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CNN International: Musk To Attend Trump Cabinet Meeting After He And Agency Leaders Gave Conflicting Directives To Federal Workers; Sen. Thune: DOGE Cutting "Needs To Be Done In A Respectful Way"; Starmer To Meet With Trump After UK Set To Boost Defense Spending. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired February 26, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
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PAULA NEWTON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and a very warm welcome to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Paula Newton in New York.
Ahead right here on CNN Newsroom, we are standing by for President Trump's first cabinet meeting of his second term. We'll take a look at who will be by his side, including a familiar face who is not a cabinet member. Plus, Ukraine suggests it has largely reached an agreement with the U.S. on a new deal over natural resources. But, one key detail still unclear. We are live in Kyiv with the latest. And mourners gathering in Israel to commemorate the lives of the two Bibas children and their mother.
And we are getting a high-profile scene in a very powerful room. U.S. President Donald Trump is set to hold his first official cabinet meeting any moment now, and his largest campaign donor will be joining him. Elon Musk was not elected. He hasn't been confirmed by the Senate, and the White House is struggling actually to really define his position, i.e., publicly. But, his mere presence at the meeting signals his powerful role in Trump's orbit. We will bring you that meeting once it gets underway, as you can see, slated to start at 11:00 a.m. We will bring it to you as soon as it starts.
Now, while it's not exactly clear what official role Elon Musk has, the world's richest man wields enormous authority over the U.S. government, described by one critic as the most powerful bureaucrat in the history of America. It all comes as Musk attempts to gut the federal workforce and reshape it in the President's image, and his frustration is growing over his aggressive tactics. Now, protests are taking place throughout the country, with demonstrators expressing outrage with the tech billionaire's power and what they're calling his unconstitutional actions. Some Republican lawmakers are also beginning to experience a backlash in the form of rowdy town hall meetings, and we're now learning there is growing irritation among some cabinet secretaries over Musk's sweeping directives that are targeting their agency. CNN's Kevin Liptak joins me now live at the White House. Now, we do
talk about perhaps the grumbling among cabinet secretaries who are just trying to get hold of their own portfolios, and yet they have Elon Musk. They're apparently taking orders from him. Now, can you set this up for us, Kevin? Because there may be some grumbling behind the scenes, but that's not the kind of photo opportunity the President is looking for right now.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, not at all. And I think that is kind of the interesting dynamic and backdrop to this cabinet meeting today, is it comes at this moment when Musk appears crosswise with some of these cabinet members who, as you said, some of them were just confirmed last week. They're still getting sort of settled into these agencies, ascertaining how their staffs work, what the layout is, what the chains of command are. And so, when Musk ordered up this email over the weekend, directing all federal employees to recount their last week of work or risk termination, it did catch many of them off guard, and what you saw was, over the weekend, on Sunday, many of them telling their staff to not respond at all.
Now, Donald Trump, his senior advisors say that there is no disconnect here. We heard yesterday Trump say that he would defer to the cabinet secretaries on how they think it would be best to respond. But, I do think this idea that there is a rift growing between some members of the administration and Musk is clearly taking hold. Donald Trump tried to respond to it this morning. He wrote on Truth Social, "ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON." He went on to say "The Media will see that at the Cabinet Meeting this morning!!!"
And so, we'll see what we see at this meeting. One of the first things, I think, that will be notable when we see the images from that room is actually where Elon Musk is sitting. The Cabinet Room is not very big. It's just on the other side of this wall. There is a big table, a long table. There is a set number of seats for the Senate- confirmed cabinet members, but staffers are usually sitting along the side, in chairs along the windows and along the wall. So, for example, in the first Trump administration, that's where we saw Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner sitting. That's where you see other senior advisors sitting.
So, it will be, I think, notable to see where exactly Musk is placed as part of this conversation. Certainly, what we've heard from these cabinet members is support for his initiatives. We were just talking this morning to Brooke Rollins, she is the Secretary of Agriculture, who said she is fully onboard with DOGE, even though its task would sort of result in a gutting of certain staff -- parts of her agency, as it's undergoing some of the biggest work of the government, combating the bird flu.
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So, I think there are some questions about whether these agency heads, whether their plans for these agencies comport with some of what Musk is trying to do. But, I don't think you're necessarily going to see that break out into the open during this cabinet meeting. If past is any precedent, what we'll see is Trump giving some opening remarks, and then all of the other agency heads going around the table, talking about what their initiatives have been in the first month or so of the Trump administration, but also lavishing praise on Trump. We saw that multiple times during the Trump administration during these kind of made-for-TV meetings, and I think it's probably likely that we'll see something similar in the next few minutes.
NEWTON: Yeah. As you point out, pretty much they got their marching orders on social media there, especially when it comes to any grumbling about Elon Musk.
