Trump updates: President signs order to ‘eliminate’ Education Department

Thank you for joining Al Jazeera for coverage of day 60 of Donald Trump’s second term as United States president.

To learn more about Badar Khan Suri, the post-doctoral scholar threatened with deportation under Trump, check out our coverage here.

You can also learn more about how Trump is reshaping norms around refugee admissions with this in-depth story.

And check out our preview of the upcoming talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US here.

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• US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education and reassigning its functions to states.
• But critics point out that Trump himself cannot fully shut down the department without Congress’s support – an unlikely prospect, given the need for 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate.
• Judge James Boasberg has called the Trump administration’s responses “woefully insufficient”, as he weighs whether the government defied an order to halt deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
• Trump, however, called on the Supreme Court to block injunctions like Boasberg’s.
• The US president also withdrew an executive order against a law firm, in exchange for “$40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump’s term”.
• Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been dealt a setback, as a judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing it from accessing data from the Social Security Administration.
• Outrage is mounting after the Department of Homeland Security detained an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, Badar Khan Suri, for expressing pro-Palestinian views. A judge has thus far blocked his deportation.

In a series of posts on social media, Trump has called on the Supreme Court to curtail judicial authority, teeing up a battle between the branches of government.

“Unlawful Nationwide Injunctions by Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country!” Trump wrote in an initial post.

He went on to criticise Judge James Boasberg, who issued an injunction against deportations made under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law that allows the president to detain and deport foreign nationals.

That act has only been invoked three times prior in US history — the last time being during World War II, for the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans, an act for which the government later apologised.

Boasberg on Saturday called for the Trump administration to halt its deportation flights authorised under the law, but critics say the Trump team proceeded with them anyway.

“Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency,” Trump said. “He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his ‘Rulings’ are so ridiculous, and inept.”

The president argued he alone has the authority to decide what happens to the deported individuals and called on the Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf.

“STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!”

Trump’s executive order is relatively short – and it acknowledges he is limited in his ability to dismantle the Department of Education.

The executive order was issued under the name “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities”, reflecting Trump’s commitment to so-called parental rights in education.

That movement reflects a push to allow parents to use taxpayer money to send their children to private or charter schools, as well as exercise control over school curriculum.

“The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely,” the order says.

It also calls for any programme receiving federal education funds to “terminate” any activity to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), calling that a form of “illegal discrimination”.

Trump has reversed course, withdrawing an executive order stripping security clearances from the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.

The US president has sought to remove such clearances from law offices that represent policies or people he disagrees with.

The New York firm, for example, had high-profile Democrats as clients and employed Mark Pomerantz as a former partner. Pomerantz went on to serve as a special assistant district attorney investigating Trump’s finances in 2021.

Trump has just signed an executive order to try and dismantle the Department of Education.

The problem is he cannot do it alone. Only Congress can dissolve the department.

Within minutes of the order’s signing, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana announced he was preparing legislation to follow through with the president’s order.

“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy wrote in a statement. “Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”

Chuck Schumer, the leading Democrat in the Senate, has posted on social media his vehement opposition to Trump’s attempt to shutter the Department of Education.

“Attempting to dismantle the Department of Education is one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken. This. Will. Hurt. Kids,” Schumer, a senator from New York, wrote.

“This horrible decision by Donald Trump will be felt by teachers, parents, school leaders, and in the quality of education our children receive.”

Schumer also explained that by transferring the department’s functions to the states, residents will see their state taxes increase accordingly.

He also reiterated that only Congress can eliminate federal departments, not presidents.

“The courts must act to uphold the rule of law and stop Donald Trump’s tyrannical power grab,” Schumer said.

During his appearance in the White House’s East Room, Trump gave a brief update on negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He started by explaining he signed an executive order to “dramatically increase” the US’s production of critical minerals used in emerging technologies.

That idea allowed him to pivot to another goal: accessing Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

“As you know, we’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world – but in particular, Ukraine,” Trump said.

