As billionaire Linda McMahon testifies in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee today, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“Donald Trump is already carrying out his wildly unpopular Project 2025 agenda to abolish the Department of Education – and he’s enlisted billionaire donor Linda McMahon to help him gut our public schools. Working families deserve answers about McMahon and Trump’s extreme plans to defund public education and leave our students and teachers without the resources they deserve.”

Donald Trump has instructed billionaire donor Linda McMahon to help him abolish the Department of Education. 

Reporter: “Why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department Secretary if you’re gonna get rid of the Education Department?”

Trump: “Because I told Linda, ‘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, [the] Education Department … I want Linda to put herself out of a job.”

Trump and his team have repeatedly confirmed his desire to “abolish” the Department of Education and have already taken steps to shut the department down. 

Reporter: “Do you want the Department of Education to be closed?” 

Trump: “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately.”

Sandra Smith, Fox News: “Is [Trump] planning to completely dismantle [the Department of Education]? What, right now, is his thinking on that?” 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Sure … when it comes to the Department of Education, the president and his policy team continue to look at options on how to reduce the size of the Department of Education, if not abolish it completely. You heard the president say half jokingly but also serious, he wants Linda McMahon, who will lead that agency, to put herself out of a job.”

Wall Street Journal: “At least 60 employees at the Education Department, along with an unknown number of supervisors, were placed on administrative leave Friday night, said Brittany Holder, a spokeswoman for the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal employee union.” 

Eliminating the Department of Education is deeply unpopular and would threaten programs that bolster K-12 schools and support working families, gut students’ civil rights protections, and end critical financial assistance for tens of millions of Americans. 

Wall Street Journal: “A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 61% of registered voters opposed getting rid of [the Department of Education]. Most Americans preferred to protect funding for education and other domestic priorities over cutting taxes, the same poll found.”

LA Times: “The prospect of dismantling the Department of Education has led to questions and fears over potential chaos over how key responsibilities and billions in federal funding — including handling federal financial aid, grants for disadvantaged students and civil rights enforcement — would be affected.

“The department has authority over financial lifelines that so many campuses and students rely on. The department’s K-12 programs serve more than 50 million students attending 130,000 public and private schools; federal grant, loan, and work-study assistance benefits more than 13 million post-secondary students.”

Inside Higher Ed: “College and university stakeholders worry that abolishing the Education Department could be catastrophic for institutions and students. State higher education officials, university administrators, nonprofit advocacy groups and students depend on the Education Department to oversee federal student aid, manage the student loan portfolio, investigate civil rights complaints and allocate billions of dollars in institutional aid, among other operations.” 

Associated Press: “The action is meant to bring relief to the hardest-hit borrowers in a program that allowed private lenders to provide student loans that were backed by the federal government. The program ended in 2010 when the Education Department became the sole lender of federally subsidized student loans.” 

Trump’s toxic cuts also disproportionately hit Trump voters the hardest. 

CNN: “Potential federal education cuts could hit GOP’s base hardest” 

“It’s the sort of place where President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ message resonated – but also where some of his proposed policies could hit hardest, especially his promise to eliminate the Department of Education and slash federal funds to public schools. …

“Even a slight reduction in those dollars could have devastating effects for students and their families.” 

Shutting down the Department of Education, including crippling student loan debt relief and gutting assistance for low-income schools, is a core part of Trump’s toxic Project 2025 agenda that he is already carrying out. 

Project 2025, p. 319: “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” 

Project 2025, p. 350: “Title I is the largest portion of federal taxpayer spending under this federal education law, and the section provides additional taxpayer resources to schools or groups of schools in lower income areas. … Over a 10-year period, the federal spending should be phased out and states should assume decision-making control over how to provide a quality education to children from low-income families.” 

CNN: “Many of Trump’s early actions appear closely aligned with Project 2025’s plans. A CNN analysis of the 53 executive orders and actions from Trump’s first week in office found that more than two-thirds – 36 – evoke proposals outlined in ‘Mandate for Leadership,’ Project 2025’s 922-page blueprint for the next Republican president.”

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