I do want to ask you, though, in terms of getting to the agencies and how this is being handled. I mean, you have people there like the Director of the CIA, Secretary Ratcliffe, or the CIA Director, pardon me, Ratcliffe. They cannot be happy about the way the whole Elon Musk ethos here has really super imposed itself on top of agencies that really have national security interests, and in many cases, so much of that work needs to remain confidential and obviously autonomous, right? You're just starting to get a hold of some of these agencies and some of these portfolios.
LIPTAK: I think the issue for a lot of these agency heads is that life within the federal bureaucracy is all about chains of command. That's true at the national security agencies, but it's true almost everywhere.
Federal employees are trained not necessarily to divulge what they're doing outside of their direct bosses and their direct bosses all the way up through to the secretaries, and I think that is why this sort of rattled so many people, because what Musk was asking them to do was to recount their work to people who they didn't know. They were supposed to send it to this generic email at the personnel department without necessarily knowing who would be reading it. Would it be put through some kind of AI? Could potentially it be accessed by foreign actors who we know have embedded themselves into the government's email systems?
So, I think that is why you heard such a level of concern, certainly within the national security agencies. They were among the first to come out and say, hold off. Don't respond to this right away. We saw that from Kash Patel, the Director at the FBI, who is a Trump loyalist to his core, but was one of the first agency heads to say, look, we will assess your performance. We'll do this in our own way and then we'll report back to the White House.
But, I think you're right. It sort of just goes against the way the federal government works. But, I think in a lot of ways that's the whole point, is to just make life in the federal government so uncomfortable for some of these employees that they'll just depart on their own and sort of further this effort by Trump to greatly diminish the size of the workforce. You've seen him do it in these buyouts. You've seen him do it in laying off some of the probationary workers. You're starting to see him do it by making things so bad for some of these workers that they'll just quit on their own.
And we do understand as well that coming up, just in the next few weeks, there will be massive layoffs. They call them reductions in force in the government, but those will begin soon, as Trump really sort of furthers this effort to put his own mark on the federal bureaucracy.
NEWTON: Yeah. You have to wonder, given their goals with their own departments, exactly what that's going to look like under these mass firings that CNN has reported on.
Kevin Liptak, we're grateful because you're going to stand by for us, as we continue to see this cabinet --
LIPTAK: Sure.
NEWTON: -- meeting hopefully get underway soon. It was supposed to start at the top of the hour. We still await, though, that cabinet. Kevin Liptak for us. Thanks so much.
Now, to help us dig in a bit deeper into all of this talk about Elon Musk and his role in the Trump administration, we are joined by CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein. Ron, good to have you with us, as we try and get from that cabinet table, right, and all the optics that's going on in that table, but really broaden out the picture to America. Are they giving the Elon Musk- Donald Trump show a little bit more leeway here, still giving it some runway to see what exactly it can cut and what the federal bureaucracy does and what it looks like at the end of this?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, & SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Yeah. Look, I think the public does, to some extent, give every new President a honeymoon period. And I think voters are -- there are many voters who are probably holding off final judgment. But, there are some worrisome signs for Trump and Musk in this. I mean, obviously, polling on Musk has shown that most Americans are uneasy with him having such a large role, particularly in terms of access to their own personal data. Trump's approval rating is stronger than it was at this point in his first term, but weaker than any other newly elected President, this soon into their tenure, since Gallup has been doing this in the early 1950s.
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I think the real risk in this course that they are on is not so much an immediate backlash at the front end to pruning or more than that, the federal workforce. It's really that once you do that, you are a hostage to events, Paula. I mean, if you're cutting a federal food safety inspectors, and if there are outbreaks of food-borne disease, there is going to be backlash, FAA reductions. And if there are problems in the air, there is going to be backlash at the National Park Services, or national parks are degraded, and the lines are impossibly long this summer. There're going to be a lot of unhappy people. So, they are taking steps that are basically creating obligations that they may have to pay off down the road.
NEWTON: Yeah. And you're starting to hear some of that from Trump's own base. I want you to listen now to Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis talk about -- BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
NEWTON: -- these fed cuts. Listen.
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REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): This idea that they were going to just fire people via Twitter. Elon Musk, that, to me, seems rash. It seems not appropriate,
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NEWTON: Not appropriate, and also, some have commented that it makes the Trump 2.0 look incredibly crude and not caring about the American people themselves.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Look, I mean, like I said, I think there -- I've been surprised. There has been some polling, like The Washington Post/Ipsos poll, that shows people are concerned that this is going too far, too fast. I'm not sure, in the end, there is going to be a big uprising to defend federal workers in general, because Americans for years have said -- have agreed with the view that there is a lot of waste in the federal government.
But, people are very sensitive about services that affect their own lives. And we're talking about it in the context of what these cuts might mean for average Americans going down the road. I mean, there are a lot of things that people rely on the federal government to do that they don't necessarily associate with the federal government, right? I mean, keeping planes from bumping each other -- bumping into each other into the air, having confidence when you go to the grocery store that what you buy is not going to make you or your kids sick. All of those things are potentially put at risk if you have indiscriminate cuts in the federal workforce.
