Trump pushes DOGE, tariffs at first Cabinet meeting

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — President Donald Trump gave more details on planned government layoffs, the next steps in Ukraine and tariffs on countries around the world at his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

It came as some questioned whether Elon Musk’s tactics in cutting employees and services might be running into opposition from the president’s inner circle, but they presented a unified front on Wednesday and declared they will accomplish what they’ve set out to do.

Musk gets ovation from Cabinet

Musk got a round of applause from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, highlighting the billionaire’s growing influence in the administration.

“We’re going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets, believe it or not, something you haven’t heard in many many years decades actually,” Trump said to the cabinet. Last year the U.S. deficit almost reached $2 trillion. 

Trump asked Musk to give remarks in the Cabinet meeting. He said the U.S. cannot continue with $2 trillion deficits and huge amounts of interest on the national debt. “This is a central” thing, he said. Musk also disclosed he is “getting a lot of death threats.” Musk said he thinks that there is around $1 trillion in savings to be found.

“We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect,” Musk acknowledged. “When we make mistakes we will fix it very quickly.”

“Some disagree a little bit,” President Trump said of Musk’s efforts, but said most are “thrilled.” 

Some criticized Musk’s presence at the meeting since his role within the administration is nebulous. He was said to be running the Department of Government Efficiency, but the Trump administration said in a legal filing he was not an employee.

“Elon is working with the Cabinet secretaries and their staff every single day to identify waste and fraud and abuse at these respective agencies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters before the meeting. “All of the Cabinet secretaries take the advice and direction of DOGE.”

Trump won’t guarantee Ukraine security

Trump said he does not support NATO membership for Ukraine. Asked about what concessions he would like to see, Trump said, “I can tell you that NATO you could forget about. I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started.”

The president also told reporters he would not “make security guarantees beyond very much” for the war-torn country amid its conflict with Russia.

“We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in, you know, we’re talking about Europe is the next door neighbor,” Trump said. “But we’re going to make sure everything goes well and as you know we’ll be making, will be really partnering with Ukraine in terms of rare earth [metals]. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to the U.S. to sign an agreement on how the countries will share those resources.

Mexico and Canada tariffs are still happening, EU tariffs on deck

“I’m not stopping the tariffs” promised for goods from Canada and Mexico, Trump said in response to a question.

The 30 day pause on the promised tariffs on both countries ends Monday. The U.S. had paused the implementation of the tariffs as it talked with both countries about what it may be able to do to strengthen border enforcement and drug interdiction. 

Trump now says the tariffs will begin on April 2.

Trump said the U.S. will also soon announce a 25% tariff on cars and other products from the countries of the European Union.

“We have made a decision. We will be announcing it very soon, and it’ll be 25% generally speaking,” he said. “It will be on cars and all other things. They’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way. They don’t accept our cars. They don’t accept essentially our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not. And we accept everything from them,” Trump said. 

Pentagon to investigate Afghanistan withdrawal

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is launching an inquiry into the August 201 withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

“We are doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Hegseth told reporters.

Trump won’t commit to Taiwan defense

When a reporter asked Trump if it was his position that China will not take Taiwan by force while he’s president, Trump said, “I never comment on that. I don’t comment because I don’t ever want to put myself in that position.”

Yet-to-be-confirmed nominees face hearings

Also on Wednesday, three of Trump’s Cabinet picks — Dean John Sauer, the nominee for Solicitor General; Harmeet Dhillon, nominee for the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights; and Aaron Reitz, nominee for assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s legal policy office — face initial hearings and, if confirmed, would have influence over reproductive health care access nationwide.