Trump, Hegseth speak during Cabinet meeting

As promised, when we see it, you see it. President Donald Trump getting his cabinet meeting underway at the White House. Let's listen in. Is that right, Scott? It's even going to be higher than that.

It'll be higher-- And going up. And we're waiting for the Supreme Court case. And it's so important and so vital for this country, because we're not only respected again, we're putting our wars by our trade policies, and we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, and our country is wealthy again and secure again, and it's part of national security. And I hope that goes well. I think it's very important. But think of the number, we're going to be over $18 trillion in 10 months, which is a record times probably eight or 10 times, I think, more than that for any country. There's never been a country that's had that kind of an investment ever in history. And there's never been a country that's had half of that. It's a tremendous thing that's taking place. We have companies moving in from all over the world, from Mexico, from Canada, from Europe, from China, from Japan a lot. We just had Toyota is going to spend $10 billion they just announced, on building new plants in this country. Our workers, they're going to be our workers. But they're spending a tremendous amount. So the stock market is at 46 all-time highs. And this last Friday, which is called Black Friday, was the biggest ever online sales that there's ever been by a lot. More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country. I mean, these are the facts we have to get out. And there's this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about, affordability. They just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. You just say it, affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything. The prices were massively high. Do you remember when we took over eggs? You did a great job on that, Madam Secretary, Agriculture, Brooke. Eggs were four or five times higher than they had ever been. They said, don't order eggs for Easter at the White House. And we ended up doing it, and we got the egg prices way down lower than what they were before. But the word affordability is a con job by the Democrats. They say affordable-- I watched the other day where some very low IQ Congresswoman talked about affordability, affordability, affordability. She had no idea their prices were much higher. As an example, energy, gasoline, we're now at about $2.50 a gallon. We're going to be, I think, at $2 a gallon. We could even crack that at some point. I'd love to do it. And we could do it more easily if we weren't building up the strategic national reserves, which Biden emptied out before the election so that he could try and get elected, meaning, she, he started it, then he got thrown out of the race. Then she took over, and she kept it going, and they emptied out the strategic national reserves, which are really meant for something else. They're not meant to keep people happy with their gasoline prices. They're meant for war. They're meant for problems, big problems. He emptied it out, and then she continued it during the process of trying to get elected. Didn't work out too well for them. And they virtually brought it down to the lowest level, I believe, in history. And it didn't have much of an impact, because the prices were very high. But our prices now for energy, for gasoline are really low. Electricity is coming down. And when that comes down, everything comes down. But the word affordability is a Democrat scam. They say it, and then they go on to the next subject, and everyone thinks, oh, they had lower prices. No, they had the worst inflation in the history of our country. Now, some people will correct me-- because they always love to correct me, even though I'm right about everything-- but some people like to correct me and they say, 48 years. I say, it's not 48 years. It's much more. But they say, it's the worst inflation that we've had in 48 years. I say ever. But whether it's 48 years or ever, it's pretty bad. We had the worst inflation that we've ever had. Since last January, we've stopped inflation in its tracks. And there is still more to do. There's always more to do, but we have it down to a very good level. It's going to go down a little bit further. You want to have a little tiny bit of inflation, otherwise, that's not good either. Then you have a thing called deflation. And deflation can be worse than inflation. But we have it almost-- we'll soon be at a perfect level. But we inherited the worst inflation. But we have 20 states that are now selling gasoline at less than the $2.75. Think of that, $2.75. And it was at $5 under Sleepy Joe. Grocery prices are down with the cost of Thanksgiving turkey this year down 33% It was lower than-- 33% lower than under the Biden administration. Egg prices are way down, 86%. Thank you. And mortgage rates, despite the fact that we have an incompetent Chairman of the Fed, a real dope, who should reduce rates-- I saw even Jamie Dimon said he should be reducing rates. I never saw Jamie Dimon say that. I wonder why he said that. But he really said it, because he's right. But we have a guy that's just a stubborn ox who probably doesn't like your President, your favorite President. But they're going to be coming down. We'll be announcing somebody probably early next year for the new Chairman of the Fed. I talked to Scott about taking the job, but he doesn't want it. [LAUGHING] You got the greatest job here.

