President Trump Participates in a Cabinet Meeting, Jan. 29, 2026

It's a fantastic job. You and Doug. Doug said, uh, you got to get this guy Doug, you got to get this guy Chris Wright and get him as soon as you can. I said, but I want you to run energy. He said, well I'm good at it but he's better, right? Didn't you tell me that? So I gave him I gave him the land, I gave you the energy, right? And it's a great company. I mean they literally have I said, maybe we'll merge it in some way. They said, you don't have to. We get along, they work they work together, right? With the land? He's got the land and the energy, he's got the knowledge to take it out. It's been a good combination.

This administration, the whole administration in your leadership has been very focused on energy because we can push down energy prices, we can lower costs on Americans, and we can raise wages by bringing jobs and opportunities here. Um, it is a truly transformation of American energy. Thanks for your leadership.

He's one of the most respected men, people, in the energy world. And Doug told me about Chris Wright. They said, if you could get him, what he gave up to do this job, you're making a little less money, but that's all right, you don't care. What you're doing is fantastic. But he said he's the best in the world. Other people have told me that, the heads of the biggest companies have told me that, and it's really panning out to be so. We appreciate it very much. It's great. Uh, one of the other things we're doing with energy, I think that's so important. We have an old grid, been around a long time, and not really uh can't be much expanded. It can be fixed up a little bit, but can't be much expanded. And we have some plants that are so big that the grid would never be able to hold it. We're allowing them to build a uh electric producing plant, mostly electric, but electric they can use nuclear to do it, they can use oil and gas, they can use coal, they can use whatever they want. I think many are choosing oil and gas because it's there, it's tried, it's true, it's plentiful, it's inexpensive. Some are going nuclear, some are going both, many are going all three. But uh the plants, you know, you read, well how do we ever fire those plants? Because we need to do this, we need two times the electricity we produce in one year for the entire country, which is almost hard to believe. These buildings are so big, they're going up now. So I did something that nobody thought was possible also. When they build their building, they build their own electric generating plants. And we are seeing some of the most incredible designs you've ever seen. So we don't need the grid. I read an article in the Wall Street Journal saying, oh, we're falling behind China. We're not actually. We're leading everybody because I'm letting them build. The government would never be able to do that. Now China is a different kind, they build, they do things that you got to hand it to them. President Xi, they build vast amounts of energy. They don't have certain constraints that we have in this country. But we're more than topping them. We're leading China by a lot on AI and it's primarily because I'm allowing them to build with their plant their own electricity. If they had to rely on the grid, they wouldn't have any power. You would have no power for anything. And uh they're building the electricity. One of the reasons I'm able to do that is we have a very capable man in the room named Lee Zeldin. He may be in the room somewhere. Is that his normal place? He's there. He's always there. Most reliable solid guy and he's done an amazing job. Could you just uh explain that and also uh because of the fact he's so good, California has a problem. The hardest permit to get when they lost 25,000 or so houses, which shouldn't have been lost, they should have allowed the water to come down from the Pacific Northwest, which was very plentiful. But they didn't do that, they lost 25,000 houses. Uh Lee and his team gave them the most complicated permit within 20 days. Everybody, every single house that burned down was got the federal approval. Unfortunately, it's well over a year and the state and the city, that's Gavin Newsom and the city, the mayor who's grossly incompetent, by the way, they have been unable to give permits. They're like three houses being built out of thousands and thousands they have no they have no permits. So I read about a week ago that it's possible because of what's happened whether you declare national emergency or so these people are wanting they're dying to build their house, they want to do something that I could put somebody in charge from the federal government. Congratulations Lee and I'm putting Lee Zeldin in charge of getting them their permits, city, federal, you can you you have the federal, you need the city and state. Uh and I hear you have great powers over them if we want and we're going to give you that power. We've already given you that power. So Lee Zeldin is going to work with the thousands of people that are dying to build their house and I also recommend one other thing. Give them the house plus a 10% bonus. In other words, you get a bonus, you can build your house 10% larger. They've suffered so greatly, they've waited so long, and they should be given a bonus. So I think and uh you know, I've heard this has been done before. They get a 10% bonus, they can build a house that's a little bit larger than what they had before and I'd like to have you take it over.

Well, Mr. President, uh your great Secretary of State was looking for another job. I thought- I was thinking about him, but he's pretty well-booked. I watch you- he did a great job yesterday, but he's a little booked up. Let's go Lee, talk. No more ideas like that, Lee. When President Trump came into office, he immediately signed an executive order giving EPA 30 days to complete our phase one hazardous material removal so that the Army Corps could come in and complete their phase two debris removal. So uh at first the response was that that was going to be impossible. Good luck trying to get it done maybe by the summer, but we figured it out, uh because operating at Trump speed, the President was just sworn in, uh we had to get it done and we got it done in less than 30 days. The Army Corps then came in and completed the debris removal. So the federal government uh while the governor has tried to accuse this president of not focusing uh with a a laser on putting all the weight of the federal government to getting this done, uh it happened from the moment he was sworn into office. SBA came in, uh I think it was about half of the disaster loan money, billions of dollars from last year, went uh towards these residents and businesses, so the full weight of this government. But right after uh I was sworn in, which was actually a week a year ago today, um my first trip was to East Palestine because the Vice President never forgets his home state. The second trip was uh going to Los Angeles. There were people with contractors all over Palisades and Eaton ready to rebuild right then and there. You're talking about a year ago and now the frustration, the passion that we all hear from all of these Los Angeles residents uh and President Trump, uh he's made it clear to us that he's heard enough and the message should be heard loud and clear to uh that local leadership, they should be motivated listening to this right now. And when this cabinet meeting is over, if it hasn't been done already, is that they need to go into the office where these permits are just laying around, flip over tables if you have to, fire people if you have to and get all of these approvals done so the people can rebuild their lives. It's been a year and this president has had enough.

