President Donald Trump used his first Cabinet meeting of the year to attempt to mission unity, regardless of stories of a number of cracks rising inside his workforce.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was the object of curiosity throughout the greater than an hourlong meeting as her management of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection comes underneath scrutiny after two deadly shootings of anti-immigration legislation enforcement protesters this month in Minnesota.
However, Minnesota was solely raised in a single occasion, and not in any manner that referenced the information tales which have dominated nationwide headlines for the previous week. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about the state, in tandem with California, as half of the administration’s efforts to deal with Medicare and Medicaid fraud instances, whereas Noem herself remained silent.
Here’s what you must know from Thursday’s occasion.
Trump skips questions
In a break from the norm, Trump closed the Cabinet meeting with out taking questions from reporters after listening to officers’ displays for greater than an hour.
“Mr. President, why not take questions?” one reporter requested as White House aides tried to usher members of the information media from the room.
The determination was the second break from Trump’s conventional strategy to Cabinet conferences, with the president this time hand-picking which Cabinet secretary or official would communicate as an alternative of going round the desk and calling on every Cabinet member in flip.
“The last time we had a press conference, it lasted for three hours, and some people said, ‘He closed his eyes,’’ he said. “Look, it got pretty boring. I love these people, but there’s a lot of people. It was a little bit [on] the boring side, but I didn’t sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell out of here.”
President Donald Trump listens throughout a cupboard meeting at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Who did, and didn’t, communicate?
Noem was the most notable omission from the talking line-up after Trump deployed border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday to switch Border Patrol commander in chief Greg Bovino following final weekend’s dying of Alex Pretti.
Similarly, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy didn’t communicate amid stories that Trump can be sad with them, for various causes, nor did Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who’s underneath an moral investigation.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who’s reportedly on the outs as a result of of her perceived opposition to Trump’s international coverage choices in Venezuela and Iran, was not even in the room, dispatched as an alternative to Georgia.
Other Cabinet officers on the non-speakers record included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, U.S. Trade consultant Jamieson Greer, and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.
Those who did communicate included Kennedy, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Special Missions Envoy Steve Witkoff.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R) appears to be like on as President Donald Trump hosts a cupboard meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 29, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP through Getty Images)
Biggest laughs
Trump, all the time an entertainer, had Rubio and Hegseth laughing when he talked about social media fodder primarily based on pictures purportedly capturing him sleeping throughout previous Cabinet conferences.
Trump additionally bought an increase out of the room whereas introducing Kennedy, whose Make America Healthy Again following may assist Republicans carry out higher on this November’s elections.
“I read an article today where they think Bobby is going to be really great for the Republican Party in the midterms, so I have to be very careful that Bobby likes us,” he mentioned.
Trump, as well as, shared extra about his so-far nameless buddy who’s taking Ozempic, describing him as a “very successful,” however “seriously overweight person.”
“He’s a crude individual, but smart as hell, made a lot of money,” he mentioned. “He got the shot, you know, Ozempic, I think, or whatever. And I told him it wasn’t working.”
Vice President JD Vance earned just a few chuckles of his personal as properly. When the president offered him a chance to talk, he politely declined and quipped that he was “only” current for the espresso.
Who was the greatest sycophant?
Trump’s Cabinet conferences regularly see the division heads heap reward on the president. Thursday’s affair was no completely different, with Bessent on Thursday promising that 2026 is “going to be the year for the Trump boom.”
“We’ve got gains in wages, low prices,” the secretary mentioned. “It’s going to be a supply-side boom.”
Hegseth added that Trump’s seize of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro was “the most sophisticated raid in world history.”
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Wright went on to say, “with confidence,” that “hundreds of American lives have been saved” as a result of Trump has leaned in and reversed former President Joe Biden’s killing of coal and revitalizing coal, whereas Loeffler informed Trump that he “ended at least eight wars,” together with “Biden and the Democrats’ war” on hard-working households.
Lutnick might have been the most toadying, telling the president, “You are fixing everything with your policies. You have changed America and created the golden age.”
