Donald Trump to convene first cabinet meeting, Elon Musk will attend

US President Donald Trump is set on Wednesday to convene his first Cabinet meeting since returning to office last month, in an effort to further his agenda with most of his nominees now having been confirmed by Congress.

For the latest political news, bookmark The South African website’s dedicated section for free-to-read content

Billionaire supporter and advisor Elon Musk, tasked with overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has sought to fire thousands of federal workers, will be among those in attendance at the meeting.

Despite Musk’s lack of ministerial portfolio or formal decision-making authority, he is classified as a “special government employee” and “senior adviser to the president” by heading DOGE, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Not the only controversial member

Musk, Trump’s top donor during the 2024 presidential campaign, will not be the only controversial member of the Trump administration at the meeting.

Among the most contentious are Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has espoused conspiracy theories, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who has faced allegations of sexual assault.

The US Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so far, despite outcry from Democrats over their trackrecords and lack of experience.

Trump’s Republican Party holds a narrow majority in the Senate, and the refusal of more than a couple Senators to vote against Trump’s picks shows his iron grip on the party, where dissenters have largely quit or been cowed.

Former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell was the sole Republican dissenter to Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary, an appointment that caused alarm among the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and vows suspend research on infectious diseases.

A few Trump cabinet appointees still await confirmation by the Senate, including Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former congresswoman, and Linda McMahon, who helmed the Small Business Administration for part of Trump’s first term.

Musk, meanwhile, has already been dealing with upheaval within DOGE. One-third of his staff resigned in protest on Tuesday, days after he engineered a mass email to the federal government’s two million workers, ordering them to justify their work or risk being fired.

Government departments on Monday largely told staff to either ignore the DOGE-inspired email or downplayed the risks of not answering it.

So far, thousands of mainly probationary workers – employees who are recently hired, promoted or otherwise changed roles – have been terminated since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Would you like to be a fly on the wall of that cabinet meeting?

Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1

Subscribe to The South African website’s newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.

By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse