fast, which is why we need the
35:52partnership from the Congress to give us the
35:55money up front.
35:57The best ideas and the best technology available
35:59in the world we're going to build in the system.
36:01I think, Mr. President, we can do it in three years.
36:03I think Trump Tower was built in three or three
36:05and a half years.
36:05I think we could match the Trump Tower timeframe.
36:08Two years.
36:09Two years.
36:10Maybe not that good, but about about three years.
36:15And again, it's a it's a we have to choreograph
36:19because, again, our towers are operational, keeping
36:23planes in the air.
36:25So it's we got to choreograph this, but we
36:27can do it in short order.
36:28But I just make one other point, Mr. President.
36:31We're thirty six trillion dollars in debt.
36:34You've never had a Doge.
36:35We've never come in and looked at our government
36:37the way, Mr. President, you've looked at this
36:39government and said there's too many people.
36:42There's there's contracts, fraud, waste and abuse.
36:45And so we've had a few bumps in the road as we've
36:47gone through this process.
36:48But if you look around this room, everybody has has
36:53seen how the process has evolved and everyone
36:56appreciates some of the insight and and technical
37:00support that we've gotten to make this government
37:02more efficient, to make it more responsive to the
37:04American people.
37:06And so, again, when you have a new system like
37:09this, you'll you'll get some bumps.
37:11But things are rolling out.
37:13The last three weeks have been much, much better as
37:16our teams have integrated and we're working to
37:19deliver for the American people.
37:21And I would say some of the press had made comments
37:23last time about what happened in the last
37:25meeting.
37:26We had we had a great conversation in the last
37:28meeting.
37:29Eli and I had a great call after after the meeting.
37:32And so sometimes the reporting can be a little
37:34bit off.
37:35The the the analysis that you guys do when you're
37:39not in the room.
37:40But I just know that we're working well together, Mr.
37:43President.
37:43And the whole team here is working well together.
37:45Well, actually, we decided to see you after the
37:48Cabinet meeting and said it before.
37:50And I think that's nice.
37:51But if you think about it, I guess never in history
37:54has anybody invited you to a Cabinet meeting.
37:57We're very open and transparent.
37:59And we had a very good meeting today.
38:02So, I mean, you're standing here.
38:04You're seeing what the result of the meeting is.
38:06I think we're doing an amazing job for it for
38:09essentially eight weeks on the job.
38:11I think it's there's never been anything like it.
38:13Did you have a question, please?
38:14To actually, you know, thank you for having.
38:17We appreciate it.
38:18One, actually, to follow up on the attorney
38:19general's comments and then one for you, you said
38:21that you're now preparing to prosecute examples of
38:26fraud across federal agencies for a team.
38:30We are working with a team.
38:32We have a team of attorneys in place.
38:34Working with Elon's incredible team, helping
38:37us, taking referrals from the Cabinet members.
38:40You know, these are your tax dollars and a lot of
38:43it is just abuse, a lot of it's waste.
38:45But if it's fraud, we are investigating it and
38:48we're coming, we are looking at multiple cases
38:51of fraud throughout the federal government.
38:54One for you, Mr.
38:55President, Greenland is confused about the
38:58second lady and the national security advisor
39:01visiting this week.
39:03They're concerned that this is further
39:05provocation, whatever it is you ultimately
39:08want for Greenland.
39:08Could you further explain why they're going?
39:11What is the ultimate end goal?
39:13Yeah, well, not provocation.
39:15This is friendliness, not provocation.
39:18We're dealing with a lot of people from Greenland
39:21that would like to see something happen with
39:23respect to their being properly protected and
39:26properly taken care of.
39:27They're calling us.
39:28We're not calling them.
39:29And we were invited over there and I thought it
39:33would be a great I have great respect for the
39:36wife of our first of our great vice president.
39:40I think she's doing a she's a brilliant woman.
39:43She's a very nice woman and she loves the
39:47concept of Greenland.
