Trump Holds Another "WTF?" Cabinet Meeting

And He REALLY Doesn't Want To Talk About Jeffrey Epstein!

Today, the circus of what was once known as a presidential cabinet meeting was on display for the world to see. It’s hardly worth trying to actually encapsulate the discussions because, save for a few cabinet members speaking just long enough to show they were effectively kissing his ass, Trump dominated the scene with yet sprawling, incoherent monologue that treated catastrophe as a narrative backdrop for political score-settling, personal glorification, and conspiracy-laden digressions.

Everything was Biden’s fault (Trump mentioned his name 20 times), except for the stuff that was great. Wind is terrible and “ugly.” He rambled on about the pilots who flew the mission that “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear sites and publicly chastized stories and reporters who claimed otherwise. He wouldn’t take answers from CNN. He claimed his (new) tariff deadline was actually ALWAYS August 1, despite the fact that he’s changed his mind on tariffs 28 times. He lied about the number of homes burned in the California fires earlier this year, claiming “25,000 houses” were “burned to the ground (The actual total of destroyed homes from both the Palisades and Eaton fires totalled 9,775). He embraced Ukraine, claiming he is sending weapons to help fight against his new ex-boyfriend, Vladimir Putin, and seemed confused when a reporter asked why his administration paused weapons delivery in the first place. He hinted about using the power of the federal government to stop New York mayoral candidate Zhoran Mamdani from winning the election:

Number one: Communist running. You shouldn’t vote for him. Meaning, he’s got the Democrat nomination—because that shows you where the Democrats have gone. He wants to take over the grocery stores.

A great guy—rich guy—Ground Zero's RER—does a good job—wants to take over. He called me, concerned his stores were going to be taken from him, and they won’t be run like he runs them. He actually said he wants to run his own grocery stores.

This is a man who’s not very capable, in my opinion—other than he’s got a good line of bullshit.

As you know, Cuomo does have capabilities, but he got knocked out. And now they are running—you have Eric Adams, the current mayor. You have Cuomo. You have Curtis. Curtis runs every four years. He seems to be the fixture on the running scale.

I’m not getting involved. [Laughter]

But I can tell you this: I used to say, “We will not ever be a socialist country.”

We’re not going to have—if a communist gets elected to run New York, you can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.

Perhaps most telling was when a reporter tried to ask Attorney General Pam Bondi (AKA “Henna Himmler”) about the supposedly now non-existent Jeffrey Epstein client list. Trump interrupted:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:
Can I just answer for a second? Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. We have Texas, this — all of the things — and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. You want to waste the time? You feel like answering?

PAM BONDI:
I don’t mind answering.

PRESIDENT TRUMP:
I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, when we’re having some of the greatest success — and tragedy — with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration. But you go ahead.

PAM BONDI:
First, to back up on that — in February, I did an interview on Fox, and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I was asked a question about the client list. My response was: “It’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,” meaning the file, along with the JFK and MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that.

Also, to the tens of thousands of videos — they turned out to be child porn, downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Child porn. Never going to be released. Never going to see the light of day.

To him being an agent — I have no knowledge on that. We can get back to you on that.

The minutes missing from the video — we released the video showing definitively… The video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide. And what was on that — there was a minute that was off the counter.

What we learned from Bureau of Prisons: every night they re-do that video. It’s old, from like 1999. So every night, the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing. So we’re looking for that video to show them that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it.

Bondi’s response would seem to trigger more questions, but no one pushed back. For example: Why DON’T you have knowledge as to Epstein being some sort of secret government agent?

How was it that Epstein picked the EXACT minute when the prison “redid” that video?

I was more than mildly surprised when, of all people, Fox News stooge Steve Doocy pushed back on that claim when Karoline Leavitt (AKA “Propaganda Barbie”) gave that same lame-ass excuse yesterday. No pushback today, though, folks. Nothing to see here! And now, back to the rambling mad king!

There’s not much more to say about this meeting except that it went pretty much as anyone would have expected. It was long on praise and bullshit, and short on any facts. If you feel you’d like to stomach your way through it, you can watch it here.

This is where the meeting went completely off the rails as Trump offered what was supposed to be closing remarks. It definitely put the “F” in “WTF?” See for yourself:

Thank you very much. Maybe just in closing — we spent a lot of time, effort, and very little money on this room. This is called the Cabinet Room. It's been here for a long time. It had some pictures — not many of them, and not very good ones.