Yes, sir. Right? He said no, I want to stay Chairman-- I want to stay-- I want to stay right where we are, Treasury. And I think we're doing really great, aren't we?

We're doing great, sir. It's a great team to be a part of. Yeah, it's amazing. Under my executive order to lower prescription drug prices, which I think is the single biggest thing we've ever done that nobody writes about, because you're fake news. I've made unprecedented deals, along with Bobby, and Oz, and all of the people that work on it. A lot of people, a lot of people that you wouldn't even think work on it, but they do, to slash drug prices by 200%, 300%, 400%, 500%, 600%, 700%, 800%. Nobody's ever heard of it before, because I instituted a favored nations, and no nation agreed to do it. And then I said to the nations, if you're not going to do it, I'm going to charge you 100% tariff, which is more money than we're talking about. And they said, sir, we'd love to do it. Please, we would be honored to do it. And they agreed that they would go along with the whole thing. Nobody thought you could do it because they felt, number one, you couldn't get the drug companies to do it. So we're paying as an example, for the-- let's call it the fat drug, the fat drug, F-A-T, for fat people-- anybody use at the table, don't ask. [LAUGHING] But the fat drug was $135. Think of that. For certain people, $1,300 for certain countries, $1,300 in New York. So in New York, it was $1,300. And in London, it was $135. And a friend of mine called me, he said, what is this? Why is it-- he got used to paying $1,300. Well, now what we have it down to is-- Bobby, what's the number, like 150 or something? We have it down to a low number, don't we?

Yeah, it's about 125, 150. Think of that. So we got it down from $1,300 to $125, to $140, depending on various countries. In other words, we're paying the lowest price, tied for the lowest price in the world. People said you could never do that, because you couldn't get the countries to agree to it. I did. Every country agreed to it, because I said, if you're not going to agree to it, that's OK. I'm going to charge you tariffs. And as soon as I said that, they said, we agree. And then we had to be a little tough with the drug companies, but they came along. The bigger problem was the countries. The countries just wouldn't go along with it, but they did, every country. So we have reduced drug prices by 500%, 600%, 700%, 800%, 900% depending on the drug, depending on the company, depending on all of the different factors. Nobody's ever even thought of drug reductions like that, price reductions. And I told you the story that in my first term, I was so proud of myself because I reduced drugs. It was the first time in 28 years that drug prices were reduced, was one quarter of 1%, one quarter of 1%, and I was so proud of myself. I said, it's the first time in 28 years that drug prices went down over the course of a year, over the course of a presidency. One year, one quarter of 1%, I had a news conference. I was so proud. Now, I got them down, not one quarter of 1%. I got them down 400%, 500%, 600%, and more. And the fake news won't write about it. And it's going to have a huge impact on health care, because a big part of it is buying drugs, buying prescription drugs, drugs. It's going to have a huge positive impact because Obamacare is a disaster. I said it years ago, and I say it now, and the money should be paid, taken away from the insurance company. Obamacare was made to make the insurance companies rich. Their stocks have gone up 1,000% in a short period of time, because the money goes to the insurance company. I want the money to go to the people, that all the money go to the people, and let the people go out and buy their own health care. And I see on television people are advertising now, we will help you buy health care. We will go out and help you buy. That's becoming like an industry because of what I said. So something's going to happen. It's probably not going to be easy because the Democrats, frankly, they don't want to make a good deal for the people. They just want to make a bad deal for the country. They want to make a bad deal for the Republican Party, but the Republican Party is united. And I will say that what I would like to do is the money doesn't go-- trillions of dollars get paid to drug companies, and you still have lousy health care. Obamacare is horrible health care. We wanted to go to the people, and then let the people go out and buy their own health care, and they'll do great. They'll do great. So we're negotiating that now with the Democrats. While congressional Democrats want the largest tax hike in history, I proudly signed the largest tax cuts in American history with the Great Big, Beautiful Bill. The Great Big, Beautiful Bill, the biggest piece of legislation ever signed, and that includes the extension of the original Trump tax cuts, but it's the biggest tax cut ever signed. And it includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. Nobody's ever seen anything like it, so think of that. And in addition, if you buy a car, this is great for our car industry, because we have a lot of car plants, we're bringing back the automobile business. 