A draft version of a new executive order indicates Donald Trump is set to abolish the US Department of Education, which has roots dating back to 1867.
The department as we know it today was officially created by the government in 1979, but President Andrew Johnson actually signed legislation creating the first Department of Education all the way back in 1867, according to the department’s website.
The original job of the department was to collect information and statistics about the nation’s schools, but it was demoted to an Office of Education the following year.
In 1979, Congress declared the new department would focus on ensuing equal educational opportunity, encourage involvement of the public in Federal education programs, and promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education, among other tasks.
Donald Trump is expected to sign the order as soon as March 6 (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
More than 40 years on, President Trump is expected to issue an executive order abolishing the department as soon as today (March 6).
The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which viewed a draft version of the order and spoke with people briefed on the matter.
Per the outlet, the order directs the new Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, to ‘take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department’ based on ‘the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law’.
The draft version of the order was labeled as ‘pre-decisional’, indicating it was subject to change.
However, at the time it was viewed, it read: “The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars—and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support—has failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”
McMahon was confirmed to serve as Trump’s secretary of the Department of Education on Monday (March 3), and that evening she sent an email to staff sharing plans to ‘send education back to the states’.
Linda McMahon is Trump’s pick for the Department of Education ( SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Per The Journal, McMahon added that Trump and his supporters had ‘tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of the bureaucratic bloat here at the Education Department—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly’.
In order for the executive order to go ahead, it would require a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Currently, the department is responsible for delivering federal funding to nearly every public K-12 school in the US, as well as managing $1.6 trillion in its federal student loan portfolio.
The draft order doesn’t mention Congress’ involvement in carrying out the order, but McMahon has previously acknowledged that she would need the support of Congress to take action against the department.
During her confirmation hearing, she said: “We’d like to do this right. That certainly does require congressional action.”
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order seeking to cut ‘all taxpayer-funded benefits’ for undocumented migrants.
Yesterday (February 19), Trump signed another executive order – titled ‘Ending taxpayer subsidization of open borders’ – aimed at targeting ‘benefits for illegal aliens’.
It states: “The plain text of Federal law, including the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) (PRWORA), generally prohibits illegal aliens from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits.
“Title IV of the PRWORA states that it is national policy that ‘aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs,’ and that ‘[i]t is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’ But in the decades since the passage of the PRWORA, numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress through that law.”
The order claims former US President Joe Biden’s Administration ‘repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources’.
Trump’s Administration subsequently pledges to ‘uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans’.
Donald Trump has signed off on further restrictions against ‘aliens’ (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
What it means
Under ‘current welfare laws’, undocumented migrants are ‘generally barred from welfare programs’. If ‘they’re granted parole, they are classified as “qualified aliens” and become eligible for various welfare programs on a sliding scale, with full eligibility granted within five years’.
Trump’s executive order seeks to ‘identify all federally funded programs administered by the agency that currently permit illegal aliens to obtain any cash or non-cash public benefit, and, consistent with applicable law, take all appropriate actions to align such programs with the purposes of this order and the requirements of applicable Federal law, including the PRWORA’.
The order argues for federal payments not to ‘facilitate the subsidization or promotion of illegal immigration’ or ‘abet so-called “sanctuary” policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation’.
Trump signed the order on February 19 (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
How it will be enacted
It states within 30 days of the order being signed, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Administrator of the United States DOGE Service will work alongside the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy to ‘identify all other sources of Federal funding for illegal aliens’.
The White House’s ‘fact sheet’ for Trump’s decision to end ‘taxpayer subsidization of open borders’ states authorities should then take ‘corrective action’ to ensure ‘Federal funds to states and localities will not be used to support ‘sanctuary’ policies or assist illegal immigration’.
It resolves: “It mandates improvements in eligibility verification to prevent benefits from going to individuals unlawfully present in the United States.
“President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans.”
Donald Trump has issued a freeze on all government credit cards as one of his latest shows of power since returning to the White House.
The POTUS signed the new executive order on Wednesday (February 26), after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claimed that credit cards issued to members of the government have been responsible for $40 billion in spending last year.
In part, the order reads: “To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order.”
Donald Trump signed the executive order to freeze credit cards for 30 days (LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
There are approximately 4.6 million credit cards being used within the government, and the freeze applies to all cards ‘except for any credit cards held by employees engaged in, or charges related to employees utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head’.
Other exceptions include cards ‘subject to such additional individualized or categorical exceptions as the Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, deems appropriate’.
The 30-day freeze comes a week after DOGE announced on Twitter that it was ‘working with’ the agencies which have government credit cards to ‘simplify the program and reduce admin costs’.
“We will report back in 1 week,” the department added at the time.
Now, the executive order has stated that DOGE is planning to build a ‘centralized technological system within the agency’ which will keep a record of ‘every payment issued by the agency pursuant to each of the agency’s covered contracts and grants’.