I actually spent time in the vaults. The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork, and I picked it all myself. That’s Andrew Jackson. That’s a gentleman named — and he was President Polk. He was sort of a real estate guy. People don’t realize — he was a one-termer, but he was a very good president. And I’m not sure I should be doing this — he gave us the state of California. [Laughter] I’m not sure. Maybe he won’t be there for long.

The frame is almost the exact same size, so that was one of the reasons — I have to be honest. But Polk was a very good president and had the same frame that I needed.

Up here, you have the original George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower, who was a very underrated president. He built the interstate system. He was the toughest president — I guess until we came along. But I don’t mind giving up that crown. I don’t want to be too tough on it — we want to be humane.

He was the toughest president on immigration. He was very strong at the borders. Very, very strong. Sometimes you can be too strong. He was so strong at the borders that, during a certain period of time, almost every farmer in California went bankrupt. We have to remember that. We have to work together, and we have to remember that. (NOTE: Ironic statement coming from a guy who has deported undocumented immigrants to hellhole prisons in countries where they were not born, quickly built another hellhole prison perjoratively named “Alligator Alcatraz,” and sent an invading force complete with gun-turrets and snipers to MacArthur Park in Los Angeles yesterday for seemingly no reason other than to film a TikTok video.)

But he was a very good president, a very good general, and I thought he deserved a position somewhere on this floor.

Then you have — this is very exciting to me — he was not a Republican, to put it mildly: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We have a lot of ramps. He was wheelchair-bound, but he was an amazing man. It’s an amazing portrait. We used to have him in the room — a different portrait — and it was a terrible portrait. It was almost like it was done by a child. I used to say I can’t believe that he would have approved of that portrait of himself.

I was in the vault, looking at things. I said, “What’s that?” We have some great curators here — six great curators here at the White House. Of course, there’s no objectivity. May have one, but that’s all right. They are very talented.

He said, “That’s a picture of FDR.”

I said, “Really? Let me see it.”

Very well preserved. That’s the picture they’ve been looking for, for years — the picture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

See, frame-wise, it doesn’t work. I want to be nice, but it doesn’t work if you have a big frame and a little frame. But it’s perfection.

The mirror was down in the vaults also. I said, “Where is this from?” Beautiful. We put that up.

Then over there is Honest Abe Lincoln. That picture was in his bedroom, and we thought this would be a very important place, because this is where wars are ended. I’m not going to say wars are declared — I’ll say wars will be ended. I’m going to be positive.

That picture sat in the bedroom for many years. That was his favorite picture of himself. The Lincoln Bedroom was very famous. You remember when Bill Clinton had it and he rented it out to people. We don’t do that. (Note: While president, Bill Clinton did invite friends and contributors to the White House, and many of them slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, he never “rented it out to people.” Source)

It was an incredible room. We took that picture from his bedroom. That’s Abe Lincoln.

Over here, you have John Adams. They were the first occupants of the White House, 1800. John Quincy Adams. Mrs. Adams. (Note: John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, who WAS the first occupant of the White House. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States, elected in 1824.)

We have them looking at each other, and in between their stare is Abraham Lincoln trying to make peace. That picture was in a room I had — a room that was not important like the Cabinet. I gave it up. I said, “I have to give it up,” because that’s one of the greatest pictures in the White House.

The White House has tremendous art. And the Oval Office — when we’re there, we’ll go over that. That’s something. We have the drapes, the whole thing — new drapes. It wasn’t a big expense, very small.

We took some of the chinaware and silverware from the vaults and had it cleaned up. Some of it had sat in the vaults for over 100 years. Many of the pictures that were put up in the Oval Office — those two, as an example — he was president. He moved in in 1800, and he won the election, I believe, in November of 1800 — John Quincy Adams.

He was considered to be a good president and the first occupant of the White House, so it made sense.

I love the frame of those pictures. I’m a frame person. Sometimes I like the frames more than the pictures.

We have the flags — the Marines, the Space Force now has its own flag (I’m very proud of the Space Force), the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, the whole thing. Coast Guard is right there. Never forget the Coast Guard. They do a great job.

We have the flag. It’s really become quite a beautiful place.

I don’t want to tell — Marco pointed it out. I said, “Leave the clock.”

