President Donald Trump on Wednesday started off the 12th cabinet meeting of his second term with some locker room-style banter as he praised the physical appearance of the ex-television host he put in charge of the Pentagon.
Trump was working his way through lengthy prepared remarks at the top of the meeting when he rattled off a list of cabinet members who he wanted to hear from, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“We have great people, and the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Central Casting,” said Trump, who referred to Hegseth by the outdated title his administration has attempted to use for the Pentagon.
“He loves war,” Trump added.
For his part, Hegseth returned the over-the-top, effusive praise with a monologue in which he compared Trump to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln after the president closed his remarks with a ten-minute rant about his effort to renovate the reflecting pool on the National Mall.
“I think actually your efforts on the reflecting pool are actually a great segue. If you look at Washington and Lincoln, these are two men that faced monumental tasks and stood up in historic fashion and delivered for the American people, and when you step back and look at 47 years of what Iran waged war against us and our people, there’s only one man over the course of both presidency who has stood up and said they will never get a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.
“When you authorized Operation Epic Fury, just like you talked about with the reflecting pool, we didn’t do the same old thing the way we’d done it in the past, after Iraq and Afghanistan, the way we waged wars. Instead, you said we’re going to do this smart, we’re going to do it overwhelming, we’re going to use maximum lethality, and we’re going to bring them to their knees.”
The over-the-top praise-fest was typical of the cabinet meetings that have taken place during Trump’s second term, in which each member of the cabinet appears to compete to offer the most obsequious statement, often beginning with the phrase “under your leadership” followed by a list of accomplishments.
It had originally been set to take place at Camp David one day after his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center and during high-stakes peace talks with Iran that seemed on Tuesday to be breaking down once again.
A White House official told The Independent that the meeting was to include discussions about “recent successes of the administration including economy and small business wins, Task Force to Eliminate Fraud highlights, and foreign policy updates.”
But Trump, claiming “bad weather” had changed his plans, moved the meeting back to the White House late Tuesday.
“Based on the possible bad weather conditions tomorrow, we will be having our Cabinet Meeting in the White House, and will be postponing the Cabinet trip to Camp David. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Over the weekend, chatter grew in Washington around the likelihood that the U.S. was finally within reach of a peace agreement to end the war that has now lasted nearly three months after initial projections from the administration suggested that it would be over in “days”, a prediction Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated to journalists on Tuesday as he continued a trip to India.
“It’ll take a few days. The president’s expressed his desire to make it — he’s either going to make a good deal or no deal,” Rubio told reporters.
But a renewed round of U.S. strikes against Iranian boats and missile launch sites on Tuesday was met with condemnations from the Iranian government and accusations of ceasefire violations, which could mean that those talks are once again breaking down. White House officials have said for days that the sticking point remains the Strait of Hormuz, as well as Iran’s long-term nuclear ambitions — the latter of which has been a point of divide since before the war began.
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House dismissed a report on Iranian state television citing a draft of an unofficial framework for a memorandum of understanding between Tehran and Washington as “a complete fabrication”.
The report had said the draft agreement allowed for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened and commercial vessel numbers restored to pre-war levels within a month, and the US military to lift their naval blockade on Iranian ports, with Iran and Oman handling the management and routes of shipping through the Straight of Hormuz, Iranian state TV said.
But Trump knocked down the idea that Iran and Oman would control the waterway during his remarks at the cabinet meeting, telling reporters: “We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation that we have.”
He added he is “not talking” about easing sanctions on Iran, and that he is “not comfortable” with Russia or China taking Iran’s stockpile of uranium.
John Bowden contributed reporting
