WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump held the first Cabinet meeting of his second administration on Feb. 26 at the White House, offering remarks on a wide range of topics, including government-shrinking efforts, the Ukraine rare earths deal, and Taiwan.
The meeting, which opened with a prayer by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, also introduced a new press pool managed by the White House. The pool stayed in the room for more than an hour as Trump answered reporters’ questions.
Trump discussed ongoing efforts to cut spending and fire workers at multiple agencies, the state of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, plans to continue tariffs on key trading partners, Washington’s stance on China, and a new “gold card” for wealthy visa applicants.
Government-Shrinking Efforts
Elon Musk, whose government efficiency efforts have sparked a media frenzy, was also at the Cabinet meeting to discuss his work.“We do need to move quickly,” Musk told Cabinet members and reporters.
Achieving a trillion-dollar debt reduction in 2026, he said, requires saving $4 billion per day from now until the end of September.
“We can do it, and we will do it,” he said.
Musk said that the email sent to federal employees from the Office of Personnel Management asking for a bullet-point list of five work accomplishments from the past week had been misinterpreted as a “performance review.”
“It’s a ‘pulse review’ ... ‘Do you have a pulse, and can you reply to this email?’” Musk said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“What we are trying to get to the bottom of is 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 fictional individuals.”
Musk did not say how many federal workers the administration is looking to cut, but said, “We wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well.”
However, Trump confirmed that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin aims to cut 65 percent of the department’s staff, but he said his administration would need to be careful about who it would cut at the State Department.
The president said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had worked more successfully with some agencies than others, mentioning the State Department as an example of a tricky prospect because of current negotiations to end the Russia–Ukraine war.
“We have a lot of countries involved, and we have to be a little bit careful about what we do and who we’re terminating,” Trump said.
During the meeting, Musk also admitted that his DOGE had accidentally cut funding for Ebola prevention after gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
No Security Guarantees for Ukraine
Trump confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Feb. 28 to sign a deal that would allow the United States access to the Eastern European country’s rare earth minerals.While the deal could provide a financial boost to Ukraine as it looks to fend off Russia’s invasion, there are no security guarantees in the deal, according to Trump, despite the Ukrainians’ seeking them.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”
The president said that with the United States having access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, there would be “sort of automatic security, because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.”
He said he welcomes the UK and France, saying they’re in favor of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Russia, however, opposed this plan.
“We cannot consider any options,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Qatar on Feb. 26, referring to peacekeeping operations.
“Trump said that a decision on the deployment of peacekeeping forces would only be possible with the consent of both sides, apparently referring to us and Ukraine. Nobody has asked us about this.”
Trump is seeking an end to the three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A meeting earlier this month in Saudi Arabia between the United States and Russia led to an agreement for further talks in seeking a cease-fire. The Trump administration has said that Ukraine will be part of future talks.
Zelenskyy has sought NATO membership for Ukraine, but the administration has objected to that possibility.
Trump said during the Cabinet meeting that Zelenskyy will have to make concessions to Russia.
Taiwan Question
Trump was asked by a reporter whether it was his policy that communist China would never take Taiwan by force as long as he was president.“I never comment on that. I don’t comment on any because I don’t ever put myself in that position,” Trump replied. “If I said it, I certainly wouldn’t be saying it to you. I'd be saying it to other people, maybe people around this table.”
The president referred to China as a “competitor.”
“We want them to come in and invest,” Trump said of Chinese companies, disputing reports that he had blocked Chinese investments.
“We want them to invest in the United States—that’s good. There’s a lot of money coming in, and we'll invest in China.”
Gold Card Visa Could ‘Sell Like Crazy’
During the Cabinet meeting, Trump shed more light on his new proposal to address the country’s mounting debt.He recently proposed selling “Gold Card” visas to wealthy immigrants in exchange for a $5 million investment in the United States.
“I don’t know, maybe it will sell like crazy,” Trump told reporters.
He noted that U.S. companies would be able to buy “Gold Cards” and then use them as part of their recruitment process. Trump said companies such as Apple want to hire foreign students graduating from top U.S. schools such as Harvard University or the Wharton business school.
“They’re going to be hiring people, they’re going to be bringing people in and companies in.”
During the meeting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the existing EB-5 program, which has been in place for many years, involved foreign immigrants investing $1 million into U.S. projects. However, many of these projects were questionable and often didn’t succeed, he said.
“We will modify the EB-5 agreement,” Lutnick said, adding that he is working with Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on this new project.
“For $5 million, they‘ll get a license from the Department of Commerce, then they’ll make a proper investment on the EB-5,” Lutnick said.
He mentioned that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will also be actively involved in redesigning the program.
“Because Scott and I are the best people together to do that,” Lutnick said, adding that “200,000 of these ‘Gold’ green cards is $1 trillion to pay down our debt.”
‘I’m Not Stopping the Tariffs’
Trump said he would continue with his plan to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico despite a recent decline in border crossings.“I’m not stopping the tariffs,” Trump said. “Millions of people have died because of the fentanyl that comes over the border.”
Soon after taking office, Trump announced broad 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, citing illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking. His administration paused those tariffs for 30 days after the countries’ leaders announced separate plans to combat both issues.
Trump said the drop in border crossings was good but attributed that to policy changes with the Department of Homeland Security.
“That’s also due to us, mostly due to us,” he said.
“The damage has been done. We’ve lost millions of people due to fentanyl. ... It comes mostly from China,” and through Mexico and Canada.
Trump said most of the tariffs on Mexico and Canada would resume on April 2.
He also confirmed a 25 percent tariff on “cars and all other things” leaving the European Union.
Trump said the EU is restrictive against many U.S. imports, including automobiles and farm products. The president also denied that retaliatory tariffs from other countries would hurt U.S. interests.
He suggested that the United States would just “go cold turkey” on buying European imports and would win a hypothetical trade war if the EU pursued one.
“We are the pot of gold. We’re the one that everybody wants,” Trump said. “And they can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation.”