60% of it was stolen because we had incompetent presidents, or incompetent trade people. But 60% of it was stolen over the years, and now, we're bringing-- I think we're bringing it all back. I think we'll be bigger than ever, than we've ever been in the auto business. That's not even to mention AI where we're leading China. We're leading China by a lot. They're not going to catch us. We have to be smart. But if we're smart, they're not going to be able to catch us. They know that. They told me that. Next year is projected to be the largest tax refund season ever. And we're going to be giving back refunds out of the tariffs because we've taken in literally, trillions of dollars. And we're going to be giving a nice dividend to the people in addition to reducing debt. As you know, I inherited a lot of debt. But it's peanuts compared to the kind of numbers we're talking about. So we're going to be making a dividend to the people. And additionally, we're going to be able to reduce debt. And as time goes by over the next two, three, four years, those numbers are going to go up. And I believe that at some point in the not too distant future, you won't even have income tax to pay, because the money we're taking in is so great, it's so enormous that you're not going to have income tax to pay. Whether you get rid of it, or just keep it around for fun, or have it really low, much lower than it is now. But you won't be paying income tax. We've slashed $1 trillion in costly job-killing regulations, saving Americans an estimated $2,100 for a family of four. And the Biden administration was the exact opposite, but times four. They went up $6,000. We went down $2,100. Think of that. To bring down energy, electricity, and utility prices, I ended the Green New Scam. They call it the Green New Scam, one of the greatest scams in the history of our country. They talked about global warming and all that crap, and what they've done to this country, what they've done by allowing 25 million people into our country, many of whom are criminals, many of whom-- 11,888 are murderers. And we have to get them out, and we're doing it. We're doing it. I think what the job that our law enforcement groups are doing, Kristi, you, and Tom, and everybody, amazing. What you're doing is amazing. I terminated the insane electric vehicle mandate. And, look, some people that make electric cars weren't happy with that. But we have to do that, because you have to have a choice, whether it's a gasoline-powered car-- and we have so much gasoline. You know, China doesn't have gasoline. We do. And whether it's a hybrid, which really are working really well, the combination of electric and gasoline-driven. But everybody was supposed to by 2030, everybody had to own an electric car under the Biden stupidity. And not everybody wants to do that. I like electric cars. I like all cars. They're all good. They all have reasons. But you want to be able to go and buy what you want. I imposed historic tariffs that are now bringing in so much money that we've never-- nobody's ever seen anything like it. And countries that were ripping us off, including allies, but they were ripping us off for years. I won't use the names. I won't mention Japan. I will refuse to mention South Korea. I will not mention names. But they were ripping us off like nobody's ever been ripped off before, and taking horrible advantage of your country. And now, we're making a lot of money, and making a lot of money because of the tariffs that are pouring in. And it's really national security. Among everything else, it's national security. We've also rapidly turned the worst border crisis in world history. I believe we had the worst border ever in history. I don't care if you had a fourth world country, you know, we allow third world country, and we would allow fourth world war countries. And also, it doesn't matter. There was never a border that was as bad as our border. We allowed anybody in with no checks, no vetting. So we've rapidly turned the worst border crisis in world history into the strongest border in the history of our country, and probably one of the strongest borders in the history of the world, because we have nobody coming through. And I want to thank our people. The Border Patrol is so amazing, ICE. And I want to thank the military for the backup, because they're standing right behind them. And that was really nasty for a period of months. And now, it's no longer nasty. Now, they don't even come up. Nobody comes up. It's an easy job. I've made your job a lot easier because they know they're not going to get through. And we take people in, but they have to come in legally. For six months in a row, zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States. You believe that? Zero. We had millions of people coming in a year, millions. Now, we have zero for six months. And these are given by radical left people that do the numbers. I mean, they're not doing them any favors. We don't have-- our net numbers are unbelievable. But we had zero people in the last six months. Illegal border crossings along the US-Mexico border have plummeted to the lowest level ever recorded, ever