President Trump held what he called “part of a Cabinet meeting” Saturday afternoon at his golf club in suburban Virginia for a discussion on the military, border security, health care and the economy.
At the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, Mr. Trump hosted Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, along with White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. The wives of Mr. Shulkin and Mr. Ross also attended, as did Mr. Mnuchin’s fiancee.
On the day after the Labor Department reported that employers added 235,000 jobs in February, Mr. Trump said “the economy is doing very, very well.”
“We really had a mess and it’s getting straightened out,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re also talking about health care, which is coming along.”
The president was referring to the House Republican leaders’ effort to repeal and replace Obamacare with a bill backed by the White House.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Mr. Trump held the surprise partial-Cabinet meeting because he “wanted to take some key members of his team out and have a working lunch to talk about the economy [and] some of the issues we’re dealing with with homeland security.”
“Obviously General Kelly is updating him on some of the steps he’s taking with respect to the executive order on immigration,” Mr. Spicer said. “They’re talking about health care and the repeal and replace effort, and continuing strategy to work with Congress to see that forward.”
The administration’s revised executive order on immigration will take effect on Thursday. It temporarily suspends the U.S. refugee program and halts migrants from six predominantly Muslim countries—Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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