39:49And so she's going there.
39:50And I think Marco is going there and some others
39:52are going there.
39:54But we've been invited and they really like the
39:56idea because they have been somewhat abandoned.
40:00As you know, they haven't been taken well, good
40:03care of.
40:04And I think Greenland is going to be something that
40:07maybe is in our future.
40:08I think it's important.
40:10It's important from the standpoint of
40:12international security.
40:14And if you look at the ships outside of
40:16Greenland, you have Russia, you have China,
40:19you have lots of different people and lots of
40:21different places.
40:22And it cannot go on the way it is.
40:25It's not going to go on the way it is.
40:26I'll make a statement.
40:27It's not going to happen.
40:29So they're going there.
40:31And that's purely friendship.
40:34A lot of people.
40:35Yeah, people, people from Greenland are asking us
40:38together.
40:38We have many, many requests from many, many
40:40people, some officials, too.
40:43Yes, please.
40:43Economic forecast.
40:46I saw one economic forecast coming out from
40:48the OECD this past week.
40:50They are forecasting stagflation for the United
40:54States.
40:54A downtick in terms of GDP growth.
40:57Do you agree with that forecast?
40:59What do you see over the course of 2025?
41:02Well, we inherited a very, very bad and
41:05perilous situation from a group of people.
41:08Again, we just got here from a group.
41:11And this takes a long time to develop from a
41:13group of people that truly didn't know what
41:15they were doing.
41:16And you see that with not only costs, you see that
41:19with all of these fake contracts that have been
41:21given out.
41:22So we inherited a bad situation.
41:23But I think we're going to have an economy that
41:25booms.
41:26I think when when it all kicks in, it's not going
41:28to take very long because some of these people that
41:31announced that they're going to spend billions of
41:32dollars.
41:33I mean, literally, Apple is spending 500 billion
41:38dollars.
41:38They've never made anything close to that to
41:41do that.
41:41They're building plants here instead of China,
41:43instead of other places.
41:45When it all happens and it's going to happen
41:48very soon, these are people that are already in
41:50many cases are already starting.
41:52They just announced in some cases they literally
41:55they announced, but they actually started before
41:58the announcement, as you know, because some are
42:00already building.
42:01This is going to kick in.
42:02I think it's going to be amazing.
42:04So they're looking at based on numbers that I
42:08was looking at six months ago, seven months ago, I
42:11was very concerned about the economy.
42:13We're going to have something that's like
42:15nobody's ever seen before.
42:16We have we have numbers and we have job
42:21generation that I don't think we've ever seen
42:24before.
42:24See how it works out.
42:26But I think the economy is going to go through the
42:27roof.
42:28Yeah, please.
42:31In an interview with Time magazine published this
42:33morning, President Zelensky said he believes
42:35that some members of your team have been
42:37influenced by Russian information.
42:39Those were his words.
42:41What do you what do you have to say that?
42:42Well, probably they have been influenced to get
42:45this thing settled because Ukraine wants to see it
42:49settled.
42:49I think they have to have it settled.
42:50And Russia wants to see it settled.
42:52And I think if I weren't president, this would
42:54never happen.
42:56Marco is doing a great job.
42:58And Steve Whitkoff has been incredible.
43:02Michael Waltz.
43:02We have a great group of people working on it.
43:05And that takes a good part of their day settling
43:08something that really well, it affects us
43:11monetarily because we've given so much money and
43:14we're getting that done.
43:15In fact, Scott is telling me that the agreement on
43:18rare earths is just about completed.
43:20They'll sign it shortly.
43:22So it's as you know, Europe is in for a very
43:25small fraction of what we're in for.
43:27It affects them much more than affects us.
43:30And again, they are in as a loan, which nobody
43:35knew until I came along.
43:38Europe is giving the money to Ukraine as a loan.
43:40We were just pouring money into Ukraine.
43:43It's a very unfair situation.
43:44So we made a deal on rare earths.
