WASHINGTON (AP) – With the meeting of the Cabinet of the White House of Tuesday that passed from two hours, the eyes of the President Donald Trump fell and closed. His budget director worked himself up a fluffy cloud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was lucky enough to speak early, but the title on his nameplate was misspelled.
The sleepy, and sometimes erratic, gathering still ended with a bang of news. Trump declared he did not want Somalis in the United States and Hegseth cited the “fog of war” in defense of a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea in September.
The president started things by noting that it was the last time his Cabinet would meet until 2026. And, although marathon sessions with his laudatory top advisers have become a Trump trademark since returning to the White House, this latest installment has at times felt like a necessary holiday break.
Trump offered lengthy opening remarks that largely repeated his previous major policy announcements in recent months. He also repeated old complaints, and went back to his falsehoods about winning the 2020 election.
‘go fast’
The president then gave each member of the Cabinet a chance to speak, declaring, “We will go quickly.” This did little to stop most Cabinet members from offering lengthy presentations.
Hegseth went first and praised the Trump administration’s move to rename his agency the War Department — something that cannot be officially done without an act of Congress. But the nameplate in front of Hegseth labeled him “secretary of war,” including an erroneous double “S” that quickly became the source of intense ridicule on the internet.
After that, as each official spoke in turn, a TV camera trained on Trump showed him struggling to stay focused. The president sat back in his chair with his eyes sometimes drooping and sometimes closing completely.
Trump’s apparent snub followed his criticism of a recent New York Times story examining his schedule and stamina at the age of 79. Trump repeated the Times story early in Tuesday’s meeting and even dropped into the third person to assure all involved that “Trump is strong.”
Another indication that things were dragging on came from budget director Russell Vought, who was spotted sketching a bucolic scene on White House letterhead.
Vought drew mountains framed by pine trees topped with the kind of friendly-looking clouds that public television legend Bob Ross preferred to populate his serene landscape paintings with. The budget chief also drew an arrow under his mount. Where she was supposed to be pointing was not clear.
Conflict affordability messages
As Trump’s admonitions to keep things tight were ignored, some Cabinet members also challenged the president in their presentations when it came to the issue of affordability.
Trump made a point in his opening remarks to call the concerns Democrats have raised about the cost increase a “con job.” This did not stop many of the leading voices of his administration from seriously detailing how they were indeed looking to reduce prices across the country.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins spoke about economic pressures on farmers, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent called affordability a “crisis,” and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner said that hundreds of thousands of Americans buying a home for the first time was an example of how the administration was taking steps to achieve more affordability.
The last speaker was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke for several minutes and acknowledged: “I know I’m the last, so I wanted to be fast. But there’s a lot to cover.”
All in all, Tuesday’s meeting lasted more than two hours. That fell short of Trump’s record for Cabinet meetings: an August marathon that stretched to three hours and 17 minutes.
Anyway, even the president acknowledged that the last meeting was going to be long. “We’re spending a lot of time here,” he said.
Trump wrapped things up by taking questions from reporters, but only after jokingly asking, “After that, do you WANT to ask any questions?” He also pointed to a journalist who had a boom mic to pick up the sound from the Cabinet meeting and playfully offered, “How strong are you?”
“You have been holding this for two hours,” continued the president, drawing laughter from the members of the Cabinet. “There are very few people who can do that. I’m very proud of you.”
Q&A news
Questions from the journalists came out of the speed.
Hegseth said he did not see any survivors in the water when the second attack on the boat off Venezuela was ordered and launched in early September. He said that “the thing was on fire” and mentioned the “fog of war” in defense of what happened. He also said he “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the September 2 mission after the initial strike.
In response to a question later, Trump stated that he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States, adding that residents of the war-torn East African country should stay there and try to fix their homeland. He also accused Somalis of relying too much on US aid programs while offering little to the nation in return.
This drew applause from his Cabinet, although the questions ended abruptly with the journalists quickly leaving the room. Trump concluded by slapping his hand twice on the table, pushing his chair back, standing up and patting Hegseth on the shoulder.