As president, you have the power — if I go into the State Department or the Department of Commerce or Treasury — if I see anything that I like, I’m allowed to take it. [Laughter]

So I’m in Marco’s office and I see this gorgeous clock — grandfather clock. I said, “There it is.”

I said, “Marco…” [Laughter]

Rules and regulations. I said, “Marco, I love this clock. Look at it.”

He said, “What clock?”

“The clock that’s in the other room is incredible. Nobody gets to see it there.”

Marco — I tried to talk him into it at first, and it sort of worked, and then I had to use a little more. I’d love to take that clock out and put it in the Cabinet Room.

I said, “Are you serious?”

I said, “Marco, I have the right to do it, Marco.” [Laughter]

That’s his contribution to the Cabinet Room. By the way, it’s an incredible clock. It’s an important room. So if I see it again, maybe we’ll move it back. [Laughter]

Here, we put these lamps — have been very important, actually. If you see pictures like Pearl Harbor and Tora! Tora! Tora!, oftentimes I show the lamps. This is a very important room. You never know what they do.

But they were missing medallions. They had a chain going into the ceiling. I said, “You can’t do that. You have to have a medallion.”

They said, “What’s that?”

I said, “I’ll show you.” And you see them — they were put up there.

We did these changes, and when you think of it, the cost was almost nothing. We also painted the room a nice beige color. It’s been really something.

The only question is — my Cabinet can take a vote. You see the top line moldings? You can’t paint it. If you paint it, it won’t look good because they never found a paint that looks like gold.

You see that in the Oval Office — they tried for years and years. They never found a paint that looks like gold. Painting is easy, but it won’t look right.

Linda, do you have an opinion?

Linda: I’d gold-leaf it.

President Trump: Would you gold-leaf?

[Inaudible]

President Trump: McKinley was a great president who never got credit. In fact, they changed the name of Mount McKinley — and I changed it back. The people of Ohio — he was the Governor of Ohio — were very happy when I did that.

They took the name of Mount McKinley off. That was done by Obamacare a little while ago. I had to change it back. I changed it back.

He actually was a great president. He was the tariff — since me, I think I’m going to outdo him — but he was a tariff president. He believed that other countries should pay for the privilege of coming into our country and taking our jobs and our treasure. That’s the way he explained it — they took our jobs and our treasure, and for that, they should pay.

They had the Great Tariff set up in 1887 because our country had so much money, we didn’t know what to do with it. They set up a committee of elites — a term that I have to change because I think a lot of people that are elite aren’t elites. Maybe we’ll switch that around somehow.

But they had a committee set up to spend the money because it was such a large amount. Nobody had seen anything like it. And it all came in from tariffs. There was no income tax system. That came in 1913. That came in and lived well for a while.

Then you had the Great Depression, and later they tried to bring back tariffs, but the whole thing was — this was after the Depression. That was one of the great misconceptions, as people like to say. The country had a Great Depression, and then after the Depression — long after it started — they brought back tariffs to see if they could save it.

But it took them 25 years. Wouldn’t you say? About 25 years to get out of the Great Depression. A lot of people don’t understand that.

But I thought it would be interesting for you to get a little view of this room. This is a very powerful room. We’ve done similar — and beyond this — in the Oval Office. We brought back pictures of some of the greatest presidents — some in the vaults for over 100 years. Rather than sitting in a vault downstairs for 128 years, I thought we should display that — and we did that, I think, in a really good way.

We’ve gotten very high marks, but it’s interesting. People walk into that room — they don’t even want to talk to me. They could look at it for hours.

When people come into the Oval Office — the biggest people in the world: presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens (one case, at least), and the biggest businesspeople in the world — they walk into that office. They always say, “There’s no place like this in the whole world in terms of the power.”

It’s beautiful and all, but there are other beautiful offices. You have businessmen that have offices — full floors of office buildings, floor-to-ceiling glass. They walk in there and they say, “There’s no place like this anywhere in the world.”

What it represents may be more than the physicality of the room.

So, it’s an honor to have you all — media. It’s an honor to have you. I just want to say — we have a fantastic Cabinet. Every one of them is a star in my book. If not, I’ll let you know. I’ll throw them to the wolves. I’ll throw them to the wolves in two seconds — because our country comes first.

I just want to thank you. A lot of fun. Thank you.

Reporter: [Inaudible]

President Trump: I’ll tell you...