US President, Donald Trump has held his first official Cabinet meeting since beginning his second term.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has led efforts to reduce the federal government workforce but is not a Cabinet member, was present at the meeting.
The White House said earlier Wednesday that Musk attending as “Cabinet secretaries take the advice and direction” of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
According to a White House official, the cabinet meeting is intended to serve as a moment to touch base and ensure Trump’s federal agency heads “are rowing in the right direction.”
At the meeting, Trump confirmed that Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will come to the White House Friday to sign an agreement on natural resources and reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine.
Trump said his administration is “happy about” the deal, which could grant the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as part of wider negotiations to end Russia’s invasion, as well as US involvement in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine.
Trump said that he will not be making “security guarantees to Ukraine.”
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that, because…Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”
Donald Trump
Musk Addresses Cabinet Meeting
Also, Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spoke at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting.
Musk said that he was “tech support” and said that DOGE was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems.”
He later added that he had received “a lot of death threats,” over the work he has been doing, which has involved hundreds of people losing their jobs.
Over the weekend, Musk blasted out an email telling federal employees to explain their work or risk losing their jobs.
One million federal workers have responded to that email after conflicting guidance from Musk, Trump and various agencies.
When questioned about that email, Musk said it was not a “performance review” but rather a “pulse check review.”
“We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead. Which is probably why they can’t respond. And some people who are not real people, like they’re literally fictional individuals that are collecting pay checks.
“So we’re literally trying to figure out, are these people real, are they alive and can they write an email?”
Elon Musk
The DOGE leader continued that the overhaul of federal workers could only have been done with the support of everyone present in the meeting.
Musk also admitted that, as a part of his sweeping overhaul of the US government, some critical roles were laid off.
He noted that among them were USAID’s Ebola prevention programs, which were “accidentally” canceled as a part of the overhaul. He added that that cancellation was immediately reversed.
Meanwhile, Trump said Wednesday that some members of his Cabinet “disagree a little bit” with Elon Musk.
“Anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, then we’ll throw them out of here. 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.”
Donald Trump
Additionally, Trump vowed that his administration will make no cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
He suggested, however, that the cuts could come from rooting out fraud.
READ ALSO: UK Slashes Ukraine Military Training Staff By 73%
