President Donald Trump and some of the top leaders in his administration met at Camp David on Friday for an open Cabinet meeting to discuss foreign wars in Iran and Ukraine, the anti-weaponization fund and government crackdowns on fraud.
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While talking in “a very, very special room,” as Trump described it, leaders shared updates on events
The actions of his second term, Trump said, are “going to blow my last administration away.”
Iranian forces are ‘being decimated’ by U.S. attacks
Trump said the negotiations with Israel and Iran are “a very complex situation” but also said the goal is “very simple: (Iran) cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
“We’re trying to be nice,” Trump told reporters. “As nice as you can be, you know, in a situation like that. But, you know, they’re being decimated.”
U.S. forces have “gone big” in their attacks on Iran and will continue to do so, Trump said.
“It’s all gone. Their radar is all gone. Their leaders are all gone. Everything’s all gone. But they’ll fight onward,” the president said.
“They’ll get weaker. They’ll get a little stronger maybe now, but they’ll get weaker and then they peter out,” he added later.
Trump referred to the Iranian leaders as “crazy” and said he is “losing faith in them because they do lie and they do misrepresent.”
Speaking about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Trump said the U.S. has an understanding with Israel that they are “very happy about,” and current negotiations mark “a great breakthrough.”
“Nobody thought that would be possible to disarm Hamas,” he said. “That shows you how much success we’re having with Iran.”
President Trump defends anti-weaponization fund
Trump addressed the current controversy surrounding his anti-weaponization fund. The disputed fund has stalled the confirmation of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche due to the pushback of Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn.
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Trump specifically mentioned Cornyn, saying “he lost because of me.”
“I endorsed somebody else. And as soon as I endorsed the other person, the other person became a rocket ship upward. And he lost,” the president said.
Trump then said Cornyn “has become very angry,” and accused Cornyn of making Blanche “a pawn on this whole thing.”
Though Trump said the fund is dead, he continued to defend it, saying that “there’s a group of people in this country history will show that were treated like nobody else has ever been treated. So badly, so horribly.”
“I’d like to see them compensated for the pain,” he said.
‘Nobody wants to make concessions’ in the Russian-Ukrainian war
A deal between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the works, Trump said, but an immediate end to the war is not in sight.
“Nobody wants to make concessions, but they’re both going to have to make some concessions,” he said.
In a recent meeting, Trump spoke with Zelenskyy about ending the war.
“I think he wants to make a deal and I think Putin wants to make a deal, but there’s a lot of dislike, as you probably noticed,” the president told reporters.
“I ended eight wars,” Trump added later. “That was the war I thought would maybe go first, and it really hasn’t.”
Efforts to eliminate fraud will include ‘things that people aren’t going to believe’
Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, said as of Friday, the task force has identified $230 billion of fraudulent spending, $56 billion of which has been halted.
Vance said the force will “of course” continue their efforts, including 17 new anti-fraud actions expected to add one-third of a billion dollars to the $230 billion total.
Trump also hinted at coming actions that will include ‘things that people aren’t going to believe.”
“Billions of dollars is being recovered,” he said. “And you haven’t seen anything yet.”
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