By the way, the other thing that you can't lose sight of that is moving along in the same track is that budget resolution that passed the House yesterday, that puts them on the hook, puts them down the road of major cuts in federal spending on healthcare as a way of funding tax cuts primarily for the rich. And you can see how all of these can braid together in a narrative from Democrats at some point that says, essentially, you elected Trump to solve your problems, but all he doing is cutting services you rely on to pay for tax cuts, more tax cuts for his rich buddies, like Elon Musk, who becomes a very useful symbol in that argument.
NEWTON: And to your point, Ron, I was talking to the mayor of Kansas City yesterday, and I was shocked, actually, at the kind of hole that would blow through that city budget, given --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
NEWTON: -- some of the things that are right now there in the budget. I do want to listen to right now, though, majority leader in the Senate, Senator Thune right now, and what he said.
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SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): If that involves some reductions in force, it needs to be done in a respectful way. Obviously, that's respectful of people involved. But, I do think as they go through this process, the objective of DOGE is to try and figure out ways to make government run more efficiently, more effectively, and reduce its cost.
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NEWTON: Senator Thune there talking about a respectful way. I'm wondering what that looks like. And Ron, I do want to bring up the fact that nearly one in three federal workers, I believe, approaching 30 percent. The federal workers --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
NEWTON: -- are, in fact, veterans. And we -- this is a group that has so much bipartisan support, and the Republican Party is always saying they are for veterans, and yet they are really being hurt by this.
BROWNSTEIN: Sure. First of all, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the total payroll cost, including benefits for the federal government, is about $280 billion a year, I believe is what they calculated as of 2022. Extending the Trump tax cuts, as House Republicans are -- and Senate Republicans are moving toward doing, that's $400 billion a year. So, if you fired everyone who does anything for the federal government and left every air traffic controller office empty, you still would not be meeting the cost to the budget overall of extending the tax cut. So, it kind of puts in perspective what's happening here.
As I said, I -- there are a lot of federal workers who perform tasks that Americans expect to be done. I mean, that really, Paula, is the bottom line. They may or may not associate them with the federal government, but they do expect these things to be done. And the question will become, are the level of reductions that they are imposing, the speed at which they are doing it, endangering those services?
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You're seeing them having to rehire, in some cases, people that they have fired. But, it is striking to me that this has become the central front of the administration, right, not mass deportation, not tariffs, not confronting inflation, which is the problem above all that Trump was elected to solve, and you've seen in things like the University of Michigan and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence surveys, a growing anxiety about inflation, with egg prices soaring. I know they said they're -- announced that they are trying to do some things on that.
But, by and large, this has become the central front, the central symbol of the administration. I think, for Trump's base, this kind of disruption is exactly what they want. Trump's base isn't enough to elect him or Republicans in Congress. There were a few final points of voters who elected him because they thought he would make their life more affordable. There has been very little attention to that in the first weeks of his presidency, and I think you see that in some of the polling that shows him having less of a honeymoon than any previous President with himself and 2017 is the only exception.
NEWTON: Yeah. In fact, his approval rating down significantly with independents, which, Ron, you always warn us --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
NEWTON: -- that there is a bellwether in all of this, just if you get away from the base.
OK. Ron Brownstein, we will leave it there, as we continue to keep an eye on the White House and watch for that cabinet meeting to begin. Appreciate it.
Now, when the war in Ukraine ends, what then? Coming up, we'll tell you about the proposal between the U.S. and Ukraine that could map out Ukraine's future. Also ahead, massive crowds line the streets of Israel to say goodbye to a mother and her two young sons taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th. That plus new developments in the Gaza ceasefire. We'll have all of that coming up.
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NEWTON: So, a reminder, we are waiting for U.S. President Donald Trump to hold his first official cabinet meeting. It is set to begin any moment now, with the President's largest campaign donor, Elon Musk, in attendance. We will bring you that meeting as soon as it begins.
Now, there are conflicting signals about a deal between Washington and Kyiv over Ukraine's natural resources. Earlier, Ukraine's Prime Minister suggested a deal could be close, saying the U.S. and Ukraine have prepared a final version of the agreement. It would give the U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine's natural resources. But, just a short time ago, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called it a framework agreement that could be a big success, but it would depend on talks with President Trump. A White House official now says if the deal on the table isn't final, there is no point in Zelenskyy visiting the White House. Here is what President Trump said on Tuesday. Listen.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I hear that he is coming on Friday. Certainly it's OK with me, if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me, and I understand that's a big deal, a very big deal. And I think the American people, even if you look at polling, they're very happy because Biden was throwing money around like it is cotton candy.
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And it's a very big deal. It could be a trillion-dollar deal. It could be whatever.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: Now, meantime, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has
announced the UK will boost military spending, is heading to the United States for talks with Donald Trump on Thursday.
