The billionaire adviser to the president spoke at the beginning of the meeting with the heads of agencies such as the state department and Pentagon.

Before the weekend, the White House felt confident that coordination had been improving between senior staffers and Musk, two of those people said. In the first weeks of Trump’s new administration, some White House officials had expressed concerns over the tactics of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency,

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday ordered federal agencies to undertake more large-scale layoffs of workers, while the president let downsizing czar Elon Musk take a star role at his first cabinet meeting and discuss his ambitious budget-cutting targets.

President Trump was positive on relations with China, while he told his cabinet the EU had been formed to "screw" the United States.

Ireland will take a "step-by-step" approach in response to any trade tariffs imposed on the EU by US President Donald Trump, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.