So whatever you can do, you know, that's going to be very important. And uh it's it's so sad those people, we were there a few days after the fire. You were there with me. We were walking down the streets. The people are devastated. The love that they had for that property was everybody was gonna rebuild and they thought they could do it immediately. They should have, we gave it to them so quickly. But they can't get their permits. They still can't build. And and they're losing spirit too. I mean, a lot of people are losing spirit. And the other thing I'd like to uh talk to you about and uh other people about that right happen to be sitting around the table, uh they want to build a low-income housing project right in the middle of everything in Palisades and I'm not going to allow it to happen. Okay? I mean, maybe it's politically correct, maybe it's not. I'm not going to let these people destroy the value of their houses. It's I I built a lot of low-income housing. I made a lot of money building low-income housing. I know more about it than anybody. We're not going to build, we're not going to allow this guy to build a low-income housing project on top of everything else in the middle of that mess that was created by the fact that they didn't allow water to come down from the Pacific Northwest, okay? And uh I'd like you to have that stopped and stopped immediately. No financing, that might be you Scott because they'll come to you for financing. It's never going to be approved. You you would never, but Scott thought it was a horrible thing. So there's going to be no financing for low-income housing. Let the people build their houses and as fast as you can, help them, help the mayor and help the governor get their permitting done. Okay?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you very much. And Kelly, uh just uh you know, I think you were just alluded to. Are you helping some of the people out there with loans?

Yes, Mr. President. Thanks to your leadership, you also helped put the fires out. Your executive order got water to the scene in your earliest days of your presidency, so you've been there from day one. We've been out there twice now. Uh there had been no changes until your executive order this week that is allowing that permitting to happen quickly. We have 16,000 structures burned. We have put loans out on 12,000 of them for $3.2 billion dollars, more than half of all the disaster money delivered in America went to that area. Now because of the abject leadership, the failures of Gavin Newsom, they have not been able to rebuild. Because of your leadership, they're going to be able to rebuild. But that's not all you've done.

And they'll take the credit for it, watch. It'll start and they'll take the credit. Look at the great job we did. They would never it wouldn't get built in 20 years and and it would be destroyed by building low-income housing next to luxury housing. Uh history says that doesn't work too well. Go ahead.

We're going to make sure that doesn't happen, Mr. President. But under your leadership, you've ended at least eight wars, okay? But the probably the most important and underreported war that this President ended was Joe Biden and the Democrats war on main street and hardworking families. Uh we've seen it as I've gone across the country this month, ten different states. And we saw it when we were together in Iowa, hardworking families, farmers, small businesses expressing gratitude, lined up to thank you. I was out with our great Vice President last week in Toledo, Ohio. They are thanking this administration for getting main street back. The Trump tax cuts, the tariffs, deregulation, it's all rocket fuel for hardworking families in main streets and I see it whether it's talking about small business expensing, 100% accelerated for made in America factories, the 20% pass-through, but it's also working families where they have expanded child tax credits, increase standard deductions, permanent low-income tax rates, health savings accounts, Trump accounts. Um this President is delivering for main street, it's the most underreported story in this country and I see it in main street businesses. All-time small business confidence hit a record under this president last year after the Trump tax cuts. All-time small business formation now at 36 million small businesses and a record $100 billion dollars out from SBA because a record number of people want to invest in this country and hire. And whether I've talked to manufacturers about tariffs, they know that this president is bringing manufacturing back, just like Prince Manufacturing in Macon, Georgia. 500 employees machining parts for our defense, our agriculture, our automotive, our aerospace industry. They're going to hire 500 more people this year because of tariffs, because of the Trump tax cuts, and because of SBA lending. And I see this state after state as I've gone across the country, talked to hundreds of business owners, walked dozens of factory floors. This is not being covered, but it's going on in America. The number one problem is they need skilled workers and this is something I'm working on with Secretary Chavez De Remer, I'm working across the administration to ensure that we empower our small businesses. 98% of our manufacturers meet the small business definition, so Ford has 5,000 small manufacturing suppliers. The $18 trillion dollars you brought in is creating an economic boom like none we've ever seen before. We are going to have 7% GDP growth, uh GDP now is probably underestimating where it is in 4Q, but with interest rates going down, with regulation going down, these are all taxes on small businesses and those are going away and thanks to President Trump, your leadership, we are seeing main street boom, hardworking families have a thousand dollars already in their pockets and when they get their thousand dollar refund check, I hope they all remember that every Democrat voted against them getting their tax refunds, because this is what our administration is doing is powering your incredible economic agenda on main street.

