Meanwhile, Trump bragged that his administration is cracking down on “waste, fraud, theft, and abuse like nobody’s ever seen before,” preparing for the United States, Canada, and Mexico to host the World Cup, and improving Washington’s infrastructure.

Here are the top five takeaways from the roughly 98-minute meeting:

Trump throws up roadblocks to Iran deal

Nearly three months since the Iran war started, the administration is still working furiously to negotiate a peace deal with Tehran. But there are a few key details that Trump insists must be hammered out. 

Trump did not appear willing to allow Russia or China to take over Iran’s enriched uranium as part of any future peace deal to end the Iran war. “No, I wouldn’t be comfortable,” he told reporters when asked about the issue. “That would not make me comfortable.”

Iran has reportedly not agreed to give ​over its highly ​enriched uranium stockpile as part of a preliminary peace deal with the U.S. 

Trump also claimed he wanted to see Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and others join the Abraham Accords as part of a deal, but admitted it would not be a requirement.

“We’d like to have them join the Abraham Accords. It’ll be historic if they do it,” he said. “I think they owe that to us. To be honest, I think, because that really would be a tremendous sign.

“I’m not going to give you, you know, what’s contingent, what’s not,” added Trump. “I can say that we can make a good deal right now, but maybe not a great deal.” 

Trump praises outgoing DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard 

Toward the beginning of the Cabinet meeting, Trump offered several words of praise for Gabbard, who resigned from her role as director of national intelligence after her husband, Abraham Williams, was diagnosed with bone cancer.

“I want to express our tremendous gratitude to our outgoing director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who’s a terrific person, actually,” Trump said. “Tulsi has worked tirelessly to restore trust and focus on the intelligence, and with the intelligence community, they all respected her.” 

The president also praised Gabbard’s role in working with FBI Director Kash Patel, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Vice President JD Vance to crack down on terrorists. 

“She was able to expose a lot of things that we used at the FBI with Kash, with Todd, with JD, and everybody else was amazing,” Trump said. “She dramatically reformed the Office of Director of National Intelligence, cutting the staff by 40%, and she prevented countless terrorists and cartel members from entering the United States.”

Gabbard is the latest high-profile female Cabinet member to leave the administration, following former Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who were dismissed.

Gabbard did not speak during the meeting, unlike other Cabinet members, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Vance.

‘I love construction’

Just over a half-hour into the meeting, Trump interrupted the flow of Cabinet member updates to deliver one of his own regarding construction projects across Washington, D.C.

The president and the Interior Department have rushed into a series of beautification projects ahead of the America 250 celebrations this summer, including a complete renovation of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pond, which Trump described at length for around 10 minutes.

Trump claimed that the Lincoln Memorial project required removing 10 dumpsters of garbage from the reflecting pool and that he drew inspiration for the new reflecting pool from his experience building a new pool at his country club in Sterling, Virginia, some two decades prior.

“Over the years, I built hundreds of pools. I build them every time I build a building. I always like to build Olympic-sized swimming pools, and I was very aware of swimming pools — what goes into making a swimming pool. It’s not as simple as people think. You never want it to leak, you want a beautiful surface,” he explained. “It’s very exciting, actually, to me. I love construction.”

Trump also noted that he personally donated around $10 million to renovate Lafayette Park, just north of the White House, but surprisingly did not comment on his biggest D.C. project: the renovation of the East Wing and construction of a new White House ballroom.

ICE protesters are ‘all paid for’

Earlier this year, it looked like the president’s deportation agenda was going to be a major liability for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections.

Furthermore, two killings of American citizens by deportation officers in Minnesota led the president to shuffle Department of Homeland Security leadership and seek to carry out his agenda with a self-described “softer touch.” As the war in Iran stole headlines this spring, the immigration issue slowly slid to the background, but over the holiday weekend, anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters in New Jersey, including a number of Democratic politicians, reignited the conversation.

Trump was asked to comment on the scene during Wednesday’s meeting, where he once again claimed that the protesters are “all paid for” by some outside organizing group.

“You can see by the signs — the signs are all made by the same beautiful factory. It’s a printing plant. In fact, I’m thinking about using it, they do such a nice job. These aren’t protesters, these people are fake. They’re all paid for,” he told reporters. “We run the finest facilities anywhere in the world of their type, but we have some horrible killers. We have killers, we have guys that have murdered numerous people in there, and these are the people they’re trying to protect.”

5. A canceled field trip

Trump had planned on hosting Wednesday’s affair at Camp David, the historic presidential retreat in rural Maryland, before traveling to New York later this week.

The canceled trip, scuttled Tuesday by the White House due to inclement weather, would have been a rarity for the president. The only trip to the compound in his second term came last summer, and he instead frequently spends weekends away from Washington, D.C. at his private clubs in Florida or New Jersey.

The builder-in-chief hasn’t openly criticized Camp David itself but has previously hinted that he doesn’t personally enjoy the property in the same ways as his predecessors.

TRUMP SAYS VANCE’S ANTI-FRAUD EFFORTS WILL SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND LEAD TO ‘BALANCED BUDGET’

“Camp David is very rustic,” he said during an interview back in 2020. “It’s nice, you’d like it. You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.”

Still, the off-site venue would have given the president more freedom to discuss the Iran war and, potentially, the midterm elections. The press is not typically allowed access to the facility. Former President Joe Biden held a trilateral summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea in 2023, marking the first visit by reporters since former President Barack Obama hosted the G8 there in 2012.