Trump praises Doge in first cabinet meeting and claims ‘billions’ in savings without evidence – live

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Trump's public comments before cabinet meeting: key moments

Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term.

• Trump opened his meeting by announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.

• Trump spoke about the costs of eggs, and how his administration was working to “get the prices down”.

• During the meeting, Trump praised Doge and said, without evidence, that the initiative had cut billions and billions of dollars.

• Trump then asked Elon Musk to stand up and deliver some remarks about his work with Doge. In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support and claimed that if costs don’t get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”. Musk also described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.

• Musk acknowledged that Doge “won’t be perfect” and said that Doge accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

• Musk said that Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers. “We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said. Trump also told the room that the federal employees who have not responded so far are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.

• Trump said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% or so of its employees.

• Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force. The US president then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke about the new “gold card” plan and said that 200,000 of them could add up to $1tn.

• During the meeting, Trump heavily criticized former president Joe Biden, and criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the southern border.

• Trump once again said that he wanted Canada to become the 51st US state.

• Trump said 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 described Putin as a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”. He also 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.

• Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.

Trump says that the US has “gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run” before criticizing former president Joe Biden calling him the “worst president in the history of our country”.

Once again, Trump adopted Russia’s narrative on the origin of the Ukraine war.

During the meeting, Trump suggested that Ukraine’s prospect for Nato membership was “probably the reason the whole thing started”.

Robert Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, said that he is watching the measles outbreak and that so far two people have died.

“We’re going to continue to follow it,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday it was reported that one school-aged child in West Texas had died of measles.

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.