Nick Paton Walsh has been following all of this from Kyiv, and you, in fact, were at the press conference from President Zelenskyy. I'm going to sound like a broken record here, Nick. Did he say anything more about security guarantees, because it sounds like there aren't any right now?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, it's important to put in the right context what Zelenskyy has been saying. He was trying to, I think, explain what we understand to be the nature of the deal, and have been reporting for the last few days that this is a framework for Ukrainian Reconstruction and Investment Fund. Now, he did say he hadn't read the full latest draft, and that obviously suggests that you would imagine some sort of sense of negotiation continues. But, at the same time too, we are understanding from Ukrainian officials that they think they've arrived at a text which is acceptable to them, and they're hoping the Americans will agree to that too.
Zelenskyy spent a lot of time addressing the issue of security guarantees, because Ukraine doesn't want to sign up to this at all, frankly, to hand over half, potentially, of its resources, unless it gets something in return, and what it wanted in return was a direct security guarantee from the United States. It isn't going to get that in the draft that I've seen, which apparently is current as of this morning, Zelenskyy referred to point number 10, though, which he said was language that got Ukraine closer to where it wanted to be, potentially on that issue.
But, we've seen what that point actually says, and it says, "The government of the United States of America supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace. Participants of the deal" they mean "will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments, as defined in the fund agreement."
Now, that is not a direct statement that the United States is going to support Ukraine in a security guarantee. It just says they're happy with them to try and find that. And the latter sentence there is, I think, what we're hearing from some Trump officials, the notion that Ukraine should sign this because it incentivizes the United States to protect Ukraine, because it's sort of got money potentially coming out of here. That sentence and that clause is really what all this hinges upon. And Zelenskyy seems to be happy with that part of the language, but wants to meet Trump, certainly in person. They got to try and repair their relationship after a week of frankly atrocious freefall, but he also said he wanted to meet Trump to find out more about security guarantees and also get a clean answer as to where U.S. aid stood for Ukraine. Period.
So, I think we are likely to see this agreement edge forwards. There will be some last-minute haggling. But, the big thing we did not hear from that press conference, and we're not hearing from the White House too, is that there is a date in the diary, a time for Friday. After the comments yesterday from President Trump, it seemed like this was really likely to happen, and Ukrainian officials told us the same thing. This may be all last-minute haggling.
But, there is a real difference in opinion here. The Ukrainians want to see the Americans provide security guarantees, or something that makes them feel they will get added assistance against the Russian invasion through signing this deal. The Americans want it flat to be a repayment for previous debt, and actually it's something Zelenskyy was specific he would never agree to, which is to characterize the aid they've already had from the United States grants. Ukraine says that's the truth. He said he won't pay 10 cents of that back in terms of past aid being reimbursed. Paula.
NEWTON: Not 10 cents. OK. We hear you, Nick. Both the visit on Friday and this deal, still a lot of details to be worked out if either go through with any kind of finality.
Nick Paton Walsh for us in Kyiv. Appreciate that.
Now, we want to get some perspective on all this from CNN's Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger. David is also the author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West". I'm not sure there is any defending of the West going on here, David. I'm not sure you and all your wisdom could have really predicted the last few weeks. Before we open our discussion, I do want to hear from Zelenskyy himself, just to kind of lay the table for us in terms of what is going on with this agreement. Listen.
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DMYTRO KULEBA, FORMER UKRAINIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Well, if it buys the understanding and the support of President Trump under these circumstances of the war with Russia and the alignment of Washington and Moscow, then it is a good deal. We don't know all the details, but President Zelenskyy is certainly not going to do something that would critically undermine his country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: And pardon me. That, of course, is not President Zelenskyy, but in fact, the former Foreign Ministry, who -- minister who is obviously still in the know about what this agreement may hold. David, I'm really interested in your perspective here, especially given what he just said, right? He is basically saying, if we sign this, if we can get some kind of a framework in place, maybe we can get the U.S. on side to help us to get to the other side of this conflict.
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DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah. It was really fascinating to hear Mr. Kuleba there, who is now in the States after he left the job as foreign minister.
Look, I think two things are going on here. First, the United States insisted on a deal for $500 billion that seemed almost colonialist in its nature to the Ukrainians. What they seem to be coming to now is something more like a memorandum of understanding. There'll be some fund set up that all these funds will go into, and then some of them will be reinvested in the rebuilding of Ukraine, with the details to be worked out later. And I think that's sort of how they got out of the hole that they were in with -- between President Trump and President Zelenskyy.
Now, the security guarantee that you just heard described there sounds incredibly vague. It just acknowledges that Ukraine needs security guarantees and says, Good luck getting them, meaning from the Europeans, from the French, from the British, others who suggested that they might send troops along the way. There is no commitment from the United States to participate in that, except around these investments. So, they're not obviously doing the mining in Kyiv.
So, if you're Zelenskyy, what's this remind you of? It reminds you of the security guarantees that Ukraine got when they gave up their nuclear weapons more than 20 years ago -- more than 30 years ago, actually, and those created an agreement that Britain, the United States, Russia, would guarantee Ukraine's security and look what happened. One of the security guarantors invaded.
