President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet members feted their boss with lengthy speeches describing their “honor” serving the administration, as the White House marks the 100th day in office.
Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting featured every member praising Trump’s leadership, a symbolic display of unity amid reports of infighting spilling out to the public.
The roughly 90-minute on-camera display largely resembled Trump’s first Cabinet meeting during his first administration in 2017, when each member lavished praise on the president.
Eight years later, Cabinet members again championed Trump’s decisive action, including rolling back former President Joe Biden‘s legacy, dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, slamming the mainstream media, and slashing federal spending through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk, who wore a Gulf of America hat on top of a DOGE hat, received widespread applause from the Cabinet as he prepares to step back from DOGE next month.
Yet the tech billionaire, who owns X, still made sure to praise Trump.
“A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days,” Musk began, echoing previous comments from other Cabinet members. “As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before ever, period.”
“Like this could be the greatest administration out of your country,” Musk added.
Trump thanked Musk for the kind words before noting the stress Musk has faced with Tesla stock slumping. “You really have sacrificed a lot, been treated very unfairly,” Trump said. “But the vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you.”
Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, also received widespread applause from the room after she congratulated its occupants. The first 100 days were “unparalleled,” Wiles said.
“But it hasn’t been busy for busy’s sake,” she said. “The president’s promises made to the American people have been kept time and time and time again.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been at the center of Signalgate, a major scandal that involved his sharing sensitive military plans regarding Yemen in two different Signal chats. Signalgate has made Hegseth vulnerable, but Trump has somewhat defended the defense secretary and has not publicly called on him to resign.
But during the Cabinet meeting, his focus was on praising Trump’s military leadership in comparison to Biden.
“Like so many things, Mr. President, you inherited a demoralized military that couldn’t recruit, that was perceived as weak after what happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere because of Joe Biden,” Hegseth said. “And what we have seen since your election and the inauguration has been nothing short of a recruiting renaissance.”
Trump tapped Hegseth to lead off the round of praise, joking that the defense secretary was his “least controversial person.”
As the Cabinet went around the room, even some conservatives denounced the display of groveling before Trump.
“Would it be possible to have a cabinet meeting without the Kim Jong il-style tributes?” Ann Coulter wrote on social media.
Coulter is among the conservatives who have championed Trump’s second administration but appeared to draw the line at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
The display of praise, however, carried on.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy touted his work fulfilling Trump’s directive to end funding for policies that do not adhere to the White House’s priorities.
“If you don’t follow the law, if you give a license to illegals, if you’re having DEI policies, we’re not going to fund your projects,” Duffy said.
Duffy also touted cutting funding to universities that research equitable and sustainable transportation systems or use data and public opinion to inform policy that benefits diverse communities, including women and gender non-conforming people. “Just stupid waste of money,” Duffy claimed. “We’re pulling that money back from universities.”
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended Trump’s controversial “Liberation Day” tariff policies on the same day it was announced that the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025.
Trump paused the tariffs on most U.S. trade partners, excluding China, for 90 days. But the financial and stock markets have not fully recovered from rising fears around the globe that Trump will not back down from slapping higher levies on foreign nations.
“They said you wouldn’t be able to do local tariffs,” Greer said. “We did it. They said everyone would retaliate. No one retaliated outside of China. They said no one would come to negotiate. We’re talking to dozens of countries.”
Concerns about the uncertain economic outlook have caused Trump’s approval numbers to dip below 50%, but Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins instead highlighted decreasing egg prices in her comments to Trump.
“Well, I’m not sure if anyone’s heard, but the price of eggs is down,” Rollins said, prompting laughter from the room. “As we celebrate the 100th day, I think that it’s just such a joy and honor to continue to do this work. So thank you for that.”
Vice President JD Vance, one of Trump’s most vocal defenders, used the Cabinet meeting to joke about his youth as the first millennial vice president before praising Trump for reversing downward trends from the Biden administration and then downplaying the achievements of all previous U.S. presidents.
“What has happened in 100 days is that we’ve started to reverse every single one of those negative trends,” Vance said. “I think what it shows to me is that the president, and you sit in the Oval Office and you see these portraits of presidents past, and let’s be honest, most of them have been placeholders. They’ve been people who’ve allowed their staff to sign executive orders with an autopen instead of men of action.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the White House’s efforts to decrease illegal border crossings significantly and crack down on illegal immigration.
“Mr. President, you are 100% correct,” Noem said. “The border is 99.99% safe, under control. You have completely reversed the entire situation.”
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats were busy staging a press conference slamming Trump after the Cabinet meeting concluded.
Shut out of power, Democrats have seized on the fallout from the tariffs, Trump’s legal battles as federal judges strike down some executive orders, and Musk’s unpopularity to attack the administration.
“Donald Trump’s first 100 days can be defined by one big F-word: failure,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. “Failure on the economy. Failure on lowering costs. Failure on tariffs. Failure on foreign policy. Failure on preserving democracy. Failure on helping middle-class families.”
Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, blasted the meeting on social media, comparing it to subjects praising a king. “Watching Trump’s Cabinet grovel and go wild in praising His Majesty,” he wrote on X.
Other political commentators similarly slammed the Cabinet praises as “cringey.”
“There are many cringey things about Trump’s 2nd term,” New Yorker staff writer James Surowiecki said. “But nothing is as cringey as watching these Cabinet meetings where Trump’s appointees kowtow to him and slather him with praise like they’re courtiers to a king. It’s repulsively un-American.”
Ed Krassenstein, a progressive political activist, claimed that the Wednesday ordeal was “straight out of North Korea.”
TRUMP’S CABINET CHEERS MUSK’S IMMINENT DEPARTURE FROM GOVERNMENT
“It’s almost laughable how phony and cheesy they are,” Krassenstein wrote.
Bulwark writer Sam Stein asked a blunt question of Trump’s administration: “Do we think the Cabinet members have a side contest with each other over who can be the most over the top and obsequious in their praise of Trump at these meetings?” he pondered on X.
