President Donald Trump’s plan for shuttering the Education Department is turning out to be a particularly drawn out process for one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets.
Trump has repeatedly urged Linda McMahon to put herself “out of a job” as Education secretary, and she promoted the agency’s “final mission” to its staff soon after being sworn in Monday. But critical elements of the president’s long-awaited executive order — including when Trump plans to sign it — have been in flux for weeks.
“I want to just do it,” the president said in the Oval Office on Thursday after he was asked when he would sign the order. “We’re starting the process. We’re trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools.”
The latest tumult over the agency surged after media outlets cited a draft version of the order that a White House official described as an “incomplete document” — stories that infuriated the administration and scuttled its announcement plans Thursday. Trump is not expected to sign an order on the department this week, the official told POLITICO, fueling the sense of whiplash among Democrats and even some conservatives who have advised the administration about the directive.
In the Oval Office, Trump also said the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio could eventually move under the authority of the Small Business Administration, the agency McMahon ran during Trump’s first term. Such a move would require congressional action.
“We’re not getting our guidance from Democratic politicians,” said a White House official who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “The president is still committed to this campaign promise, which shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. The American people elected him knowing this would be his intention.”
Lawmakers, including two key Republicans, still expressed their misgivings with the idea Thursday — a sign of the rocky path to 60 votes Trump will need in the Senate to pursue the fullest extent of his demolition plan.
“The Department of Education actually has some functions that we think are important,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in the Capitol. “I support it.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has grown frustrated with the slash-and-burn methods of Elon Musk’s spending cuts and Trump’s expansion of executive authority, sought to lay out some boundaries.
“There may be a case for spinning off some programs. There may be a case for downsizing the department. But those are decisions the new secretary should make,” Collins, the Senate’s top appropriator, told reporters. “The decision of whether to abolish the department is one that only Congress can make.”
Democrats and their allies were also quick to warn against dismantling the department, offering a preview of the bigger fight ahead for Trump on an idea that’s popular among conservative Republicans.
The Education Department declined to comment.
The White House, Trump’s appointees and Musk’s government-slashing operation have already cut research spending, pruned the agency’s workforce and sought to excise diversity programs that have motivated contemporary conservative politics the past several years.
But all of those changes merely foreshadow anticipated additional reductions among the agency’s rank and file, while the president’s budget proposals are expected to include significant cuts to department funding.
While the draft order circulating Wednesday was built atop of weeks of rumors and speculation about the precise timing and nature of the directive, the language of that document — viewed by POLITICO — had been revised significantly from earlier versions, according to people familiar with the directive who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
That includes the removal of key operational language, dates and deadlines that had been present in a prior draft.
The White House declined to comment on the language in draft versions of the order.
There has also been a debate among outside White House advisers over whether Trump needs to issue an order to abolish the department at all, people familiar with the matter said.
For now, Democrats are left to continue speculating about when Trump’s order will arrive.
“All of us in the community here are going to remain hypervigilant,” Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, said during a Thursday press conference with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and National Education Association President Becky Pringle. “Today, the order didn’t come out. It could eventually come out. I almost feel like we got a stay of execution today.”
Jordain Carney, Madina Touré and Megan Messerly contributed to this report.
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