NEWTON: Yeah. And there are, in fact, incredibly detailed proposals on the table right now, which shows, given how much land Russia occupies right now, and the border area between Ukraine and Russia, how complicated it would be in terms of boots on the ground, from giving anyone those security guarantees.
David, I wonder how premature all of this is, though, because what we keep missing here is what Vladimir Putin and Russia are thinking at this hour. It is still not clear to U.S. intelligence even that Vladimir Putin even wants a peace deal here, and we're continually reminded they are still at war. The frontline is absolutely vicious, and Ukrainian cities still remain target number one for Vladimir Putin.
SANGER: That's right, and Putin may well think time is on his side, that the longer this goes on, the more territory he may gain, even if it's at a huge cost economically, and in terms of the number injured and killed in the Russian army.
The other possibility here is that what Putin really wants is something much broader than a peace agreement with Ukraine. He fundamentally wants a normalization of relations with the United States, and that may mean a negotiation that has to do with America's military posture in Europe. It may have to do with the number of nuclear weapons or keeping any nuclear weapons in Europe. So, he may well be looking for a grand bargain that's much larger here, and so, Ukraine is only a piece of it. And right now, we're all narrowly focused in on Ukraine, but the more people I talk to here in Europe, I'm in Berlin right now, the more they are convinced that actually Putin is looking for something much bigger.
NEWTON: Much bigger, and that obviously would include the lifting of economic sanctions, and many people say that the Russian -- SANGER: Absolutely.
NEWTON: -- economy really does not have much time to go.
David Sanger, we will leave it there for now. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
SANGER: Thank you.
NEWTON: Now, a fragile Gaza ceasefire appears intact for now. That's according to an Israeli source. Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of four hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and it's due to the final, sorry, it's due to be the final such exchange in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which is already behind schedule. 620 Palestinians were set to be released Saturday, but Israel delayed the move in protest of what it said is the cruel treatment of hostages during the release by Hamas. The 42-day truce is set to expire this weekend, unless there is a deal to extend it.
Now earlier, massive crowds gathered in Israel for the funeral procession of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, after their bodies were returned last week.
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They were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th and became a symbol of the plight of hostages being held in Gaza. At just nine-months-old, Kfir was the youngest hostage taken. His father, Yarden was taken hostage separately from the rest of the family, and released early this month as part of that ceasefire deal.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond filed this report.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: And what you see arriving behind me is indeed that funeral procession for Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas, who were killed in Hamas captivity. You can see hundreds of Israelis at this very junction, but thousands of Israelis have been lining this entire procession, as we now see these vans coming through, carrying the bodies of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas, their mother. They were both -- they were all three taken hostage from kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th, and for 16 months, so many who we've spoken to here have held out hope that perhaps they would return alive.
But instead, this is a very somber moment where so many Israelis are now devastated, as they learned last week that they indeed returned dead from Hamas captivity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now it's the knockout for us. For this family, we can't take it. It's very difficult for us.
DIAMOND: I see you're wearing orange today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It's for them.
DIAMOND: Hamas has claimed that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli government says they were killed by Hamas captors with their bare hands. But, right now, just very somber, very emotional scenes, as we watch as people bow their heads in grief and in solidarity with the Bibas family.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Our thanks to Jeremy Diamond there.
Still ahead for us, residents across Chile are starting their day after last night's huge blackout. We'll have more details on that.
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NEWTON: And welcome back. You are watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Paula Newton in New York. Here are the international headlines we are watching today.
The first cabinet meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term is set to get underway at any moment now, and Elon Musk is in the room, but the world's richest man is not in the cabinet. He hasn't been vetted by Congress, and it's not even clear what his role is, and we're now learning some cabinet secretaries are going increasingly frustrated with Musk and his aggressive cost cutting tactics targeting their agencies.
But, it's not just those within Trump's own administration who are anxious. Some Republican lawmakers are expressing concern and protests are taking place throughout the country, asking why an unelected billionaire has so much power.
[11:35:00]
And in a move that could exacerbate those worries, one source says the Trump administration is expected to issue a memo that will direct agencies to prepare for, quote, "large-scale firings".
Pope Francis is continuing to receive treatment for pneumonia and has been sitting up in an armchair in hospital today. The Vatican also says he is still receiving the same flow of oxygen that he had been getting over the last few days. On Tuesday, we learned the 88-year-old pontiff remains in critical but stable condition, and that he has not had any more acute respiratory episodes, but continues to have pneumonia, and that is being monitored. We are expecting a medical update later today.
Now, after a massive blackout in Chile, officials say 90 percent of electricity supplies have now been restored. However, Chile's interior minister acknowledged there are still some ongoing problems, and 220,000 customers are still without power.
Following that story for us, we want to bring in our Patrick Oppmann. Patrick, I have no idea what triggered this, and I am wondering what more Chile is saying about it, because certainly it was sudden and so widespread.
