US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Feb 26) confirmed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the White House on Friday this week.

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"We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine. President Zelensky is going to be coming on Friday. It’s now confirmed, and we’re going to be signing an agreement,” Trump said. 

Without giving much details, Trump, while addressing his first official Cabinet meeting, said that "it will be a very big agreement", referring to the minerals deal. 

Zelensky said on Wednesday (Feb 26) that he hoped to visit Washington on Friday to meet President Donald Trump and discuss striking a minerals deal with the United States.

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Also read: 'It can be a big success': Zelensky hopes to meet Trump in US this Friday

1. 'Will get our money back'

The US president added that the deal would allow the US to "get our money back". "And we're going to get a lot of money in the future, and I think that's appropriate because we have taxpayers that shouldn't be footing the bill," he says. "It's all been worked out."

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A peace deal could follow afterward, Trump added. 

US President Donald Trump is holding his first official Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, with his closest ally and billionaire Elon Musk present during the meeting. 

Musk arrived at the White House in all-black attire and his signature black "Make America Great Again" cap. 

Trump said that one of the things he was elected to do was balance the budgets and "getting our budget back into shape".

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2. 'Musk getting a lot of praise'

He then asked Musk to speak first at the meeting, saying, "Musk is sacrificing a lot... and getting a lot of praise, but he's also getting hit."

Musk stood up and said that the overall goal of the DOGE team is to "help address the enormous deficit". "We simply cannot sustain it," he says, "if this continues the country will become de facto bankrupt."

3. 'Best cabinet ever'

The billionaire then praised Trump's cabinet, saying, "It is the best cabinet ever, literally."

Earlier in the day, Trump said that "all cabinet members are extremely happy" with Elon Musk's work.

Trump interrupted Musk in the middle and asked the cabinet, "Is anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we will throw you out of here." He said as he joked and laughed. 

Trump reiterated his belief that the cabinet is behind the tech billionaire and invited Musk to answer.

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4. 'Gold card plan will sell like crazy'

Trump predicted that his "gold card" plan to replace the EB5 visa programme is going to "sell like crazy" as his administration takes steps towards monetising the US immigration system. 

“I want to be able to have that person stay in the country. These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We’re going to, we’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that,” Trump said.

5. Tariffs on EU

The US president said that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon. 

“It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”

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6. 'Will not be making security guarantees to Ukraine'

The US president said that he will not be making “security guarantees to Ukraine beyond very much,” suggesting European nations take that responsibility because of geographical proximity.

“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in, you know — we’re talking about, Europe is their next-door neighbour, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well. And as you know, we’ll be making a— we’ll be really partnering with Ukraine, in terms of rare earth. We very much need rare earth. They have great rare earth,” Trump said. 

He added that his Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright would be “working on that together.”

7. 'I never comment on that', Trump on China

While highlighting on China-Taiwan row, Trump declined to say if his administration would move to prevent China from taking Taiwan by force. 

"I never comment on that — I don’t comment on anything, because I don’t want to ever put myself in that position," he said. 

“And if I said it, I certainly wouldn’t be saying it to you. I’d be saying it to other people, maybe people around this table, very specific people around this table,” Trump added.

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8. 'Not going to touch' entitlement programmes

Trump promised that his administration will not make cuts to entitlement programmes like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—a promise that comes after House Republicans passed a budget blueprint that includes plans to slash $880 billion over a decade from federal health and energy programmes.

“We’re not going to touch it,” Trump said when pressed on whether he could guarantee Medicare, Medicare, and Social Security would not be touched.

He suggested, however, that the cuts could come from rooting out fraud.

9. Putin a 'cunning and smart guy'

Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "cunning" and "very smart guy", adding that he thinks "we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.

Trump also said that he has “great respect” for the fighters in Ukraine, and called them “great fighters”.

“But without our equipment, that war would have been over, like people said, in a very short period of time,” he added.

He further said that NATO was "probably the reason" the war started in the first place.

10. 'EU was formed to screw the US'

The US president described the EU, whose creation was encouraged for decades by Washington, as rooted in an attempt to counter the United States.

"Look, let's be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States," Trump said at a cabinet meeting.

(With inputs from agencies)