Welcome to the News Hour. At the White House today, President Donald Trump convened the very first

cabinet meeting of his second administration. In an hour-plus Q&A with reporters, Mr. Trump did most of the

talking, and there was one figure there who didn't have a physical seat at the table, but whose influence was undeniable.

Lisa Desjardin starts our coverage.

At the table, some two dozen members of President Trump's cabinet meeting for the first time.

Okay, thank you very much. We appreciate you being here.

And on the side, a special government employee whose work impacts them all, billionaire Elon Musk.

So I'm going to ask if it's possible to have Elon get up first and talk about Doge. Musk was effusive about Trump.

President Trump has put together, I think, the best cabinet ever.

And pointed about government employees, defending email directing them to list their actions on the job. I think that email perhaps was best interpreted as a performance review,

but actually it was a pulse check review.

Do you have a pulse?

Do you have a pulse and two neurons?

So if you have a pulse and two neurons, you can reply to an email.

In a chaotic rollout, some agencies told workers not to respond. But even so, Trump gave this warning.

I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded, though, Elon, they are on the bubble.

You know, I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it. They haven't responded.

This as a new memo indicates the Trump administration is getting ready to greatly rev up layoffs.

It directs federal agencies to develop large-scale reductions in force by mid-March.

Trump turned to Lee Zeldin, who runs the Environmental Protection Agency and put the scope into perspective.

He thinks he's going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people from environmental.

And we're going to speed up the process, too, at the same time.

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