Department of War<\/a> \u2014 something that can\u2019t be officially done without an act of Congress. But the nameplate in front of Hegseth labeled him the \u201cssecretary of war,\u201d including a mistaken double \u201cS\u201d that quickly became the source of searing online ridicule. <\/p>\nAfter that, as each official took turns speaking, a TV camera trained on Trump showed him struggling to stay alert. The president sat back in his chair with his eyes occasionally drooping and sometimes shutting completely.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s apparent sleepiness followed his criticism of a recent New York Times story examining his schedule and stamina at age 79. Trump again slammed the Times story early in Tuesday\u2019s meeting and even slipped into the third person to assure all involved that \u201cTrump is sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another indication that things were dragging came from budget director Russell Vought, who was spotted sketching a bucolic scene on White House letterhead. <\/p>\n
Vought drew mountains framed by pine trees topped by the kind of friendly-seeming clouds that public television legend Bob Ross preferred to crowd his serene landscape paintings with. The budget chief also sketched an arrow underneath his mountain. Where it was supposed to be pointing was not clear.<\/p>\n
Clashing affordability messaging <\/p>\n
Just as Trump\u2019s admonishments to keep things tight were flouted, some of the Cabinet members also defied the president in their presentations when it came to the issue of affordability. <\/p>\n
Trump made a point in his opening remarks to call concerns that Democrats have raised about rising costs a \u201ccon job.\u201d That didn\u2019t stop many of his administration\u2019s top voices from earnestly detailing how they were indeed seeking to reduce prices nationwide. <\/p>\n
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins talked about economic pressures on farmers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called affordability a \u201ccrisis,\u201d and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said that hundreds of thousands of Americans becoming first-time homebuyers was an example of how the administration was making strides to achieve greater affordability. <\/p>\n
The final speaker was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke for several minutes and acknowledged: \u201cI know I\u2019m last, so I wanted to be fast. But there\u2019s a lot to cover.\u201d <\/p>\n
All told, Tuesday\u2019s gathering lasted more than two hours. That fell short of Trump\u2019s Cabinet meeting record: an August marathon that stretched to a whopping three hours and 17 minutes. <\/p>\n
Still, even the president acknowledged that the latest meeting was going long. \u201cWe\u2019re spending a lot of time in here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Trump wrapped things by taking questions from reporters, but only after jokingly asking, \u201cAfter that, do you WANT to ask any questions?\u201d He also pointed at a journalist holding a boom mic to capture sound from the Cabinet meeting and playfully offered, \u201cHow strong are you?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been holding that for two hours,\u201d the president continued, drawing laughs from Cabinet members. \u201cThere are very few people who could do that. I\u2019m very proud of you.\u201d <\/p>\n
A newsy Q&A<\/p>\n
Reporters\u2019 questions shook off the doldrums. <\/p>\n
Hegseth said he did not see that there were survivors in the water when the second strike on the boat off Venezuela was ordered and launched in early September. He said \u201cthe thing was on fire\u201d and cited the \u201cfog of war\u201d in defending what occurred. He also said he \u201cdidn\u2019t stick around\u201d for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission following the initial strike.<\/p>\n
In response to a later question, Trump declared he didn\u2019t want Somali immigrants in the U.S., adding that residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country should stay there and try to fix their homeland. He also accused Somalis of being too reliant on U.S. aid programs while offering little to the nation in return. <\/p>\n
That drew applause from his Cabinet, though the questions ended abruptly with journalists soon hustled out of the room. Trump punctuated the conclusion by slapping his hand twice on the table, pushing his chair back, standing up and thumping Hegseth on the shoulder.<\/p>\n
Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 With Tuesday\u2019s White House Cabinet meeting chugging past the two-hour mark, President Donald Trump \u2018s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-326827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}