recorded. And nobody talks about that anymore. You know, it's crazy, they don't talk about it. You'd think they'd say, well, Trump's done a great job on the border. This country is being destroyed by the border. But you always find something new. Like, is he in good health? Biden was great, but is Trump in good health? I sit here-- I sit here I do four news conferences a day. I ask questions from very intelligent lunatics, you people. [LAUGHING] I always give-- I give the right answers. There's never a scandal. There's never a problem. I give you answers that solve your little problems. You go back, and you can't find anything, but you do stories about. Biden was in wonderful health. The guy didn't do a news conference for eight months. If I go one day, I had one day where I didn't do a news conference, there's something wrong with the president. [LAUGHING] You people are crazy. I'll let you know when there's something wrong. There will be some day. That's going to happen to all of us. But right now, I think I'm sharper than I was 25 years ago. But who the hell knows? I took-- by the way, I took my physical. I got all A's, everything. But they said to me, would you like to take a cognitive test? I said, is it hard? [LAUGHING] They said, yes. I said, well, I'm a very smart person. Who was the last president to take one? No president has ever agreed to take one, because when you get into the mid questions, meaning 10, question number 10, 11, 12, 28, 30, they get harder and harder. And they said, would you like to do it? I said, well, no reason to do it. Nobody's ever done it. I'll do it, maybe, but there's really no reason. They said, sir, the problem is, this is Walter Reed Hospital, and that's a military hospital. And that means that things are sort of open. It's not like private, where if you do poorly, we'll have to-- probably, you'll find out. I said, I won't do poorly. I'm a smart person, not a stupid person. And as the doctor will tell you, I aced it. Right, Susie? I aced. I got every question right. And these are tough questions. These are questions that I would say, 99% of the people that I'm talking to right now, meaning, the people from the fake news, would not do well in those exams. But I'm the only one that took it. I got every single question right. And then I read in The New York Times,"Is Trump sharp?" Trump is sharp, but they're not sharp. That's why they're going out of business, The New YorkTimes. I hear that they're losing so much money, it's ridiculous. They're a bunch of fakers. But we can never let another thing happen like what happened to us with a fake election, with a rigged election, where a guy like Joe Biden assumes the presidency, because the man was grossly incompetent. And he was incompetent 30 years ago, but he was really incompetent for those last few years. And our country was put in great danger because of it. So for six months in a row, we had zero people. Illegal border crossings along the US-Mexico border have plummeted to the lowest level ever, ever, ever. Think of that. And the net benefit to our country is enormous, incalculable. America is strong and respected again. On the world stage, we're really respected. In fact, I went to a NATO, and they were calling me the president of Europe. We're doing very well. We have a lot of respect. As you know, we have a problem with a war that our people are trying to settle now with Russia and Ukraine. We are not involved in the war monetarily anymore. Biden gave away $350 billion like it was candy. That's a massive amount of money, and much of it in cash, a lot of it in equipment. I don't give away anything. We sell the equipment to NATO. The European nations pay us for the equipment 100% price. And then they bring it to Ukraine, or whatever they do with it. But we're trying to get that settled. I've settled eight wars. This would be the ninth. And our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess. It's a war that never would have happened if I were president, not even a chance. And it didn't happen for four years. We've renamed the Department of Defense, the Department of War. And I thought that would be controversial. And frankly, I tell you what, I haven't met one person-- there's not one person I've met that doesn't like it. You know, think of it, we won World War I, World War II, everything in between, everything before it. And then we said, let's change the name. So we changed it back to what it was, Department of War. And Pete's doing a great job. We ended eight wars. Think of that, eight wars. But we're going to do one more, I think, I hope, I hope. Every time I end a war, they say, if President Trump ends that war, he's going to get the Nobel Prize, if I end that war. Well, he won't get it for that war. But if he ever gets it for the next war, now they're saying, if he ever ends the war with Russia and Ukraine, he's going to get the Nobel Prize. What about the other eight wars? India, Pakistan, think of all the wars I ended. I should get the Nobel Prize for every war, but I don't want to be greedy. Actually, the woman who got the Nobel Prize said, you've got to be kidding. Trump deserves the Nobel Prize. So that was very nice of her. I