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sudden and just terrifying for Chileans who had to endure one of the country's largest ever blackouts that lasted for hours. Even though the power is largely back on, of course, many Chileans absolutely furious today that they had to go for hours without power. People were trapped in elevators. People were trapped in subways, unable to leave stores that use these kind of electric doors to get in and out. It was just surreal scenes across the capital of Santiago where most of the street lights were out. So, people were trying to survive without power for hours and hours.
And all appears to have begun when one high transmission line that brings power in from the Atacama Desert in Chile to the capital of Santiago was disrupted. It's not clear what caused that disruption, but it led to these rolling blackouts. And of course, these are common where I am in Cuba. We've covered them together, Paula, in Venezuela, but less so in Chile, which has much more modern, at least we thought, infrastructure. So, Chileans were surprised by this. They are angry by this, and government officials said they will be holding the local power companies accountable for what happened once they determine exactly what transpired.
But, of course, Chileans just furious at both the government and the power companies that this somehow took place and brought the country to a virtual standstill.
NEWTON: Yeah, and sometimes you see this with weather-related events, but there was nothing of the sort this time around.
Patrick Oppmann, appreciate the update.
Now, up next for us, the skyrocketing price of eggs. What Donald Trump's Agriculture Secretary says farmers need to do to stop eggflation? Plus, the vote that even Republicans thought they would not win, the secret weapon the House Speaker used to pass his budget blueprint.
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda.
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NEWTON: Now, in a stunning reversal of fortune late Tuesday night, Republicans succeeded in passing a budget blueprint through the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, early in the evening, Speaker Mike Johnson had given up hope of convincing a few GOP holdouts and told members they could all go home. But, just minutes later, he called them back to vote on a budget framework that includes massive tax and spending cuts. Now, a personal intervention by President Trump appears to be the thing that sealed the deal for some of those Republican holdouts. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, tell us why you changed your vote, congressman?
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Because there are legitimate cuts and it's the right direction to go. It's not everything I wanted, but in this game, either at the table or on the menu, and it's time to get at the table.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they promise you anything?
BURCHETT: There is no quid pro quo, but the President assured me that he would work towards cuts and he has never lied to me. He has always been honest about it, and the Speaker backed him up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: So, they're at the table or on the menu. Lauren Hill -- Lauren Fox, pardon me, is with us from Capitol Hill, and I'm sure you have heard that expression before, but it was so dramatic and yet quite a victory for both the Trump administration and the Speaker himself.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, this was a huge moment for Speaker Johnson. His team had been working throughout the recess last week to try to lock down the votes, to try to assuage some of the concerns that swing district Republicans had had when it came to some of those steep cuts that you hear conservative Tim Burchett talking, that he wanted, and that was the challenge for Johnson and his team, was you had some members on the right who wanted stronger cuts than what was in this bill, and you had some members who hailed from swing districts, who might be facing tough elections in a couple of years, who were really worried about what these cuts could mean to programs like Medicaid. In the end, he was able to convince all but one Republican to vote for this package.
And I'll say, I was standing outside of the House floor, actually talking to Burchett right after House Republican leaders had decided to pull that vote to postpone it for another day, when all of a sudden, all these senators who had been fleeing, turned around and were running back up the steps because leadership had called them back. And at the moment, I had been texting with a leadership aide who said, we have the votes. That's the reason that people are coming back. But, it was really a tense 30 minutes as that vote unfolded on the floor.
Meanwhile, you now have a huge question of how House Republicans and how Senate Republicans are going to square two very different proposals for Trump's agenda that they have passed in their respective chambers. Senate Republicans passed a package last week that did not include a blueprint for how to extend Trump's tax return -- tax -- excuse me, tax cuts. They also did not include a provision to increase the debt ceiling, which the House bill does. I just talked to Senator John Thune, the Majority Leader in the Senate, who said that there are a lot of conversations that still have to happen with his members to decide how they are going to move forward and how both the House and Senate are going to get on the same page to advance Trump's agenda.
NEWTON: Lauren Fox, I'm going to leave it there for now, as we do believe that President Trump's first official cabinet meeting is underway.
TRUMP: We're going to have many good months, and we're going to have many good years, I hope, and we're going to solve a lot of problems. We're doing very well with Russia, Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. That's now confirmed, and we're going to be signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement. And I want to thank Howard and Scott for the job you guys did in putting it together. Really did an amazing job, and that will be on rare earth and other things.
And as you know, we're in for probably $350 billion. Europe is in for $1 billion -- $100 billion, and that's a big difference. So, we're in for probably three times as much. And yet, it's very important to everybody, but Europe is very close. We have a big ocean separating ourselves. It's very important for Europe, and they hopefully will step up and do maybe more than they're doing, and maybe a lot more.
The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we've been able to make a deal where we're going to get our money back and we're going to get a lot of money in the future, and I think that's appropriate, because we have taxpayers that are -- shouldn't be footing the bill, and they shouldn't be footing the bill at more than the Europeans are paying. So, it's all been worked out. We're happy about it, and I think that very importantly, we're going to be able to make a deal. Most importantly, by far, we're going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people.