DOGE shared news of its findings on Twitter (X/@DOGE)
The system will also ask workers to explain their payments with a ‘brief, written justification’ submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment.
By signing the executive order, Trump has given DOGE more power over a ‘cost efficiency initiative’ and claims to have commenced ‘a transformation in Federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure Government spending is transparent and Government employees are accountable to the American public’.
While the order aims to ‘transform’ federal spending, one federal government employee raised concerns about the impact of the freeze in a comment to Newsweek, suggesting it could be considered ‘worse’ than an entire government shutdown.
They said: “It honestly might be described as basically-a-government-shutdown but worse because of the uncertainty. Are [federal] employees still supposed to travel? Are they just supposed to use their personal cards and hope they get paid back?”
The General Services Administration has reported that government credit cards are issued to employees in more than 250 federal agencies and Native American tribal governments, and are used to ‘make purchases on behalf of the federal government in support of their agency’s mission’.
A federal judge has blocked efforts to move transgender women in prisons to male-only facilities after Donald Trump signed his executive order stating the US would only recognize two sexes; male and female.
Trump signed the order on his first day back in the White House on January 20, claiming in the document that it was intended to ‘defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male’.
The order, which claimed it would ‘defend women from gender ideology extremism’, has resulted in a number of lawsuits from transgender people claiming their rights are being impacted, including a suit from 12 transgender women housed at Bureau of Prisons facilities.
Donald Trump’s order would see transgender women moved to male facilities (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
The inmates filed a joint lawsuit on January 30 amid concerns they would lose access to medical treatments for gender dysphoria and potentially face serious harm if they were forced to be placed in prisons that didn’t recognize their gender identities as a result of the executive order.
Some of the concerns stem from one point made in Trump’s order which states that the Bureau of Prisons should revise its policies on medical care so no federal money is spent ‘for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex’.
In the filing, the inmates claimed they were likely to be at ‘extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence and sexual assault’ if put into male facilities, noting also that they would be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers.
After considering the case, US District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a temporary order on February 18 to prevent the inmates from being transferred. On Monday (February 24), he extended the order with a preliminary injunction, ruling the inmates were likely to win their case on constitutional grounds.
The judge’s ruling has hindered Trump’s ruling (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Explaining his decision, Lamberth cited ‘numerous government reports and regulations recognizing that transgender persons are at a significantly elevated risk of physical and sexual violence relative to other inmates when housed in a facility corresponding to their biological sex’.
Even if inmates weren’t subject to physical or sexual violence, Lamberth ruled that housing the transgender women in male prisons would contribute to their gender dysphoria because ‘the mere homogeneous presence of men will cause uncomfortable dissonance’.
Hitting back, government lawyers argued that the judge had nothing to rule on because prisons haven’t adopted a new policy yet for transgender inmates.
According to USA Today, Rick Stover, senior deputy assistant director of the bureau’s designation and sentence computation center, reported that as of February 20 the Bureau of Prisons had 2,198 transgender inmates in prisons and halfway houses, including 1,488 people assigned as male at birth who now identify as female, and 710 people assigned as female at birth who now identify as male.
Here’s everything Donald Trump is expected to cover in his first address to congress today.
President Trump returned to the White House 43 days ago and to say it’s been eventful and chaotic is certainly an understatement.
The Republican president has signed off on many orders – which have included halting the ban of TikTok, and declaring that there are ‘only two genders’ among others.
And across the pond, Trump has paused US military aid being sent to Ukraine after a heated meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week where the 47th POTUS said the Ukrainian leader is ‘gambling with World War 3’.
So, with his first address to Congress coming this evening, Trump will certainly have a lot to talk about.
President Donald Trump will address Congress this evening (Carl Court – Pool/Getty Images)
What will President Trump talk about in his address to Congress?
CNN reports the president’s speech to Congress tonight ‘will be an explanation of the fast-paced start to his second term’, with Trump’s address set to provide an explanation as to the decision he’s made so far.
Trump is also expected to lay out his vision for his second term after Mike Johnson, the House speaker, invited him to share his ‘America First vision for our legislative future’.
Ukraine will almost certainly be on the agenda at the Capitol building amid a minerals deal involving the US and the European county still unsigned.
When asked by a reporter recently if the deal could still happen, the president said: “I’ll let you know. We’re making a speech, you probably heard.”
Meanwhile, the White House said Trump’s speech will be ‘the renewal of the American dream’, while the president himself has hyped it up with the following statement on Truth Social: “Tomorrow night will be big. I will tell it like it is.”
Trump has certainly had an eventful 43 days in the job so far (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Immigration and tariffs
A senior administration official within Trump’s government told NBC News last week that the president will focus on his efforts to take immigration and on the new tariffs introduced on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese exports.
Trump implemented tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China to tackle what the White House has described as an ‘extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl’.
Further reasoning will likely be provided by Trump this evening.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years, and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway.”
Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin is tasked with providing a Democrat response to the speech later today.
