NonilexDuring the 1st #cabinet meeting of his 2nd term, #Trump emphasized the import of the govt-slashing effort run by #ElonMusk, & both men doubled down on #Musk’s directive that #FederalWorkers reply to an email listing their week’s achievements. Several #FederalAgencies told employees to ignore the email, & eventually the #OPM said the directive “voluntary.” Trump also touted his #GoldCard idea that sells #wealthy foreigners #citizenship & claimed his 1st month was a total success.
During questioning after #Trump’s #cabinet meeting, #Health Secy #RFKJr, a #vaccine critic, said the government was closely watching the #measles outbreak across #Texas. He said measles outbreaks occur every year.
[not at this scale & rate in the US, not before the outbreak of the #ConspiracyTheory #propaganda from idiots like Kennedy]
#FactCheck #TrumpLies #AntiVaxxers #PublicHealth #medicine #science #disease #GetVaccinated #vaccines #USpol #Trump #HHS #idiocracy #TrumpCabinetMeeting 🧵
#TrumpCabinetMeeting notes 🧵
#Trump announced that President Volodymyr #Zelensky of #Ukraine will visit on Friday to seal a deal granting the #UnitedStates rights to Ukraine’s #mineral resources.
Trump repeated #disinformation about how much the #US & #Europe have contributed to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion since 202/, claiming inaccurately that the US has invested 3X as much as Europe. Per the Kiel Inst, Europe has allocated $138B to the war effort, the US has given $119B.
#Trump said “I think we’ll be very close to balancing budgets,” but that appears unlikely to say the least. None of the plans advanced so far offer a credible plan to balance the federal #budget, which has a deficit of nearly $2T a year. Instead, Trump is pushing for large tax cuts for #corporations & the #wealthy that will make it harder to balance the budget.
Trump asked #ElonMusk to stand up first to talk about what he’s doing w/ #DOGE. By all accounts, #Musk dominated the #TrumpCabinetMeeting.
Peter Baker noted, not a lot of people show up at cabinet meetings wearing a baseball cap.
Trump praised Musk’s email telling every federal employee to provide a list of 5 things they accomplished last week. He said the cabinet is very supportive of it.
“If they aren’t, I’d want them to speak up,” Trump said of cabinet secretaries.
🧵
#sycophants #USpol #law
#Musk said the federal #deficit challenges America’s stability, which many on both sides of the aisle would agree with. But the cuts he has been making in taking his “chain saw” approach to #FederalAgencies would still be a drop in the bucket. The vast majority of federal spending goes to #SocialSecurity, #Medicare, #Medicaid & the #military, which Trump has *vowed* to protect—though he backed the House budget that cuts Medicaid among other programs including #Veterans services.
#Musk predicted that “America will go bankrupt” without his #DOGE team’s effort to cut spending across the federal government. #idiot
Musk acknowledged that the govt reduction effort has made *some* mistakes [basically everything they’ve done has been riddled w/errors & seriously questionable judgments], noting they accidentally paused efforts at #USAID to prevent #Ebola. He said they *quickly* [nope] corrected that once they were alerted to the mistake [court ordered]
#Musk says the goal is to achieve a $1 trillion #deficit reduction by 2026. During the 2024 campaign, Musk said “I think we can do at least $2 trillion,” so he has already abandoned half of his promise from the campaign. 🤣
“Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” #Trump asked. “If you are, we’ll throw him out of here.” Nervous laughter rippled through the room as #cabinet members started to clap.
“President Trump has put together the best cabinet ever,” Musk says.
#Musk offered a totally new explanation for his Saturday night email to #FederalWorkers requiring they provide five points summarizing their work over the past week. He now says it was not meant as a performance review. “It was a pulse check review,” searching for *phantom employees*, he said.
[I call bullshit]
Musk also said he asked #Trump before sending the email blast & was told by Trump that it was OK to send.
After some #FederalAgencies told their employees not to respond because of national security concerns, Musk now says employees could simply say they’re working on #classified matters.
#Musk refused to share how many federal jobs they are seeking to eliminate, saying he wants to keep people who are doing *good work* in *essential* roles. [presumably by his & Trump’s metrics]
#Trump said that #LeeZeldin, the new #EPA administrator, plans to cut up to 65% of his employees 💔.
While #Trump says he will balance the #budget & pay down the #debt, it’s worth remembering that he promised during the 2016 campaign that he could eliminate the entire national debt accumulated over more than two centuries during 8 years in office. Instead, during his first term, he ADDED $8.4 trillion in new borrowing over 10 years.
#Trump asked #HowardLutnick, #commerce secy, to talk about Trump’s new plan to issue #GoldCard #visas to folks willing to pay $5M. He said it stems from an existing #EB5 program, which allowed #wealthy foreign investors to pay up to pay from $500k to >$1M to put themselves on a pathway to #citizenship. Lutnick is correct that program was subject to scrutiny over the years, including cases of #fraud involving people w/possible ties to #China & #Iran #intelligence.
[see posted video yesterday] 🧵
Sean Fenian@Nonilex So he's openly selling US citizenship now.