[11:45:00]
They'll stop killing young Russian soldiers and young Ukrainian soldiers and other people, in addition in the towns and cities. Then we will consider that a very important thing and a big accomplishment, because it was going nowhere until this administration came, and I hadn't spoken to President Putin in two years. So, we'll keep you advised.
Before we begin the cabinet, I'd like to have Scott and a couple of people say a few things, but most importantly, where are you? This is a gentleman who is going places, the head of HUD, and he is going to say, you all know, and you're going to say grace and -- right? Thank you very much.
SCOTT TURNER, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: Thank you, Mr. President. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this awesome privilege, Father, to be in your presence. God, thank you that you've allowed us to see this day. The Bible says that your mercies are new every morning, and Father God, we give you the glory and the honor. Thank you, God, for President Trump, Father for appointing us. Father God, thank you for anointing us to do this job. Father, we pray you will give the President and the Vice President, wisdom, Father God, as they lead. Father, I pray for all of our colleagues that are here around the table and in this room. Lord God, we pray that we would lead with a righteous clarity.
Father God, as we serve the people of this country in every perspective agency, every job that we have, Father, we would humble ourselves before you, and we would lead in a manner that you've called us to lead and to serve. Father, the Bible says the blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. But, Father, we today honor you and in your rightful place, Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to restore faith in this country and be a blessing to the people of America. And Lord God, today in our meeting, we pray that you would be glorified in our conversation in Jesus name. Amen.
TRUMP: Yeah. That was a very good job you did. You've done that before. So, Scott Turner is terrific young guy. He is heading the HUD and he is going to make us all very proud, right?
TURNER: Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Thanks very much. Great job.
In just over one month, illegal border crossings have plummeted by numbers that nobody has actually ever seen before. It's much more than 100 percent, and we've unleashed American energy at levels that will soon be reported, but we think we're going to get it going very quickly. We have incredible people in the energy front. I think we have really great people on every front. I'll let you know if they're not good, but I think they really are.
And we're fighting every day to get the prices down. The inflation is stopping slowly, but part of the reason it's stopping is because of high interest rates and other problems that we inherit. But, we have to get the prices down, not the inflation down, the prices of eggs and various other things. Eggs are a disaster. The Secretary of Agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that's actually mindboggling what's happened, how low they were with us, and how high they are now. But, I think we can do something about it, Madam Secretary, and I think you're going to do a fantastic job in that position.
One of the most important initiatives is DOGE, and we have got billions and billions and billions of dollars. We're looking to get it maybe to a trillion dollars. If we can do that, we're going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets, believe it or not, something you haven't heard in many, many years, decades, actually. And it's big. Whether it's this year or next year, I think we'll be very close to balancing budgets.
And the DOGE is very important, and Elon is here to give you a summary of what's happening, some of the things they found, some of the horrible things they found, some of the theft and fraud, and we call it waste and abuse, but a lot of fraud, and probably some fraud that we're not going to be able to be able to prove this fraud, but when you hear the names and the places where this money is going, it's a disgrace. But, we've requested that a lot of people, we want to make sure that
the people are working. So, letters were sent out, and I think everyone at this table is very much behind it, and if they are, and I want them to speak up, but they're very much behind it. Letters were sent out to people just to find out if the people exist. Do they work? Who do they work for? Where are they? Where have they been working? Have they been working for other companies or other entities at all, and being paid by the government? So, they have two jobs, but they're supposed to have one.
And the letter asks some simple questions, like, what have you done lately? And if they can answer that, because I can, I can tell you everything I've done for the last long period of time, a lot more than a week, and in many cases, we haven't gotten responses. Usually, that means that maybe that person doesn't exist, or that person doesn't want to say they're working for another company while being paid by the United States government.
[11:50:00]
So, there is a lot of interesting things. It's very unique. But, we have a very unique situation because we have a lot of people that were scamming our country. We have a lot of dishonest people. We have a lot of people that took advantage of a lot of different situations, and we're not going to let that happen.
So, I'm going to ask if it's possible to have Elon get up first and talk about DOGE, because it seems to be of great interest to everyone. I will say that there is a large group of people in this country that have such admiration for what we're doing. I got elected with a tremendous vote, winning every swing state, winning the popular vote, winning the counties by thousands of counties. I think it was 2,800 to 500, 2,800 counties to 500 counties. Think of that. And so, we have a mandate to do this, and this is part of the reason I got elected. I got elected based on taxes and based on many things, the border, but also based on balancing budgets and getting our country back into shape, and this is a big part of it.
So, Elon, if you could get up and explain where you are, how you're doing, and how much we're cutting, and it's an honor to have you. You've been a tremendously successful guy. He is really working so hard, and he has got businesses to run. And in many ways, I say, how do you do this? He is sacrificing a lot and getting a lot of praise, I'll tell you, but he is also getting hit, and we would expect that, and that's the way it works. So, I'd like to have Elon Musk please say a few words. Thank you, Elon.
