Donald Trump signs order to dismantle US department of education
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the country’s department of education.
However, the department cannot be dismantled without an act of Congress, which created it in 1979. Republicans have said they will introduce a bill to achieve that.
Mr Trump has long promised to take the agency apart, deriding it as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. It has been a long-time target of conservatives.
The order would leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates.
The president blamed the department for America’s lagging academic performance and said states will do a better job.
“It’s doing us no good,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
The White House said the department will not close completely and retained its responsibilities for funding for low-income schools, and distributing money for children with disabilities.
The White House said earlier on Thursday that the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite.
The department’s workforce has already been slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on US academic progress.
Much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money – both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programmes for colleges and school districts, like school meals and support for homeless students. The agency is also key in overseeing civil rights enforcement.
Pic: Reuters
Trump was surrounded by school pupils during an event signing the executive order. Pic: Reuters
States and districts already control local schools, including the curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used at their discretion.
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Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal.
“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said.
Democrats said the order will be fought in the courts and in Congress.
The US attorney general has said three people alleged to have damaged Tesla cars and charging stations could be jailed for up to 20 years.
Pamela Bondi announced unspecified charges against three people who used Molotov cocktails in what she called a “wave of domestic terrorism”.
It comes as US safety regulators recalled almost all Cybertrucks from Elon Musk‘s company due to a “dangerous road hazard” that increases the risk of a crash.
A Tesla Cybertruck. File pic: AP
It is the eighth recall of the Tesla vehicle for safety problems in 15 months.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall, which covers more than 46,000 Cybertrucks, warned that an exterior panel that runs along the left and right sides of the windshield can detach while driving.
In a statement on the three people charged with damaging Tesla cars and charging stations, Ms Bondi said: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended.
“Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”
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The department said one of those arrested threw eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. This defendant was also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle.
Another is alleged to have attempted to set on fire Tesla cars using Molotov cocktails in Loveland, Colorado, and was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons.
A burned Tesla vehicle is shown at a Tesla centre in Las Vegas. Pic: AP
The third person wrote “profane messages against President Trump” around Tesla charging stations before setting stations on fire with petrol bombs in Charleston, South Carolina, the department said.
Each of the three people arrested faces charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years, and up to 20 years in prison, the statement added.
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Tesla showrooms, charging stations and privately-owned cars have been repeatedly targeted since the billionaire was appointed by Donald Trump to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that is slashing US government spending.
As well as the attacks and recalls, Tesla has been struggling due to increased competition from rival electric vehicles, particularly out of China.
Though largely unaffected by Thursday’s recall announcement, Tesla shares have plummeted 42% in 2025.
The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.
He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
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But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
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The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullshit…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
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