Trump at First Cabinet Meeting: EU 'Was Formed in Order to Screw the United States'; Musk: 'I Actually Just Call Myself Humble Tech Support' (February 26, 2025)

At the first Cabinet meeting of his second term, President Donald Trump was asked what tariffs the European Union would face. “We have made a decision, and we’ll be announcing it very soon. And it will be 25 percent, generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things,” Trump said on Feb. 26, 2025, according to the transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1].

“The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it, but now I’m President,” he said [1].

The video above shows the Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26, 2025. Quotes are from the American Presidency Project [1][2].

”I Actually Just Call Myself Humble Tech Support”

Elon Musk, there as a White House senior adviser, explained the Department of Government Efficiency. “Well, I actually just call myself humble tech support here,” Musk said, as the room laughed. “As crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work that the DOGE team is doing is helping fix the Government computer systems.” [1]

“The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain, as a country, $2 trillion deficits,” Musk said [1].

“If this continues, the country will go—become de facto bankrupt. It’s not an optional thing. It is an essential thing. That’s the reason I’m here and taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way,” he said [1].

Musk said he was confident “that we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings. That would be roughly 15 percent of the $7 trillion budget.” [1]

“And we bring the receipts. So people say, like, ‘Well, is this real?’ Just go to DOGE.gov,” he said [1].

“So—and I should say, we—also, we will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly,” Musk said, pointing to an Ebola program cut by accident at USAID. “So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption.” [1]

“We wish to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well. But if they’re—if the job is not essential or they’re not doing the job well, they obviously should not be on the public payroll,” Musk said [1].

”Maybe They Don’t Exist”

Trump weighed in on the federal workers who had not answered the email asking what they did the week before. “I’d like to add that those million people that haven’t responded, though, Elon, they are on the bubble,” Trump said. “Now, maybe they don’t exist. Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist.” [1]

“We want to have a balanced budget within a reasonably short period of time, meaning maybe by next year or the year after, but maybe—maybe even sooner than that,” he said [1].

”Three Times as Much”

Trump also previewed a visit from Ukraine’s president. “President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. That’s now confirmed. And we’re going to be signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement,” he said, saying it would cover “rare earth and other things.” [1]

“And, as you know, we’re in for, probably, $350 billion and Europe is in for $1 billion—$100 billion. And that’s a big difference. So we’re in for, probably, three times as much,” Trump said [1].

”The Gold Card”

Asked about the “gold card” immigration program he had unveiled the day before, Trump said companies could use it to recruit top graduates. “These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt,” he said [1].

”We Are the Pot of Gold”

Asked what would happen if the Europeans retaliated, Trump said: “They can’t. I mean, they can try, but they can’t.” [1]

“They don’t accept our cars. They don’t accept, essentially, our farm products,” Trump said of the EU. “And we accept everything of them, and we have about a $300 billion deficit with the European Union.” [1]

When a reporter noted that China had imposed retaliatory tariffs, Trump said: “No, they can do it, and they can try, but the numbers can never equal what ours, because we can go off. We are the pot of gold.” [1]

By the Numbers

25 percent: the tariff Trump said the EU would face [1].
$300 billion: the U.S. trade deficit with the EU, per Trump [1].
$2 trillion: yearly deficits, per Musk [1].
$1 trillion: the savings Musk said DOGE could find [1].

What Happened Next

The EU made a deal. On July 27, 2025, in Scotland, Trump announced an agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “The European Union is going to agree to purchase from the United States 750 billion dollars’ worth of energy—750 billion dollars’ worth of energy. They are going to agree to invest into the United States $600 billion more than they’re investing already,” Trump said [2].

“We are agreeing that the tariff, straight across, for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15 percent,” he said [2].

For Karoline Leavitt on the press pool the day before, see HYGO News’ page on Feb. 25, 2025. For Trump with Canada’s prime minister on cars and steel, see the page on May 6, 2025.