Thank you very much. Great job. I I do want to say that uh on my left, I have a man who's doing the fantastic job and on my right also, by the way. Uh but we're spending a tremendous amount of time and effort on uh building our military. We largely rebuilt the military during my first term, fortunately, and we're greatly, greatly enhancing really enhancing it now. Uh we're going to be doing something new. We're bringing back the battleship and I thought uh like you remember the battleships for the great Iowa and Alabama, Missouri. Those unbelievable scenes that you see victory at sea, you see these incredible ships and uh I thought they were powerful, but the battleship that we're building are going to be 100 times more powerful than those beautiful works of art. I mean, they were magnificent. Uh all steel. We have the steel now and we're going to be doing that as an enhancement, but we uh our military is very, very strong. You may want to say something about the uh large fleet of ships that's heading over to the Middle East.

Well, Mr. President, uh you you had to, like so many other cabinet members have referenced, rebuild the perception of America. And at the Department of War, that meant re-establishing deterrence. Uh what happened in Afghanistan, what happened in the Ukraine, a war that never would have occurred, what happened on October 7th in Israel never would have happened under President Trump. So as a result, we're having to rebuild how our enemies perceive us. And when President Trump said we're not getting a nuclear Iran, you won't have a nuclear bomb, he meant it and we sent those B2s halfway around the world and they they never noticed. When he said uh we're not going to tolerate trafficking drugs anymore in our hemisphere, uh we treat them like the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, he meant it and we're executing that. When you said, Mr. President, we're securing the border, the military was proud to do their part alongside Homeland Security to do that. Same thing with uh with Iran right now, ensuring that uh they have all options to make a deal. Uh they should not pursue uh nuclear capabilities, we will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the war department just like we did this month. Uh no other military in the world could have could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid not just in American history, I would say in world history. Uh what those men did going downtown another country, their most secure place in the most secure base in the middle of the night without anybody knowing until those simultaneous bombs dropped three minutes before the helicopter dropped, no other country could coordinate that, no other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way to be that effective. And that sends a message to every capital around the world that when President Trump speaks, he means business and we're re-establishing deterrence at the war department, Mr. President.

Thank you. Great job you're doing. Uh just uh to finish up on that, the Somalian pirates over the years have uh pirated, stolen many ships. Uh they would get large amounts of money for the ship. You know, you have a billion dollar ship and the insurance company didn't want to fight because you know some of those ships are very flammable. They're carrying millions of barrels of oil. Very flammable, very dangerous situation if they're shot at, so they wouldn't fight. Uh we notified them a number of months ago, anybody that does that gets the same treatment as a drug dealer uh sending their drugs in from Venezuela or anybody else. Uh we as you know, it's 97% down by water. So the drugs coming in by sea or by water uh is down 97, 97%. Now we're also starting that was the more difficult route. Now we're starting to do that by land also, it will be you'll see that happen as they come in and kill our people with drugs. I think the real number is 300,000 people a year, not 100, but whatever it is, it's a lot of people, hundreds of thousands of people. Uh they're going to get hit. But also uh we added to the list the Somalian pirates that uh go out on a boat, similar type boat, actually not quite as fast, not quite as nice, as you can imagine, but they get the same missile that uh we give to the people that are bringing drugs and so far we haven't seen anybody going out. So the the traffic uh is not being interfered with by people pirating our ships, not our ships, ships all over the world. I said make it for any country, we're doing the rest of the world a favor. It's a very effective favor, but we see very little pirating nowadays. It used to have ships being taken every single like two or three a week, these massive ships they'd be brought in to some place in Somalia which I don't even know is it a country? We have Ilhan Omar left and she she gives us lectures on the constitution of the United States. Uh these people are what they've done to rip off our country is terrible. But uh the pirating has essentially stopped. They know that if anybody even makes a move toward a ship, they get uh the ultimate treatment. They will go to wherever they want to go, but it's probably not going to be to heaven. I can't imagine. But they get they get uh hit very hard just like a drug dealer just like the boats the ships that are coming in. Every boat that comes in with drugs on it that we take out, we just saved 25,000 American lives. Each boat is the uh equivalent of saving 25,000 American, mostly American, but American lives. So, uh, I just wanted to let you know that and Pete's been totally authorized to do that and they know it's going to happen and uh it seems that all of that brisk business that they had has been stopped and it's uh right in its foot. So, uh, I just want to thank everybody for being here. My cabinet has been amazing. Uh I like this much better than going around for three hours. Uh we'll pick on other ones. Pam, you're doing great. We're all doing great. JD, if you'd like to say something, you can. Would you like to really quickly? He is after all the Vice President of the United States.

It's okay, sir. I'm here for the free coffee and just say it's an honor to serve with this group and uh we're doing a a lot of good for the American people, very proud of it.

Yeah, well we're very proud of the country, we're very proud of you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.