President Trump today

Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how the meeting unfolded.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions takes part in a Cabinet meeting

President Donald Trump urged his Attorney General Jeff Sessions to sue certain pharmaceutical companies that have contributed to the opioid crisis in the United States.

How Sessions responded: The Justice Department has joined state lawsuits against opioid companies that officials believe have helped fuel a national opioid crisis, Sessions said, but Trump said he would like the Justice Department to pursue a separate federal lawsuit against certain drug companies. (Trump did not specify which companies he would like the Justice Department to sue.)

Sessions said the Justice Department is “looking at various different legal avenues to go after abusive companies.”

“You’ve made clear you want us to sue and use legal process against drug companies that are abusing the law for some time now. We have joined with the states and we are looking at various different legal avenues to go after abusive companies,” Sessions said.

Sessions also noted that the Justice Department has indicted 170 physicians who have unlawfully prescribed opioids.

What Trump said about Sessions earlier: The back-and-forth between Trump and Sessions came just two days after Trump unleashed his latest public criticism of his attorney general, tweeting that “if we had a real Attorney General,” the special counsel’s investigation “would never have been started.”

At the start of his cabinet meeting today, President Trump offered his “warmest best wishes and sympathies” to the family of Aretha Franklin.

He described her as a person he knew well and who worked for him. Trump also said her “legacy will thrive and inspire” many generations.  

Franklin has performed at several Trump properties, including Trump Castle and Trump Taj Mahal.

Here’s Trump’s full remarks:

Reporters will likely have a chance to ask President Trump questions today after he speaks at his 11:30 a.m. ET cabinet meeting.

Here are some of the questions that could come up:

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had revoked former CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance, marking an unprecedented use of a president’s authority over the classification system to strike back at one of his prominent critics.

Brennan is the first former national security official to see his security clearance revoked since the White House announced last month that Trump was considering taking that action against several of his most vocal critics in the national security world.

The White House provided no evidence that Brennan has misused his security clearance since leaving government.

Why this matters: The decision came as the White House was looking to turn the page on a news cycle that for several days has been dominated by startling allegations leveled against Trump by Omarosa Manigault-Newman, a former senior White House official and longtime Trump adviser.

Trump is also considering revoking the security clearances of several others: