by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 31, 2026) — At approximately 11:30 a.m. EDT, President Donald Trump opened a cabinet meeting from the presidential retreat in Maryland known as Camp David, the first of its kind from that location.
He immediately spoke of world events but quickly turned to domestic issues such as border security, the economy, the stock market’s “record highs” and an increase in American manufacturing.
“The tariffs have made our country rich and successful,” he said, referring to the levies he placed on foreign countries which were found improper by the U.S. Supreme Court in April.
He touted “Trump accounts” which open investment bank accounts for eligible American children to accumulate funds which can be accessed once the children turn 18.
“The whole world’s talking about it,” Trump said.
“Record discounts” on prescription drugs are being realized through arrangements with pharmaceutical companies, he said, prior to paying “the highest (prices) in the world.”
He said his predecessor, Joe Biden, “wasn’t able to do anything about it” after Trump initiated the measure during his first term since the assent of the drug companies had to be secured.
Foreign countries paid only a fraction of that which Americans paid prior to the agreement he reached with the companies, he said.
He spoke with leaders of overseas countries, he said, to advise that the drug-makers would lower U.S. prices to those which those countries at that time were paying. “We can’t do that,” he said was the essence of many responses, to which he said, “Then there’s something we can’t do for you…”
“We pay the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world from the highest,” he said at 11:42. “What that does for healthcare is incredible, Bobby,” he said, directing himself to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Expanding on U.S. border security, he recounted the widely-televised influx of “tens of thousands” of individuals from North Africa and other locations into Spain, which had just declared “amnesty” to those already in Spain illegally.
The U.S. will encounter the same situation, he said, if Democrats win future national elections.
He said an “unprecedented investment” is being made in the U.S. military. “We’re building it up fast, and we just have a great military; that’s all there is to it,” he concluded that topic.
Iran is “doing very, very poorly,” he said. The rogue nation has some military capacity remaining, he said, but “very little” after U.S. and Israeli strikes on critical Iranian installations, which began on February 28.
“Tens of millions of barrels of oil” are being extracted from Venezuela, he said, since the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, who remains in a New York jail awaiting trial on dated charges of
“We’ve done an amazing job with Venezuela,” he said.
At 11:49 a.m., he turned over the meeting to Vice President JD Vance, who said the administration’s work has been memorable, then emphasizing his leadership of the new “Fraud Task Force” to identify deceptive garnering of U.S. tax dollars all over the country.
The amount to date found to have been obtained fraudulently is $230 billion, Vance said.
Trump rejoined that the “level of fraud under Biden” was very significant.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was next to provide an update on his engagement throughout the world. He began by asserting that the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which the U.S. is not a member, is “an illegitimate organization.”
“Far-left terrorism and violence” are a focus, he said, encompassing “60 other countries.”
He lauded the agreement Trump announced last night on a Hamas disarmament plan which, if it holds, would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
The U.S. responded to the earthquake in Venezuela “within an hour,” Rubio said, at Trump’s direction when Rubio was elsewhere overseas.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth then spoke. “It’s great Americans here all around the country and all around the world” who “keep us safe,” he said, thanking Trump for the “investment” in the military. “You had the courage…” Hegseth said, to “take on cartels” and other menaces to U.S. national security.
The “spirit of our department” has yielded “historic” changes, Hegseth said. The “warrior ethos” contributes to the “spirit” he said Trump has infused into the military.
Eliminating social experiments in the military has contributed to the rebuilding of the Armed Forces, Hegseth said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then spoke, referencing America’s 250th birthday and the difference in approaches between the Trump and Biden administrations. “We have the highest consumer confidence in five months,” he said.
The Trump accounts, he said, are creating an “ownership society,” and approximately seven million families have enrolled their children.