ELON MUSK, PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I actually just call myself a humble tech support here, because this is actually as crazy as it sounds. That is almost a literal description of the work that the DOGE team is doing, is helping fix the government computer systems. Many of these systems are extremely old. They don't communicate. There are a lot of mistakes in the systems. The software doesn't work. So, we are actually tech support. It's ironic that it's true. The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the
enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain as a country at $2 trillion deficits. The interest rates -- just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department's spending. We spent a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like over a trillion dollars on interest. If this continues, the country will go -- become de facto bankrupt. It's not an optional thing. It is an essential thing. That's the reason I'm here and taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. I mean, like, stack him up.
But, if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. And I'm confident at this point, knock on wood, knock on my wooden head, the -- got a lot of wood up there, that we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings. That would be roughly 15 percent of the $7 trillion budget. And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. And I'd like to thank everyone for your support. Thank you very much. This can only be done with your support.
So, this is -- it's really -- DOGE is a support function for the President and for the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings and to effectively find 15 percent in reduction in fraud and waste. And we bring the receipts. So, people say like, well, is this real? Just go to doge.gov. Line item by line item, we specify each item. So -- and we -- and I should say we also -- we will make mistakes. We won't be perfect, but when we make mistake, we'll fix it very quickly.
So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola, Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention. So, we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption. But, we do need to move quickly if we're to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026. It requires saving $4 billion per day, every day from now through the end of September. But, we can do it, and we will do it. Thank you.
TRUMP: Well, do you have any questions of Elon while we're on the subject of DOGE, because we'll finish off with that, and if you would have any questions, please ask. You could ask me or Elon. Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Musk. I just wanted to ask you the -- President Trump put out a Truth Social today, saying that everybody in the cabinet was happy with you.
[11:55:00]
I just wondered if that -- if you had heard otherwise, and if you had heard anything about members of the cabinet who weren't happy with the way things were going. And if so, what are you doing to address those -- any dissatisfaction?
TRUMP: Let the cabinet speak just for a second. Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we'll throw him out of here. I have a lot of respect for Elon and -- that he is doing this, and some disagree a little bit, but I will tell you, for the most part, I think everyone is not only happy, they're thrilled. So, go ahead, Elon.
MUSK: President Trump has put together, I think, the best cabinet ever, literally. So -- and I do not give false praise. This is an incredible group of people. I don't think such a talented team has actually ever been assembled. I think it's literally the best cabinet that the country has ever had. And I think the company should be incredibly appreciative of the people in this room.
TRUMP: Yeah. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you. Mr. Musk, are there -- about half of the government employees so far appeared to have responded to your request for what they've been doing over the past week. Is there a timeline in place for next moves for people being fired, and when can the American people expect to see results from that?
MUSK: Yes. Well, to be clear, like the -- I think that email perhaps was best interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse? Do you have a pulse and two neurons? So, if you have a pulse and two neurons, you can reply to an email. This is, I think, not a high bar, is what I'm saying. This is, should we -- anyone could accomplish this?
But, what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond, and some people who are not real people, like they're literally fictional individuals that are collecting paycheck. Well, somebody is collecting paychecks on a fictional individual. So, literally trying to figure out, are these people real? Are they alive? And can they write an email, which I think is a reasonable expectation for -- the American public would have at least that expectation of someone in the public sector.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Musk, roughly a million employees --
MUSK: This is not an insult by far, guys. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- roughly a million employees have responded so far to this email. Does that mean that the remaining one million or so federal employees now risk being terminated? And is it your understanding and expectation when you post a directive on X that the cabinet secretaries will follow that order, because several agencies have instructed employees that this is voluntary or not to respond?
MUSK: Yeah. Well, I mean -- so, I guess there was a -- like, last week, the President encouraged me via Truth Social and also via a phone call to be more aggressive. And I was like, OK, yes, sir. Mr. President, we will indeed do that. The President is he Commander in Chief. I do what the President asks. So -- and I said, can we send out an email to everyone, just saying, what did you get done last week? And the President said, yes. So, I did that. And we got a partial response. We're going to send another email.
But, look, our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. It's -- we want to give people every opportunity to send an email, and the email could simply be what I'm working on is too sensitive or classified to describe. Like, literally just -- that would be sufficient. I think this is just common sense.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what is your target number for how many workers, employees you're looking to cut total?
MUSK: We wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well. But, if they're -- if the job is not essential or they're not doing the job well, they obviously should not be on the public payroll.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Wait a minute. Wait. Wait. I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble. I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it. They haven't responded. Now, maybe they don't exist. Maybe we're paying people that don't exist. Don't forget, we just got here, this group just got here, but those people are on the bubble, as they say. Maybe they're going to be gone. Maybe they're not around. Maybe they have other jobs. Maybe they moved and they're not where they're supposed to be. A lot of things could have happened.
I wouldn't say that Biden ran a very tight administration. They spent money like nobody has ever spent money before. Wasted money, the Green new scam, all of the different things they spent money on. And you have seen that. We have seen that with --
