President Donald Trump hosted governors from around the country for dinner in the East Room on Saturday night, where he touted economic, border, and crime progress, as well as military strength.
Cabinet members, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin–to name a few–were sprinkled among the governors’ tables.
The president greeted Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) upon making his entrance with first lady Melania Trump, right after Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance’s introduction. Govs. Jeff Landry (R-LA) and Sarah Huckabee Sanders also sat with the president.
Trump touted many of his administration’s achievements shortly after taking the podium:
Over the past year, we’ve already achieved a historic turnaround for our country with unprecedented speed. We solved intractable problems. We really have done something. It’s been an incredible first year for all of us. We’ve transformed stagnation into growth, weakness into strength, and chaos into order, liberty, and justice… Today, our border is secure. Murders are at a 125-year low… Core inflation is the lowest in five years and going down. Prices are going down really rapidly. We inherited a mess, and we brought them down a lot, and we’re going to go still further. And our military is more powerful than ever before.
The president invited Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to say grace at the end of his remarks.
Hegseth prayed for the president, the vice president, the first and second ladies, cabinet members, governors, civil magistrates, and servicemembers.
The president said “some very special reporters” were on hand, and invited them to return later in the evening to watch violinist Rusanda Panfili perform for the governors.
Breitbart News and other members of the press pool returned to watch the dazzling performance.