appreciated it, which is true actually. But I don't care about that. You know what I care about? I care about death. I care about all the people that are dying. And last month, 27,000 young people died, mostly young people, mostly soldiers, despite some missiles being shot into Kyiv and other places. But think of it, mostly young people, 27,000 people died between Russia and Ukraine last month. What a shame. So we're restoring law and order to our cities and towns, if you look at what's happened. And I want to pay my deepest respects to those two incredible people from the National Guard in West Virginia, they came from. I spoke to their parents. Sarah is gone. She's passed away. She's looking down on us now. And she loves her parents, and they loved her. They were-- somebody said, how are they doing? I said, the word is devastated. Doing, how are they going to do? They're devastated. The rest of their lives, they're going to be devastated. She was an incredible person, highly respected, top of her class, everything. She was like a perfect human being. 20-years-old, just started. She was like a baby. She was so proud. They were giving her a promotion. And she told her parents that she was getting a promotion, and they were so proud of her. Then they got a call that this happened. And we have one young man who's fighting for his life. He's fighting very hard. I think he's probably doing better than anybody. They said he didn't have a chance. I'll tell you, the one who said he's going to live is his mother. I spoke to his mother. Sir, he's going to live. I spoke to her very soon after this horrible event took place with his scum that is able to come into our country. And I spoke to his mother, sir, he's going to be OK. I'm telling you. No doctor thought that. Nobody thought that. He was hit in bad places. And she was like, so positive. It was incredible. And is possibly right, Pam, right? Possibly right. Boy, it would be amazing if he lives. It would be amazing, a miracle, actually. But we're very proud of those two people. We're very proud of the National Guard. We're very proud of our military, and our police, and our firemen, and women. If you go back and take a look a year ago, a year and a half ago, it all changed, I think, on November 5, the day of the election. But you go back before that, you couldn't get people to join the military, Pete, right?

That's right. They didn't want anything to do with military. They wanted nothing to do with joining the police or the fire. They wanted nothing to do with anything. They had no spirit. The country was-- it had no spirit, nothing. And now, we just had the highest recruitment in history. And we're getting great people. We're getting great people. And I will say, despite what just happened, Washington, DC has become a really safe place. And I guess this lunatic probably was upset that the National Guard is so effective, because we were really, really effective. And we are. And Washington, DC is now considered a very, very safe city. We had crime numbers a year ago that were so bad, embarrassment that the city, the capital of this country could have numbers like that. And Washington now is-- I mean, no murders, no this. It's been a miracle also what happened here. And now, we're in Memphis, and we're going to New Orleans pretty soon. Over there, the governor called me. He'd like to have us go there, Governor Landry, great guy, great governor. He's asked for help in New Orleans. And we're going to go there in a couple of weeks. And we're doing a real job. Even Chicago is down a little bit because we have a minor force there. We could knock it down within four or five weeks. We could bring it down to almost nothing. But we have a governor that's grossly incompetent, and we have a mayor that's even more incompetent than governor. He's a very low IQ person. And typically, low IQ people don't make good mayors. So I want to thank all of our cabinet members. They're high IQ. Let me see, one, two-- [LAUGHING] Generally speaking. There's a couple I'm a little concerned about now, but I want to thank. We have a great cabinet, an amazing cabinet, amazing people. All of them, some of them have become stars. We're getting credit for the good cabinet, actually. And I just want to wish everybody a great holiday. I think that a great job with the White House bringing the White House back. You see the palm court that was redone. The Lincoln bedroom was redone. The Lincoln bathroom is now gorgeous, like it should have been. It was terrible green tile. That was never the way it was supposed to be. It was done in the 1940's, actually, but it was not proper. And we're restoring the White House, just like we're restoring the country. And people are thrilled. But the First Lady has done a beautiful job with the Christmas trees and all the decorations. I see the wreaths on the windows. I've never seen that before on the windows of the White House. And, you know, it's four stories high. They said, how did they get that wreath? They had people going up in a-- little dangerous-- I wouldn't want to do it-- but they put them up. And we have wonderful people working in the White House, and they're really proud to bring