Trump uses Cabinet meeting to boast about cognitive test results and hurl insults at ‘stupid’ Gavin Newsom – Live updates

During the Cabinet meeting, the president was asked by a reporter whether he would seize Iran’s oil.

“It’s an option,” Trump responded. “I mean, I wouldn’t talk about it, but it’s an option.”

During the meeting, President Trump failed to explain why he voted by mail in Florida’s special election this week despite calling the practice a form of cheating.

President Donald Trump claims the Iranian government has gifted him eight fully-laden oil tankers that were allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under a Pakistani flag this week as a good-faith gesture in talks to end the war he started nearly four weeks ago.

Speaking during a marathon cabinet meeting, Trump said Iran had offered the precious cargo as part of the ongoing indirect talks that are currently being facilitated by Islamabad after he was asked about his prior claim to have received a “present” from Tehran.

Andrew Feinberg reports…

President Trump said that California Governor Gavin Newsom, whom he derisively refers to as “Newscum,” took himself out of the running for president when he revealed his “mental disability.”

“He’s actually a very stupid person,” Trump said.

Newsom has said that he was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum claimed that a statue of President Trump may be erected in Venezuela.

“I literally think they’re going to put up a statue to President Trump,” he said, stating that Venezuelans view Trump as comparable to Simon Bolivar.

“That would be great,” Trump responded.

President Donald Trump spent roughly 15 minutes of a cabinet meeting on Thursday complaining about a historic preservation group’s efforts to block him from shutting down the Kennedy Center for a purported reservation and grousing about the Justice Department being unable to prosecute the chairman of the Federal Reserve on fabricated charges.

The president was in the middle of a long soliloquy about fixing up the Washington, DC-based arts center — which was built as a memorial to his assassinated predecessor — when he began to claim the controversial renovation would be “under budget, ahead of schedule” and unfavorably compared the project to the long-running rehab of the nearly century-old Federal Reserve headquarters.

Andrew Feinberg reports…

Trump said he believes the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery of global trade, could soon be reopened.

“I have a feeling it’s going to clean up pretty quickly,” the president said during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting.

He pointed out that the challenge with the strait lies in the fact that even one strike on a vessel could prove disastrous, considering the immense cost of each ship.

Trump said the “present” he received from Iran, which he previously alluded to, was allowing eight oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump heavily criticized the costly renovation of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., calling it wasteful.

The renovations are so bad, Trump said, that Kevin Warsh, his nominee for Federal Reserve chairman, may have to work in the White House.

“We’ll put him in the basement of the ballroom,” Trump joked.

“We are here to win, and we’re full speed ahead,” Hegseth said of the war in Iran. “The Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs.”

He added that the Iranian government is “privately admitting very heavy losses.”