HUD: “59% of Illegal Alien Families Use Welfare — $42 Billion a Year”; Housing Now Americans Only; Lutnick: “$8 Trillion — Reindustrialize”

The 100-day cabinet meeting continued with HUD Secretary announcing the end of illegal alien housing subsidies in May 2025: “59% of illegal alien families use some sort of welfare program, costing us $42 billion a year. We signed an MOU with DHS to make sure HUD-funded housing only goes to American citizens.” Commerce Secretary Lutnick explained the $8 trillion investment surge: “There’s only one reason it’s coming in — the president finally set an industrial policy. We need to reindustrialize. We need to be made in America.” Press Secretary Leavitt noted the unprecedented transparency: “Can you ever remember a cabinet meeting in which the media were welcomed to ask questions of the entire federal government? No, because it never happened.”

HUD: Americans Only

The HUD Secretary described the policy change with specific numbers.

“At HUD, we want to make sure that the resources we have — which is American taxpayer dollars — in the Biden administration, they prioritized illegal aliens over the American people,” the secretary said.

The action taken: “We signed an MOU with Secretary Noem and DHS to make sure that HUD-funded housing only goes to American citizens and no longer will it go to illegal aliens coming across our border.”

The scale: “We have about 9 million people living in subsidized housing in our country.”

The welfare statistic: “59% of illegal alien families use some sort of welfare program, costing us $42 billion a year.”

The conclusion: “We have prioritized American people only to live in HUD-funded housing.”

The 59% welfare usage figure was the most politically explosive statistic in the briefing. It meant that a clear majority of illegal immigrant families were receiving government assistance — food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, or other welfare programs — funded by American taxpayers. The $42 billion annual cost dwarfed many federal programs and represented money directly diverted from American citizens to people who were in the country illegally.

The HUD policy change was straightforward: federally subsidized housing, paid for by American taxpayers, would serve American citizens. Under the Biden administration, illegal immigrants had been placed in HUD-funded housing while American families — including veterans, elderly citizens, and working poor — waited on lists that stretched for years.

The MOU with DHS created the enforcement mechanism. By coordinating with immigration authorities, HUD could verify the citizenship or legal status of housing recipients and ensure that subsidized units went to eligible Americans rather than illegal immigrants.

The Censorship Dossiers

The cabinet meeting also included Rubio’s revelation about Biden-era State Department censorship — a continuation of his earlier remarks.

“We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans,” Rubio repeated.

He revealed the targeting: “There’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier on them in that building — social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation.”

He confirmed the action: “We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals.”

He described the implications: “Just think about it — the Department of State had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens to identify them as vectors of disinformation.”

He stated the principle: “The best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency. That’s what we’re going to be in the business of doing.”

The dossier revelation was extraordinary in its specificity. A sitting cabinet member had just confirmed that the previous administration’s State Department — a foreign affairs agency — had compiled intelligence files on American citizens’ social media activity. The files identified these citizens as “purveyors of disinformation” based on their political speech.

That at least one person at the cabinet table — a Trump administration official — had been targeted made the surveillance overtly political. The Biden State Department had been monitoring and cataloging the speech of people who would later serve in the Trump administration, creating files that could have been used for censorship, deplatforming, or reputational damage.

Lutnick: “$8 Trillion — Reindustrialize”

Commerce Secretary Lutnick explained the economic transformation in a single statement.

“The president talks about $8 trillion coming into America,” Lutnick said. “And there’s only one reason it’s coming in — it’s because he’s finally set an industrial policy for the United States of America.”

He stated the vision: “We are the greatest economy in the world. We finally have a president who understands that we need to reindustrialize. We need to be made in America, made in the USA.”

He described the mood: “And you feel it. You feel it with these leaders. You feel it across all your peers. Everyone feels it. It’s coming back to America. And we are going to be rocking.”

The “industrial policy” characterization was significant. For decades, American economic orthodoxy had held that the government should not pick winners or set industrial priorities — that free markets alone should determine where investment flowed. Trump’s tariff and tax strategy was a deliberate rejection of that orthodoxy. The government was using tariffs, tax incentives, and regulatory reform to direct investment toward domestic manufacturing — creating an environment in which building in America was more profitable than building abroad.

The $8 trillion figure — which had grown from earlier estimates — represented the cumulative investment commitments from TSMC ($165 billion), NVIDIA ($500 billion), Samsung, Apple, and dozens of other companies. The pace of commitment was unprecedented in American history.

Leavitt: “Most Transparent President”

Press Secretary Leavitt used the cabinet meeting to make a broader point about presidential accessibility.

“President Trump is truly the most transparent and accessible president in American history,” Leavitt said. “And we are just following his example.”

She explained the delayed briefing: “This press briefing today is tardy because the president was hosting a more than two-hour-long cabinet meeting with his entire cabinet. Each secretary went around the room to talk about the promises they are delivering on.”

She posed the challenge: “Can you ever remember a cabinet meeting in which the media were welcomed into the room to ask questions of the entire federal government? No, you can’t, because it never happened.”

She drew the contrast: “Joe Biden was afraid to speak to the press because he was mentally incompetent and driving our country into the ground.”

The two-hour open cabinet meeting was indeed unprecedented. Previous administrations had treated cabinet meetings as closed-door affairs with brief photo opportunities. Trump had opened the entire session to media, allowing reporters to observe and question each cabinet secretary as they reported on their progress.

Key Takeaways

• HUD: “59% of illegal alien families use welfare — $42 billion a year.” Housing subsidies now restricted to American citizens via MOU with DHS.
• Rubio revealed Biden State Dept censorship dossiers on American citizens: “At least one person at this table had a dossier. We’re turning them over.”
• Lutnick on $8 trillion in investment: “He finally set an industrial policy. We need to reindustrialize. Everyone feels it — it’s coming back to America.”
• Leavitt: “Can you remember a cabinet meeting where media asked questions of the entire government? It never happened. Biden was afraid to speak to the press.”
• 9 million Americans in subsidized housing; under Biden, illegal aliens were prioritized over citizens for those resources.