the building back, because this building was a little bit like the country. It was mishandled, it was mistreated, and now, it's being given love. And we're building one of the great, I think, maybe the greatest ballroom. We needed it for 150 years, they've been asking. You see the trucks, and cranes, and excavators in the background, and you hear them. And every time I hear them, I love the sound. To me, I love the sound. I wouldn't say my wife is thrilled. [LAUGHING] She hears pile drivers in the background all day, all night. They go 12 o'clock in the evening, day, night, pile drivers. Darling, could you turn off the pile drivers? Sorry, darling, that's progress. [LAUGHING] But no, we're doing-- we're doing great. It's going to be the-- I think it's going to be the finest ballroom ever built. And we're going to have it here. They've wanted it for 150 years. Think of that. So I will just end by saying I want to thank the cabinet. It's been a great cabinet. Let's think of it, time flies, but this is our last of the year, as I said. And I just think you've done a fantastic job. And we're going to go around the room. We'll go quickly. But we're going to go around the room, and we'll start with Pete, and you'll tell us about some of the achievements. And some of you have achievements that are so big, I don't want you to go through the whole thing, because we don't have time. But we'll start with Pete. And then if you want, we'll take some questions at the end. Please, Pete. Well, thank you, Mr. President. As you said, it has been a historic year at the Department of War. Recruiting and retention over this year are at the most historic levels our country has ever seen. I had a chance to be on a aircraft carrier Destroyer over Thanksgiving. The spirit in our ranks since the election under President Trump is unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it, as a soldier myself in uniform. And I know a lot of you feel the same way. We've ripped out the DEI and the political correctness. It's all merit-based at the Department. We're getting back to basics, accountability, training, readiness, lethality, and that's reviving that spirit. Mr. President, we're rebuilding the military historic investments. I just took briefings on the Golden Dome, an F-47, next generation capabilities that are going to make sure that for generations to come, America has the most powerful, most capable, most lethal military in the world, which you have rebuilt once, and we're rebuilding again. And then we're reestablishing deterrence and credibility. If you look at what happened, we deal with every day the outcome of what happened in Afghanistan, the debacle under Joe Biden. We just dealt with it in the streets of Washington, DC, with those two National Guardsmen. And then what happened on October 7 with Hamas, what happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have started under President Trump, we're having to rebuild that. So whether it's freedom of navigation and taking the fight to the Houthis, whether it's midnight hammer, those beautiful B-2s going 37 hours back and forth undetected, delivering with precision, and Iran not getting nuclear capabilities, Europe and NATO stepping up to 5%, locking down our Southwest border, it's been an honor to work with Kristi, and Tom, and everyone else down there to lock it to zero, operational control of our border. And then it's getting after-- and going after narco terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere. As I've said, and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they've been poisoning the American people. And Joe Biden tried to approach it with kid gloves, and allowed them to come across the border. Cartels take over community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned. And President Trump said, no, we're taking the gloves off. We're taking the fight to these designated terror organizations. And that's exactly what we're doing. So we're stopping the drugs. We're striking the boats. We're defeating narco terrorists, and we're standing-- You may say one thing, that drugs coming in through the sea by sea are down 91% And I don't know who the 9% is. I'm not sure either, sir. But down 91% by sea. We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now. [LAUGHING] Which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to matter, not arrest and hand over, and then do it again, the rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations. This is meant to get after that approach. And I will just end by saying, as President Trump always has our back, we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case, and all these strikes. They're making judgment calls, and ensuring that they defend the American people. They've done the right things. We'll keep doing that, and we have their backs, Mr. President. Good job. Thank you very much. Howard? So we set out to stop the rip-off of the United States of America. This is about global change of trade. We've been ripped off since 1945 when we set this policy. So we set out, and together with my partners, Jamieson Greer and Scott Bessent, we set out to change that. So we started, the first one was the UK deal.

