President Donald Trump’s first official White House cabinet meeting began with a prayer after he delivered brief remarks about the cabinet’s performance and the mineral deal the United States has agreed to with Ukraine.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner led Trump and the entire cabinet in prayer, thanking God “for anointing us to do this job.”
“We pray that you will give the president, the vice president wisdom, Father God, as they lead. Father, I pray for all of our colleagues that are here around the table and in this room. Lord God, we pray that we would lead with a righteous clarity,” he said in part.
Trump commended Turner for doing a “very good job,” referring to his prayer.
Moments before Turner’s prayer, Trump spoke about the strength and success of his cabinet after one month.
“We’ve put together a great cabinet, and we’ve had tremendous success. We’ve been given a lot of credit for having a very successful first month, and we want to make that many months and years,” he said. “We’re going to solve a lot of problems.”
“We’re doing very well with Russia, Ukraine. President Zelensky is going to be coming on Friday; that’s now confirmed,” he added, speaking of the rare earth mineral deal Zelensky agreed to Wednesday. “And we’re going to be signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement.”
Trump commended his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for their work on the deal.
In recent weeks, Trump has used an array of cabinet members and diplomats to work to wind down the Russia-Ukraine war. Bessent met with Zelensky in Ukraine two weeks ago to discuss the mineral deal, while Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine General Keith Kellogg met with Zelensky days later at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov last week in Saudi Arabia.
