Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Reuters

It stands out to me that - not for the first time - Elon Musk is in the room.

He is, after all, not a cabinet member. Nor is he the head of the Department or Government Efficiency - he's a "special government employee" who says that he will soon be stepping back from his work to re-focus on his business.

Soon, Musk will only be contributing a day or two to Doge work.

His presence in the room highlights Trump's fond view of him, even if some other members of the cabinet have reportedly had a more tense relationship with the tech billionaire.

I asked Trump about him just last week when I was in the Oval Office with other White House reporters.

“He’s been a brilliant guy, and he was a tremendous help, both in the campaign and in what he’s done with Doge,” Trump said at the time.

Trump added that he told Musk that he would “like to keep him for a long time, but whenever you’re ready".

What is unclear is whether he will continue attending cabinet meetings once he steps back on his Doge duties.

Image source, Getty Images

And now, President Trump asks his Cabinet members to weigh in on his administration's first 100 days.

The first Cabinet member to speak is Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump just introduced him as the "least controversial" Cabinet member, earning him a few chuckles in the room.

Hegseth begins by speaking about various military initiatives, and says they have seen a "recruiting renaissance" since Trump became president again.

The secretary has been under criticism recently after it was reported that a journalist was added to a Signal group chat where Hegseth shared information about air strikes in Yemen.

Then later on, reports emerged about a separate chat, in which military attack details were shared in a group that included Hegseth's wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

It seems we will be hearing from each Cabinet member that is sat around a very long, very big table.

Image source, Reuters

As Trump justifies imposing tariffs, he says "China is doing very poorly right now" and adds that he doesn't want that to happen.

He says they are "getting absolutely hammered in China" and that ships are turning away from while in the Pacific Ocean.

"At a certain point, I hope we are going to make a deal with China, we are talking", he said.

Image source, Reuters

Trump is sitting next to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is currently under fire following reports that military attack details were shared in a group chat that included Hegseth's wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

On the table are multiple red and black baseball caps which say Gulf of America.

On his other side is Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Image source, Getty Images

Trump continues by talking about the biggest news of the day - an economics report showing that GDP in the US has shrunk this quarter.

The president blames the poor GDP results on his predecessor Joe Biden.

"It's not Trump, because we came in on January, just quarterly numbers, and we came in, and I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy and so many ways, not only on the border," Trump says.

He continues by saying that the US has received over $8tn in investments from chip companies, car companies and others. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced yesterday that the US had recieved $5tn.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

The fact that Donald Trump began his remarks at the cabinet meeting with the border and immigration is no surprise - the issue is one that the administration clearly sees as a winner.

It's also an issue on which Trump can - with evidence behind him - claim results. Detention and deportation figures released by Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are evidence that administration officials are extremely quick to point to.

Notably, the week's worth of events to mark Trump's 100 days also began with a news briefing by border czar Tom Homan.

Poll numbers also show that a majority of Americans are broadly supportive of his handling of immigration and the border.

Image source, Reuters

President Donald Trump opens the delayed Cabinet meeting.

He begins by discussing illegal border crossings, and says they are down "99.999%", continuing to list achievements of his administration such as the removal of immigrants from the country.

He says this is "amazing" and thanks staff for doing an "amazing job".

Trump also says they are having some "judge problems", in reference to the several legal cases being launched against his administration.

President Trump's Cabinet meeting has just started. You can click watch live at the top of this page to follow along.

We will also bring you text updates and analysis throughout.

Stay tuned.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/BBC News

I just emerged from my post in the basement of the White House to find that today's White House press "pool" - the small group of reporters that will be in the cabinet meeting - is still waiting to go inside.

They were standing in the briefing room, which connects to the West Wing and is just a few minutes' walk from the cabinet room.

We're now about 25 minutes behind schedule - likely because the meeting began behind closed-doors.

There's been no indication of when we might get started. Just before the meeting was due to begin at 11:00 ET (1500 GMT), I did see two cabinet members - Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins - enter the West Wing.

Stay with us for more updates.

Now let's step back and explain what Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is.

"GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services—that is, those that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a given period of time," according to the International Monetary Fund.

It is not the only indicator of an economy's health but it is a good signal.

GDP does not measure unpaid work like childcare by parents, income inequality, and the economy's impact on the environment.

As we wait for President Trump's cabinet meeting where the US economy will definitely be a topic of discussion, here's the what, how, and why of the issue:

Trump has said negative economic numbers are not related to tariffs. But experts say the shrinking of the US economy in the first three months of the year is largely driven by tariffs on US neighbours (Canada and Mexico) and China, and the threat - at the time - of more in the form of so-called "reciprocal tariffs".

As a reminder, tariffs are taxes on goods from other countries. US companies bringing the goods into the country pay the amount, typically a percentage of the goods' value, to the government.

Here's where they stand right now

• There is a 10% tariff on goods from most nations. This is even after Trump issued a 90-day pause on high tariffs for many countries including the Vietnam, Bangladesh and the European Union bloc
• But Chinese imports to the US are facing tariffs of 145%
• China has retaliated by imposing a 125% levy on US imports

Why is Trump doing this?

Trump says tariffs will encourage US consumers to buy more American-made goods, increase the amount of taxes raised, and lead to huge levels of investment in the country. He argues that America has been taken advantage of by "cheaters" and "pillaged" by foreigners.

The IMF believes a US recession in 2025 has become more likely because of the tariffs.