All right, you've been listening in to part of President Trump's cabinet meeting there at the White House, a very lengthy opening statement by the Commander in Chief, touting what he says are successes of the administration. And now, they're starting to go around the table to talk to those who are in the administration to deploy all of the initiatives since President Trump was reelected. Let's go live outside the White House to CBS News Chief White House correspondent, Nancy Cordes. Nancy, so much to listen in on here. Something that struck me is, first of all, how President Donald Trump really tries to undercut the narrative that Democrats have relative to affordability in our country. That really set up what he had to say in that meeting. Right. He essentially said that affordability is a made-up word, that the economy is doing better than ever. He insisted that he had brought prices way down from where they were during the Biden administration, even though the inflation rate when he took office was 3%, and the inflation rate as of the last month that we have data, is still 3% It was actually coming down mid-year, but has now started to go back up. So he highlighted the prices of certain goods that have come down, such as eggs, but ignored the prices of some things that have gone way up, like beef. Nevertheless, the President is aware that his numbers on the economy have been flagging, and so he was making the case in that opening statement that he is focused on bringing prices down. But he went into a variety of topics, He talked about the Ukraine war, and how much he wants to end that war. He talked a lot about his health, and why he got a cognitive test. He claimed that he was the only president who would be willing to take a cognitive test, that no one before him would have done it, and how well he did. And he went into his immigration plans as well. So it was a wide-ranging opening statement. And now, as you pointed out, he's going around the table to his various cabinet secretaries to tout what they are doing in their individual departments.

Well, and of course, you see directly to his left, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. And also, it bears mentioning, we wondered if anything at all would be said about those September 2 boat strikes, those two boat strikes in the Caribbean, and a bipartisan call examining whether that rose to the level of war crimes. It seems like President Trump is still fully behind his Secretary of Defense.

Absolutely. And while they did not defend that strike in particular, that has now generated so much controversy, they did defend the boat strikes overall. And Hegseth even made the point, that it's getting harder for the Pentagon to identify suspected drug boats in the waters off of Venezuela, because the drug runners are unwilling to take the risk, which he says is exactly the point. He said that those strikes are going to continue to be lethal, and that this administration has taken off the kid gloves. But of course, the larger controversy, which I imagine President Trump will be asked about at the conclusion of this cabinet meeting, if and when he takes questions from reporters, he and Hegseth next to him, will be asked about this follow on strike that took place on September 2 after an initial strike on a suspected drug boat left nine out of the 11 people on board dead. And who exactly ordered that second strike, whether it comports with the military's rules of war, and who exactly is responsible. You did hear-- it was notable that you heard Hegseth say that he supports the chain of command. He supports the admirals and generals. And that is because the administration has made it clear that it was not Hegseth who issued an order for a second strike, but that it was actually a Navy Admiral. And Democrats argue that that's passing the buck. Hegseth said he's just showing support for those who are below him in the chain of command.

All right, Nancy Cordes there live at the White House.