President Donald Trump kicked off his first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday with a full-throated defense of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, brushing aside any whispers of dissent within his administration.
Flanked by heavyweights like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump made it clear: slashing federal spending and the bloated bureaucracy isn’t just a priority—it’s a mandate.
The White House gathering, which ran over an hour, saw Trump tackle everything from Ukraine to tariffs, but he opened the floor to Musk—a non-Cabinet figure tapped to spearhead DOGE’s mission.
Musk laid out his vision to gut waste, cancel contracts, and trim the federal workforce, a move Trump hailed as a masterstroke. RELATED: ‘We’re Your Tech Support’— Elon Musk Vows To Slash $1 Trillion In Waste, Weed Out ‘Fictional’ Employees
“They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this,” the president said, downplaying any friction. “Some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you for the most part I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”
Musk’s recent gambit—an email demanding federal workers justify their jobs or face the axe—stirred the pot over the weekend. Some Cabinet members told their teams to ignore it, hinting at a rift.
But Musk doubled down Wednesday, claiming Trump greenlit the move to smoke out freeloaders.
“We’re finding out who’s actually showing up,” Musk said, noting over 1 million responses by Tuesday. Trump backed him up, insisting his Cabinet was “very much behind” the effort. “And if they aren’t, I want them to speak up,” he challenged. No one did.
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The president’s confidence was palpable. When pressed on his authority to issue orders to Cabinet officials, Trump didn’t blink: “Oh, yeah, they’ll follow the orders, yes—of course, no exceptions.” It’s a stark reminder of who’s in charge, and conservatives will cheer this no-nonsense approach to reining in a government long overgrown under liberal mismanagement.
Musk framed DOGE as a lean, mean efficiency machine, targeting a 15% cut in fraud and waste. “We’re here to support the president and the agencies,” he said, though he admitted to hiccups—like briefly axing Ebola prevention funds before backtracking.
Critics might pounce, but conservatives see this as proof of bold action, not perfectionism.
A CBS News analysis questioned DOGE’s “wall of receipts,” but Musk’s transparency—posting savings online—shows a commitment to accountability to the American people.
The meeting wasn’t all budget talk. Trump dropped a bombshell: the EPA’s Lee Zeldin thinks he can slash 65% of his agency’s workforce.
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That’s the kind of red-meat conservatism that fires up the base—dismantling the regulatory state one headcount at a time. And then there’s the “gold cards” plan—selling citizenship for $5 million a pop to pay down the debt. No country bans, just vetting. It’s a brash, market-driven fix that liberals will hate and patriots will love.
On foreign policy, Trump teased a Friday visit from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ink a minerals deal—a win for American industry. Most of his Cabinet picks are locked in, though Rep. Elise Stefanik’s U.N. ambassador nod and Linda McMahon’s Education Department bid await Senate votes. With the GOP’s House majority hanging by a thread, every confirmation matters.
This Cabinet meeting wasn’t just a powwow—it was a flex. Trump’s got Musk swinging the axe, a team falling in line, and a vision to shrink government while boosting America’s edge. The left will howl, but for conservatives, it’s common sense blowing through D.C.
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