US President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet for the last time this year on Tuesday. It was the ninth time he had done so since returning to power for a second term, and the scene was familiar. All its members listened to the exaggerated, and often false, review of what had been accomplished in the past 11 months, and laughed heartily at his jokes, before launching into praise for the leader (“the best Cabinet in history for the best president in history,” summarized Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce). This was also before the question-and-answer session with the press, against whom the Republican launched his customary attacks.

Uncertainty surrounding Trump's decision (if any) regarding a potential attack on Venezuela hung over the meeting. Toward the end of the meeting, which lasted more than two and a half hours, the president warned: “We'll start with ground attacks. It'll be much easier that way. We know where they are, what routes they take.” The objective, he added, is “to take out those sons of bitches,” referring to the drug traffickers in the South American country. “These people killed 200,000 Americans last year,” he declared, exaggerating the official overdose figures for 2024 in his country.

Besides the president, all eyes were on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom a journalistic investigation accused on Friday of ordering a second attack on a suspected drug-trafficking boat in international waters of the Caribbean on September 2nd, in what members of Congress from both parties consider to be tantamount to finishing off a wounded and defenseless combatant and, therefore, a war crime. “We have only just begun to attack drug-trafficking boats and send narco-terrorists to the bottom of the ocean for poisoning the American people,” said Hegseth, seated to the president's left, when it was his turn to speak.

The White House confirmed on Monday the second attack, which killed the two survivors of the first attack. The death toll thus rose to 11. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt attributed the order to Admiral Frank Bradley, head of Special Forces Command, in what was clearly a deflection of responsibility from the Pentagon chief. Hegseth later said on his Twitter account that he supported the decision and maintained his confidence in the general.

On Tuesday, he reiterated his support for his subordinate, explaining that while he did follow the attack live, at one point he got up"to go to the next meeting," so he was not present, he argued, when the second bombing occurred. Hegseth spoke of a gap of"more than an hour."

“The press doesn’t understand that these decisions are made in the fog of war,” he added, drawing on his military background. “Admiral Bradley made the right decision to sink the ship and eliminate the threat. We stand by that decision, and the American people are safer because narco-terrorists know that drugs can’t be transported by sea, or by land if necessary. We eliminated that threat, and we’re proud to have done so.”

The Secretary of Defense, a former Fox News host, boasted at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting about the success of his campaign of extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean. Drug trafficking by sea has decreased, he added,"by 91%," though he offered no evidence to support that claim."We've had to stop [the attacks], because we can't find any more vessels [cruising in the Caribbean] right now," he declared proudly.

The cost of living, that “democratic hoax”

Trump opened the meeting with a defense of his economy, which, according to polls, is the biggest weakness of his presidency a year after his election. This is largely due to his aggressive tariff policy, which the Republican also passionately defended on Tuesday. In recent weeks, the cost of living has become his biggest concern.

The US president dismissed these criticisms as “a Democratic hoax,” a party that garnered considerable electoral victories in early November by promising to improve voters' household finances. This statement was further evidence of Trump's confidence in the power of his words to deflect conflict: it is risky to assume that Americans, who feel the effects of the economy in their wallets, will buy into this “Democratic hoax” narrative.

Afterwards, Trump spoke at length about the reforms he has ordered at the White House; he claimed that Washington is now a safe city, thanks to the deployment of the National Guard, two of whose members were shot last week; he said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize; and he spent a good deal of time celebrating what he described as his excellent health, which he contrasted with that of his predecessor, Joe Biden, while doubts grow about the ability of the longest-serving president to maintain the frenetic pace of work of recent months.

“Is Trump in good health?” he asked himself, before giving way to his allies, during whose interventions he occasionally struggled to stay awake. “I sit here, I give four press conferences a day. I answer questions from very intelligent lunatics, like yourselves [referring to the press]. I give you the right answers that solve your little problems. There’s never a scandal. There’s never a problem.”

The meeting came hours after Trump broke his own, admittedly unbeatable, social media usage records on Monday night. He posted 93 messages on Truth, the platform he owns, between 11:00 p.m. (Washington time) and midnight. It was a succession of posts on a wide variety of topics, none of great importance, and many of them containing repetitive ideas.