You can read more about it in our tariff explainer.

Donald Trump is about to host a Cabinet meeting from the White House.

The Cabinet consists of the heads of the key executive departments, such as Homeland Security and Housing.

Billionaire Elon Musk will also reportedly be there today. Musk has been running the Department of Government Efficiency. He's often been seen alongside the president.

We'll bring you the key lines here, and you can watch by clicking the watch live button at the top of this page.

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Economists on Wall Street are parsing through the GDP data – and their reactions are showing just how hard it is to get a grip on what’s happening.

On the one hand, the US economy was already slowing – and the report suggested a further, significant loss of momentum.

But the data was distorted by a surge in trade, as firms pulled forward purchases.

Solid consumer spending data might be coloured by a similar phenomenon.

Business investment grew unexpectedly, while final sales to private domestic purchases – a closely watched indicator of demand - grew 3%, little changed from the previous quarter.

Conclusions are divided.

"At this point, it’s difficult to imagine how a recession could be prevented, aside from substantial further backpedalling on tariff policy," says Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK.

But Wells Fargo economists say the data is too noisy to indicate a downturn is here.

"The US economy is at a greater risk of recession today than it was even a month ago, but this contraction in GDP is not the start of one," they said.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Good morning from the White House, where there is so far no sign of any impending mineral deal between the US and Ukraine – although that could change quickly.

So far, US officials from both the White House and Treasury have not answered my repeated inquiries about the deal.

And just moments ago, one of President Trump’s chief trade advisors, Peter Navarro, gave no indication that the deal would be signed soon.

His focus, and that of the media, was largely on GDP figures which show that the US economy shrank in the first quarter of the year.

Trump’s cabinet meeting will take place soon, and the press "pool" – the small number of reporters who will be in the room – are likely to ask about that.

Any announcement of the deal would be seen as a considerable victory for the administration, which just this week celebrated its 100th day in office.

Image source, Getty Images

As economists grapple with the latest GDP figures, a senior Ukrainian official has told the BBC that Ukraine is "ready to sign" a minerals agreement with the US "today" - a significant development that could impact the US economy.

The US and Ukraine have been negotiating for several months over the deal which would involve an economic partnership between the two countries to develop Ukraine's natural resources.

Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world's "critical raw materials" are in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, is on the way to Washington to sign the deal.

You can read the latest developments on this story in our separate live page.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/BBC News

Just a few moments ago, we heard from Donald Trump's trade advisor Pete Navarro - who walked up to a group of journalists with the words "what's up, team?" after doing a live TV hit.

In brief remarks before he entered the West Wing, Navarro said that, in the administration's views, data showing that the US economy shrank in the first quarter "should be positive news" that has been skewed by an uptick in imports.

"What happened with the numbers today is that we had a fairly extraordinary surge of imports, driven by the rest of the world trying to get their products in here before the tariffs," he says.

"Next time, that won't be the case at all, and it will reverse," he says.

Additionally, Navarro pointed to a 22% increase in domestic investment - which he described as "literally off the charts" as a positive sign.

Asked about Trump's earlier Truth Social post asking people to patient, Navarro says that Trump "inherited a tremendously bad set of economic policies" from the Biden administration.

"The fruit of the that poison by the tree is a series of spending bills that had drawn debt over a fiscal cliff."

Navarro was also asked about potential trade deals with China and India, but declined to give specifics.

"Deals are coming," he said as he walked away. "Just be patient."

Ken Kim, a senior economist at accounting firm KPMG, says today's GDP report indicates "pre-emptive behaviour by both consumers and businesses, acting before the tariffs were announced in early April".

Speaking to the the BBC's Business Today programme, Kim says that with the exception of the Covid-19 pandemic, the surge in US imports was "the highest since the early 1970s".

"The reason for that was businesses wanted to bring the goods in ahead of time before the tariffs hit prices," he says.

Kim says the expectation is that the US will be hit by price shocks because of the tariffs, and inflation "is likely to go higher over the coming months".

He adds that the Fed is not expected to cut interest rates until the fourth quarter of this year.

"Going forward, we think the inflationary shock that will hit both consumers and businesses will dampen consumer spending as well as curtail capital spending by businesses," Kim says, adding that this will "weaken growth for the remainder of this year".

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been reporting, the US economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, according to the latest figures released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

This was driven by a drop in government spending and a surge in imports - which count against growth - as firms raced to get good into the country ahead of tariffs.

Today's report is the most comprehensive reading of how the world's largest economy is holding up following the introduction of import taxes by President Donald Trump, which have scrambled global trade and created major uncertainty.

But analysts say it will take more time to understand the impact of those changes and the surge in imports is expected to be reversed in the months ahead.

The data shows business investment increased unexpectedly, while consumer spending - the primary driver of the US economy - also expanded, though at a slower pace than in 2024.

"Overall, not as bad as feared," said Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics.

• Read more from the BBC's business reporter, Natalie Sherman

New York congressman Ritchie Torres has taken to social media to criticise the White House over the latest news that America's gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped this quarter.

"It’s official: Donald Trump has finally liberated the American economy—from growth. GDP shrank by 0.3%," he said on X.

"Making Recessions Great Again."

Image source, Getty Images

The bell has sounded and trading on Wall Street has just opened for the day.

All three main indexes have opened down:

• S&P 500 -1.55%
• Dow Jones -1.17%
• Nasdaq -2.15%