Elon Musk , grabbed core stage , at the first , Cabinet , gathering of President Donald Trump’s subsequent term — despite never heading an actual , Cabinet , department — saying” America will get penniless” without his budget-slashing efforts.
Wearing a dark MAGA cover and” Tech Support” T-shirt, the businessman first friend told the chairman and assembled company officials that he would  , continue implementing strong cuts , across the federal government.
” We cannot survive as a nation$ 2 trillion shortfalls”, Musk said. ” If this continues, the land will be de facto bankrupt. It’s not an optional item. It’s essential”.
Musk defended his , questionable “what did you do next month”? email , to thousands of federal workers, calling it a “pulse test” to see if they were doing something important.
The , Tesla , and , SpaceX , mogul said he now , hopes to cut$ 1 trillion in government spending, a figure that represents a significant backtracking from the$ 2 trillion in cuts he vowed to make while campaigning for Trump’s election in the fall.
Trump praised and praised Musk’s efforts to define what they call fraud and waste, and warned that those who don’t respond may soon be fired.
” They’re on the bubble”, Trump said.
The leader dismissed media reports that some of the , Cabinet , officials were angry with Musk, who brought a saw to a traditional event to emphasize his budget-cutting fervor.
” Is anybody unhappy with Elon”? Trump asked the other , Cabinet , members present. ” If you are, we’ll throw (you ) out of here”.
Musk , took a star turn , at the , Cabinet , meeting even though the , White House , has been cagey about his actual official position and the , Department of Government Efficiency , that he spearheads isn’t even a government agency.
Most of the actual , Cabinet , officials didn’t say a word at the meeting, which was dominated by Musk and Trump’s freewheeling remarks on a wide variety of topics.
Trump and Commerce Secretary , Howard Lutnick , spoke glowingly of their new plan to , charge$ 5 million to anyone who can pay , for what they call a “gold card” visa to live and work in the , U. S.
It’s basically a more expensive version of an already-existing program that offers permanent residency in exchange for investments, but which some lawmakers claim has been abused.
The , White House , separately issued an , edict to all federal agencies , to cut thousands more staff by mid-March.
Through a combination of buyout offers and moves to slash entire agencies like  and USAID, thousands of jobs have already been cut.
Trump and Musk promise to fight the Musk cuts in court, but unions representing federal employees have had a lot of success.
Democrats , say the , White House , is inflicting unnecessary pain on the American people and will pay a heavy price at the ballot box.
Trump also announced that , Ukraine President , Volodymyr Zelenskyy , would come to the , White House , on Friday to sign an agreement granting the , U. S.  , significant access to its valuable mineral wealth, including rare earth minerals.
The embattled nation, which has been fighting off a Russian invasion for the past three years, was questioned about whether the deal would include security guarantees.
” I’m not going to make security guarantees, beyond very much”, Trump said.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, says he , plans to negotiate on security with Trump , at the meeting and warned that any peace deal would have to include protection from future Russian attacks.
“if we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing”, the Ukrainian leader said.
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