JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Trump held his first Cabinet meeting of this new term at the White House today. He was joined by Elon Musk, who is not a member of the Cabinet, but who is the billionaire tasked with cutting costs and slashing the federal workforce. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was there. Hi.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Hi there, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Asma, tell us, what was it like in this meeting?
KHALID: Well, we were in the room for over an hour. President Trump did most of the talking. He took a lot of questions from reporters. But shortly after he delivered some brief opening remarks, he handed the floor to Elon Musk. And Juana, as you just mentioned, Musk is not a member of Trump's Cabinet, so he did not have a seat around the formal table, but while we were in the room, he talked more than the vice president. He talked more than any other Cabinet member. He began by standing up, opening his blazer and showing off this shirt he was wearing that read, tech support.
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ELON MUSK: I actually just call myself a humble tech support here because...
(LAUGHTER)
MUSK: ...This is actually - as crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work that the DOGE team is doing.
SUMMERS: I want to ask you, Asma, about the DOGE effort. There's been a whole lot of confusion about this directive that Musk issued over the weekend. He emailed that - there was an email that went out to federal workers to respond with five things they did last week. Did the Cabinet members there address that confusion?
KHALID: Right. I mean, we've heard reports of Cabinet members who advised their workers not to respond to that email some days ago. But today, Trump was trying to show a united front. The president praised Musk, and Cabinet members, I will say, seemed largely like spectators. At one point, Trump invited the Cabinet to speak up and express any dissatisfaction that they might have, but then said that some might, quote, "disagree a little bit," but for the most part they're thrilled.
A reporter did ask Musk, what happens to those workers who did not respond to the email? And something that President Trump actually said really caught my ear. He said that those workers are, quote, "on the bubble." And he said that he's directing agencies to make more cuts to the federal workforce. And then also today, Trump's budget director told agencies in a memo to prepare plans for large-scale job eliminations.
SUMMERS: OK. Well, as we mentioned, Asma, this was the President's first Cabinet meeting of this term. What other issues did he have an opinion on?
KHALID: Well, the major headline was Ukraine. Trump said that he's meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, and Trump said that they have reached a deal for the U.S. to access Ukraine's rare-earth minerals. These are minerals that are critical for producing certain kinds of energy and technology. And Trump says it is a way for Ukraine to pay the U.S. back for all its help during the war. And it's related to a peace deal that the president wants to try to broker. He was asked by a reporter if the United States would be providing Ukraine with any sort of security guarantees once the war ends. Take a listen to the president's response.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that because it's in - you know, we're talking about Europe as their next-door neighbor. But we're going to make sure everything goes well. And as you know, we'll be making a - we'll be really partnering with Ukraine in terms of rare earth.
KHALID: He did go on to say that because the U.S. will be working in Ukraine on these minerals, they're sort of automatic security because nobody would want to mess around when the United States is there. One other thing he said that really caught my ear is that he said Russia's President Vladimir Putin will have to make some sort of concessions as well, but he did not spell out what he wants to see.
SUMMERS: Did you get a sense that Trump had any sort of main message today?
KHALID: I mean, it was a really wide-ranging conversation in terms of questions he took from reporters. He promoted his new idea for a gold card visa to attract wealthy foreigners to the U.S. He also spoke about tariffs and said he's planning on a whole bunch of those kicking in on April 2. But he did not really go into the details of how he intends to solve, I will say, some of the most persistent economic problems, like the high cost of eggs and people's worries about inflation.
SUMMERS: That's NPR's Asma Khalid. Thank you.
KHALID: Always good to speak with you. Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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