43:46But most importantly, we want to stop the
43:48killing that's going on.
43:50Two thousand five hundred, on average, mostly
43:54soldiers a week are being killed.
43:56And the Russian and the Ukrainian.
43:58And if we can stop it, that's a very important
44:00thing to me on a human basis.
44:02OK, anybody else?
44:03Are you signing the rare earths deal today?
44:05Is that what you mean?
44:06No, we'll be signing it soon.
44:08So it'll be signed very soon.
44:12Yeah, you recently mentioned the fate of
44:14all the Ukrainian children abducted and
44:16transported to Russia.
44:18So are you demanding that Russia return these
44:21kids to their families in Ukraine?
44:23Well, it's one of the things that we're
44:24talking about.
44:25I know that no decision has been made.
44:28We're talking about territory right now.
44:30We're talking about lines of demarcation.
44:33We're talking about power, power plant ownership.
44:37Some people are saying the United States should
44:39own the power plant and then work it that way
44:41because we have the expertise to fix it up,
44:43et cetera, et cetera.
44:45So, OK, that would be something like that
44:46would be fine with me.
44:48But they are talking about ownership of the big
44:50nuclear power plant in particular.
44:53But all of these things will come up and they
44:54have come up and that has been discussed.
44:56Yes.
44:57OK.
44:58I want to thank everybody very much.
45:01This was a great meeting.
45:03These are phenomenal people.
45:04We're lucky to have.
45:05I have to tell you, I want to thank you all.
45:07And Ilan, I want to thank you.
45:08I know you've been through a lot with this
45:10horrible situation that happened.
45:14Saving America.
45:15Very unfair.
45:16What he is, is a patriot.
45:18Here's a man that I can tell you, he's a friend
45:21of mine.
45:22He's become a friend of mine.
45:23He supported me in the election.
45:25That's when I got to know him.
45:26Really, I knew him a little bit from the first
45:27term, but not much.
45:29But he's a patriot more than anything else.
45:31He's never think of it.
45:33He has never asked me for a thing.
45:35He could have.
45:36I always say I wonder if he's ever going to ask me
45:37for something.
45:39And that's always subject to change.
45:40And if it does change, I'll let you know about it.
45:42But Ilan has never asked me for a thing.
45:46I mean, I got rid of the electric car mandate.
45:48I have no idea how that affects him, but possibly
45:51not good.
45:52I don't know.
45:53But he's never asked me for a thing.
45:57And I think that's an amazing tribute.
45:59I did get activated last week when I saw what
46:02they're doing.
46:03I said he makes an incredible product and
46:06we're going to go out and tell people you can't do
46:08that stuff and support him.
46:10They got to support him because if he wasn't doing
46:13this, he wouldn't have any of these difficulties.
46:16And I think it's getting less and less.
46:17Pam has done a great job with regard to all of the
46:21you know, I mean, I know the kind of investigations
46:23that are going on.
46:24If she finds them, which she will.
46:26She already found four of them.
46:28But I think they're going to suffer very grave
46:30consequences because they're really terrorists.
46:32When you think about it, they're they're very
46:35terrorist at a high level.
46:37And I think the people that are financing them,
46:39they could very well be people I know, people
46:43that you write about.
46:44But those people are in big trouble, so they better
46:48cut it out.
46:48But Elon is a patriot and we want to thank you very
46:51much for the job you're doing.
46:52Thank you very much.
46:57Thank you, everybody.
47:02Thank you very much.
47:07I just want to say thank you to all the Doge team who are getting death threats on a daily basis.
47:12I'm just trying to do the right thing for the American taxpayer and for the American people.
47:16Just a thank you to the Doge team who are literally getting death threats and being accosted.
47:21A lot of them are just kids. They're just trying to help out.
47:24They're very talented. They could get jobs for millions of dollars a year.
47:28Instead, they come here, earn peanuts, and get death threats.
47:31So thanks to the Doge team.