“We’re doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine, which they have tremendous value in rare earth, and we appreciate that.”

He also added he was optimistic about peace negotiations with Russia: “I think we’re doing pretty well in that regard.”

Surrounded by children arranged in a half-circle of desks, Trump took out a heavy black marker and signed his name on an order to begin the dismantling of the US Department of Education.

The kids echoed his actions, signing their own versions of an executive order, some adding messages like, “You’re the best president ever.”

It was a trademark Trump photo op, with the ceremony culminating with all the kids lifting their orders into the air, just as Trump did so himself.

But critics have argued the executive order will, in fact, harm children’s education, particularly in low-income or rural areas.

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has accused Trump of “illegally” dismantling federal departments, stressing that only Congress can eliminate US agencies.

“This executive order to shut down the Department of Education is not only despicable, it’s unconstitutional. This latest authoritarian abuse of power is an attack on 26 million kids across every school district in our country. I look forward to it being challenged in court,” Tlaib said in a statement.

“The Department of Education is critical for low-income and working-class students, students of color, and students with disabilities.”

The short answer is: No, not really.

States and local municipalities have already set the curriculum for schools in their jurisdictions. The federal Department of Education, meanwhile, oversees education research, federal aid disbursement and anti-discrimination policies. It does not decide what is taught in schools.

Nevertheless, Trump has touted his order to dismantle the Department of Education as a way of shifting power over schooling back to the states.

“We’re going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs,” he said on Thursday.

“ My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We’re gonna shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states where just some of the governors here are so happy about this. They want education to come back to them, to come back to the states.”

Experts, however, have called such statements misleading.

A federal court in Maryland has temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing records held by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The judge overseeing the case, Ellen Hollander, questioned why DOGE needed unlimited access to review the Social Security files, calling it a “fishing expedition”.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander said.

She also called for DOGE to delete any files it had made copies of.

Linda McMahon, the wife of former wrestling executive and TV personality Vince McMahon, will be overseeing drastic cuts to her own department.

“Hopefully she will be our last secretary of education,” Trump said today.

The education secretary, 76, served in the first Trump term as head of the Small Business Administration. Prior to that, her experience in politics and public service was not extensive.

A former CEO for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), she ran twice unsuccessfully for the US Senate in Democratic-leaning Connecticut, in 2010 and 2012. McMahon also served briefly on the Connecticut Board of Education in 2010.

After being confirmed by the Senate as education secretary earlier this month, she clarified that she intends to push Trump’s agenda forward. “We will empower states and districts to have more say in what is working on the ground for students instead of bureaucratic edicts from Washington, DC,” McMahon said.

Last month, Trump spelled out what he expects of McMahon. “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job’,” he said.

Legal hearings over the deportation of approximately 250 Venezuelans are continuing, with lingering questions over whether the Trump administration defied a court order.

Federal Judge James Boasberg had called for the Trump administration to explain exactly when the deportation flights took off and where they were when he issued an order on Saturday night, halting all removals made under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

But the government’s response has been “woefully insufficient”, Boasberg ruled on Thursday.

He once again ordered the Trump administration to explain why it did not turn the flights around, even after he told Justice Department lawyers to do so.

He also set a deadline of March 25 for the requested information to be furnished, or for the government to argue for the data to be privileged as a state secret.

The 250 Venezuelans were sent to a prison in El Salvador. Many of their families have said they were not gang members, as the Trump administration has claimed.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has issued that brief statement in response to the plan to slash the Education Department.

The AFT represents 1.8 million primary and secondary school teachers and staff, higher education faculty, and early childhood educators, among others.

Richard Blumenthal says Trump’s push to abolish the agency will hurt students and schools that rely on federal funding.

“This reckless action is a gift to greedy for-profit schools & student loan providers & will have ripple effects for years to come,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote in a social media post.

“All across America, students with disabilities, low-income students, & hardworking teachers will be left behind.”