WASHINGTON (AP) — As Tuesday’s White House Cabinet meeting ticked past two hours, President Donald Trump’s eyes fluttered and closed. His budget director busied himself scribbling a fluffy cloud. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was lucky enough to speak early, but the title on his plaque was misspelled.
The sleepy and sometimes sloppy meeting ended with a flurry of news, however. Trump has said he does not want Somalis in the US, and Hegseth cited the “fog of war” in defending a subsequent strike on a suspected drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean in September.
The president kicked things off by noting it was the last time his cabinet would meet until 2026. And while marathon sessions with his top aides praising him have become a Trump trademark since he returned to the White House, this latest installment felt at times like a holiday break.
Trump delivered lengthy opening remarks, largely repeating his previous key policy announcements in recent months. He also repeated old grievances, returning to his lies about winning the 2020 election.
“go fast”
The President then gave each Cabinet member a chance to speak, declaring, “We’re going to move quickly.” This did not stop most Cabinet members from giving lengthy presentations.
Hegseth went first and praised the Trump administration’s move to rename its agency the War Department — something that can’t be done officially without an act of Congress. But the nameplate in front of Hegseth labeled him as “Secretary of War”, including a misplaced double “S”, which quickly became the source of heated ridicule online.
Afterward, as each official spoke in turn, a TV camera trained on Trump showed him struggling to stay alert. The president sat back in his chair, his eyes now and then drooping and sometimes completely closed.
Trump’s apparent drowsiness followed his criticism of a recent New York Times story that examined his schedule and endurance at the age of 79. Trump again criticized the Times story at the start of Tuesday’s meeting and even went into the third person to assure everyone involved that “Trump is sharp.”
Another indication that things are dragging on came from Budget Director Russell Vought, who was seen sketching a bucolic scene on White House letterhead.
Vought drew pine-framed mountains topped by the kind of friendly clouds with which public television legend Bob Ross preferred to crowd his serene landscape paintings. The budget chief also sketched an arrow under his mountain. Where he should have aimed was not clear.
Accessibility conflict messages
Just as Trump’s warnings to keep things tight were ignored, some Cabinet members also defied the president in their presentations when it came to accessibility.
In his opening remarks, Trump said the concerns Democrats have raised about rising costs are a “challenge.” That hasn’t stopped many of his administration’s top voices from earnestly detailing how they’ve really tried to drive down prices nationwide.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talked about economic pressures on farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called affordability a “crisis,” and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said hundreds of thousands of Americans becoming first-time homebuyers was an example of how the administration was taking steps to achieve greater affordability.
The last speaker was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke for a few minutes and admitted, “I know I’m last, so I wanted to be quick. But there’s a lot to cover.”
In total, Tuesday’s meeting lasted more than two hours. That fell short of Trump’s cabinet meeting record: an August marathon that stretched to three hours and 17 minutes.
Still, even the president admitted that the latest meeting is taking time. “We spend 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 take questions?” He also pointed to a journalist holding a boom microphone to capture audio from the Cabinet meeting and playfully said: “How loud are you?”
“You’ve kept this up for two hours,” the president continued, prompting laughter from Cabinet members. “There are very few people who could do that. I’m very proud of you.”
A new Q&A
The reporters’ questions shook the mood.
Hegseth said he did not see any survivors in the water when the second strike on the ship off Venezuela was ordered and launched in early September. He said “the thing caught fire” and cited the “fog of war” in defense of what happened. He also said he “didn’t stay” for the rest of the Sept. 2 mission after the initial hit.
In response to a follow-up question, Trump said he did not want Somali immigrants in the US, adding that residents of the war-torn east African country should stay there and try to repair their homeland. He also accused Somalis of relying too much on US aid programs while giving little to the nation in return.
This drew applause from his Cabinet, although the questions ended abruptly with journalists rushing out of the room. Trump punctuated the conclusion by banging his hand on the table twice, pushing his chair back, standing up and punching Hegseth on the shoulder.