In-town pool report #3 - taking questions

Trump began taking questions from the pool at 1:36pm. Before the Q&A, each member of the Cabinet and Musk gave brief statements. Musk is seated at the far end of the table, with the words “Top Secret!!” written on his notepad.

The cabinet meeting is being live-streamed so please check the transcript.

Some quotes from Trump’s introduction:

On his tariff policy, Trump said “There will always be transition difficulty” but added that he’s proud of having “the biggest day in history” on markets yesterday.

Trump added: “Everybody wants to come and make a deal, and we're working with a lot of different countries, and it's all going to work out very well. I think it's going to work out really, very well, but we're in good shape.”

Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick gave a tariff negotiation update: “We have so many countries to talk to. They have come with offers that they never, ever, ever would've come with but for the moves that the president has made demanding that people treat the United States with respect."

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent tried to give positive news amid markets turmoil: “We're going to get an increase in the debt ceiling, so that will be the done and dusted ... for two years." He said the inflation report "was quite good” and that energy prices are down more than 20% since Jan. 20.

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Nik Popli

Politics Reporter

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