What began as a routine, televised cabinet meeting has quickly turned into the latest flashpoint in the ongoing debate over Donald J. Trump’s leadership, as a series of rambling remarks — about his health, crime, inflation, nuclear power and even airline dress codes — exploded online and drew criticism from pop stars, religious leaders and political commentators.
   
The meeting, recorded on a recent Tuesday morning and amplified by the progressive Midas Touch Network, showed the former president moving rapidly from topic to topic, often with little apparent connection. At one point he boasted that he had received “all A’s” on a recent physical exam and claimed to have “aced” a cognitive test that he described as so difficult that “99%” of the reporters in the room would fail. “I’m a smart person, not a stupid person,” he said, recounting the episode for his assembled cabinet.
From there, Mr. Trump segued into foreign policy and his desire for international recognition. He asserted that he had “ended eight wars” and suggested he should receive a Nobel Peace Prize not only for any future agreement involving Russia and Ukraine, but retroactively for past conflicts as well. “I should get the Nobel Prize for every war,” he said, before adding, “but I don’t want to be greedy.”
The wide-ranging session also featured sweeping claims about domestic policy. At one point, Mr. Trump declared that there had been “no murders” in Washington, D.C., calling recent crime numbers a “miracle,” despite separate coverage of a National Guard–related incident in the capital. In another moment, he argued that the political language around affordability was itself a “Democrat scam,” insisting that “our prices now for energy, for gasoline are really low,” and that electricity costs were falling.
On inflation, he told his audience that “since last January, we’ve stopped inflation in its tracks,” and went on to warn that “deflation can be worse than inflation,” a remark that blended talking points sometimes heard from mainstream economists with his own characteristic flourish. He then pivoted to prescription drugs, claiming that his policies had slashed drug prices by “200%, 300%, 400%, 500%, 600%, 700%, 800%” — figures that critics online quickly mocked as mathematically impossible.
Throughout the meeting, the tone moved between celebratory and aggrieved. Mr. Trump returned repeatedly to questions about his health and stamina, telling reporters that he conducts “four news conferences a day” and fields questions from “very intelligent lunatics,” his term for the press. He compared himself favorably to President Biden, claiming that any day he skipped a news conference would be framed as a sign of illness. “I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong,” he said. “Right now, I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago.”
The broadcast also highlighted contributions from his advisers and allies. In one segment, Pete Hegseth, introduced by the host as the official overseeing military operations, spoke approvingly of strikes on so-called “narco boats” and vowed that operations against drug traffickers at sea had “only just begun.” Another cabinet member, identified as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, focused on airline civility, urging Americans to say “please and thank you” and, as he put it, “maybe not wear pajamas or slippers on the airplane.”
Elsewhere, Mr. Trump described a deal in which the United States, under his leadership, would be “entitled to 10%” of a major corporation, citing Intel as an example, and claimed that arrangements with Japan and South Korea would funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into American shipbuilding and nuclear power projects on a 50-50 profit-sharing basis.
Outside the cabinet room, the reaction was swift. Clips of the meeting — particularly those in which Mr. Trump dismissed “affordability” as a scam, boasted about bathroom renovations in the Lincoln Bedroom and praised his own cognitive performance — were clipped and shared across platforms. The Midas Touch host framed the session as a “disastrous cabinet meeting” and a “catastrophic morning,” language that his supporters embraced.
One of the day’s sharpest rebukes, however, came from outside politics. Sabrina Carpenter, a pop star whose music was used in a separate White House–linked video mocking migrants, denounced the clip as “evil and disgusting” and asked that her work not be used “to benefit your inhumane agenda.” The broadcast also cited criticism from religious leaders over Mr. Trump’s threats toward Venezuela and his rhetoric on migration, further widening the circle of condemnation.
As the footage circulated, the meeting became less a matter of policy and more a cultural moment — a viral window into the former president’s style, priorities and grievances. Supporters pointed to his confidence, his repeated insistence that the economy is improving and his promise to “take the gloves off” against drug cartels. Critics saw a leader preoccupied with personal validation, lavish décor and applause lines at a time of economic anxiety and geopolitical tension.
Whether the cabinet session ultimately shifts public opinion is unclear. But as the full clip continues to be shared, dissected and memed, it has already secured a place in the unfolding narrative of the Trump era — another instance in which a formal governing ritual transformed, in real time, into a televised spectacle and an online storm.
