The Trump administration is currently drafting an executive order for Dear Leader Don to sign that would get the ball rolling on eliminating the Department of Education, CNN reported on Tuesday. The order would make good on his promise to nix a Cabinet agency and screw over millions of low-income and disabled students across the country.
Asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday why he would appoint a secretary of education if he was going to get rid of the department, Trump said: “I told Linda [McMahon], ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job.”
Co-President Elon Musk also confirmed that the department is on the chopping block, writing in a post on his disinformation site X: “Reagan campaigned on ending the federal Dept of Education, which was created by Carter in 1979, but it was bigger when Reagan left office than when he started! Not this time. President @realDonaldTrump will succeed.”
Of course, Trump cannot get rid of the Department of Education with a flick of a pen. The agency was created by an act of Congress and signed into law by the late President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
Because of that, CNN reported that Trump’s executive order would slowly diminish the federal agency. Trump would then ask Congress to pass a law fully dissolving it.
Trump has already targeted the department, placing dozens of Education Department employees on administrative leave because they allegedly worked on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Trump signed an executive order ending all DEI programs and initiatives within the federal government, and is now purging federal employees whose jobs either focused on DEI or who participated in any DEI workshops.
Ultimately, getting rid of the Department of Education would have devastating consequences for kids across the country.
For example, the Department of Education distributes Title I funding, which helps schools with high concentrations of low-income students. Many of those students live in red states, meaning nixing the department would hurt his own voters.
It also handles the IDEA program, which gives schools money to help address the needs of disabled students. What’s more, the DOE investigates civil rights complaints, the majority of which are filed by students with disabilities.
And the DOE handles federal student loans and Pell Grants, which help low-income Americans pay for college.
Trump campaigned on axing the Department of Education, so the fact that he is making good on this issue is not a surprise.
“We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing," Trump said at a rally in September.
And while Trump legally can't get rid of the DOE by executive fiat, it's possible he will try.
He already tried to shutter the United States Agency for International Development without congressional approval, and halted payments on all federal funding that was already approved by Congress, likely in violation of the law.
Congressional Republicans are either cheering the lawless behavior on, or shrugging their shoulders.
"To my friends who are upset, I would say with respect, call somebody who cares. You better get used to this. It’s USAID today, it’s going to be the Department of Education tomorrow," Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana) said on Fox News.
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