Newly signed executive order seeks to dismantle Department of Education

Several people at tonight's “Fight Oligarchy” tour stop in Tempe, Arizona, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., praised the two lawmakers for playing offense against Trump’s agenda and encouraged Democrats to be more aggressive in confronting Trump.

“I think just hearing them speak is going to give us a lot of hope. Just to go ahead and rally us and let us all know, like, the fight’s not over,” Samantha Petras, a resident of Phoenix, told NBC News.

Petras added that Democrats “need to come together and figure out a plan.”

“I think, unfortunately, the conservatives are playing a really good game of chess, and now it’s time for the Dems to go ahead and step up to the plate and figure out how we’re going to go ahead and take our democracy back,” she said.

A Georgetown University graduate student from India who was taken into custody this week and targeted for deportation by the Trump administration never made any pro-Hamas or antisemitic comments, his lawyer said.

Immigration agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow who teaches at Georgetown and has a visa, outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, his attorney has said. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Suri is “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”

Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, denied today that Suri ever made pro-Hamas or antisemitic statements.“This is still the United States of America, and we don’t punish people, we don’t whisk them away and send them 1,000 miles away from their family, based on what they may have said, what they may have posted on social media or who they are related to,” Ahmad said.

Read the full story here.

At the first stop of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour out West, two of the Democratic Party’s most unabashed progressive lawmakers had plenty to say about Trump. But they also had some strong words for their own party.

“This isn’t just about Republicans. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. told the fired-up crowd gathered at the Craig Ranch Amphitheater to see her and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “But what that means is that we as a community must choose and vote for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”

While Ocasio-Cortez did not mention any Democratic leaders by name, the crowd broke out into multiple “Primary Chuck” chants — a reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who backed down from a funding fight with Trump last week. The move enraged the base and prompted some of Ocasio-Cortez’s House colleagues to encourage her to mount a primary challenge to Schumer, her fellow New Yorker, in 2028.

Read the full story here.

Demonstrators across the country protested the Trump administration’s plans to possibly privatize the U.S. Postal Service.

Trump said tonight on Truth Social that he is withdrawing an executive order that targeted security clearances and federal contracts at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP following an agreement he reached with the law firm.

The agreement's terms, according to Trump's post, include the firm's rejection of polices tied to diversity, equity and inclusion. The firm also agreed to invest $40 million in pro bono legal services during Trump’s second term backing his initiatives on “assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the Justice System, the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.”

"As part of its commitment, it will engage experts, to be mutually agreed upon within 14 days, to conduct a comprehensive audit of all of its employment practices," the agreement says.

Brad Karp, the firm's chairman, said in a statement released by the White House: “We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss. We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration.”

Elon Musk received a court summons last week in connection with the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit over allegations he failure to properly disclose purchases of Twitter stock in 2022 before he placed a bid to buy the company, according to a filing today.

A process server delivered the civil summons to Musk on March 14 at the headquarters of SpaceX in Brownsville, Texas, the filing said. The server noted that upon his arrival at the SpaceX facility, three different security guards refused to accept the documents and one told him he was trespassing. He “placed the documents on the ground” and left while the guards photographed him and his car.

The summons pertains to a case concerning Musk’s eventual purchase of Twitter, now known as X, for $44 billion in 2022. Before the acquisition, Musk built up a position in the company of greater than 5%, which would have required disclosing his holdings to the public within 10 calendar days of reaching that threshold.

According to the SEC’s civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in January, Musk was more than 10 days late in reporting that material information, “allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership report was due.”

Read the full story here.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s escalating attacks on the judiciary have resulted in a constitutional crisis.

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Schumer assailed Trump’s recent calls to impeach a judge who ruled against him in a case involving his efforts to deport Venezuelan immigrants. Judges and plaintiffs in some cases have accused Trump of violating or sidestepping court orders as he faces a litany of legal challenges to his executive actions.

Asked whether he agrees with scholars who say the United States is in a constitutional crisis, Schumer responded, “Yes, I do.”

“And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him,” Schumer told moderator Kristen Welker. The full interview will air on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Read the full report here.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., opted to skip a town hall this afternoon organized by his constituents and local Democratic groups at a library in Eau Claire.

Van Orden was invited to participate but never confirmed his attendance. Instead, he chose to host a virtual town hall on Facebook, where he answered submitted questions read aloud by a staffer. 

House Republican leaders have advised their members against town hall events amid backlash to the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency.

Republican lawmakers, including Van Orden, have argued that people protesting Trump's agenda at town halls are paid protesters. He repeated the claim during today's virtual event.

Trump signed an executive order today in an effort to “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education.” With the stroke of his pen, he officially set in motion a plan to shutter the 46-year-old agency, as he said, “once and for all.”

But the order stops short of immediately closing the department, which cannot be done without congressional approval. Rather, according to the text of the order released by the White House, it directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “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.”

At the signing, Trump said federal Pell grants (a common type of federal undergraduate financial aid), Title I funding and resources and funding for children with disabilities would be “preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments.”

“But beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department,” he said, adding that he would do so “as quickly as possible.”

Read the full story here.

Trump again criticized Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who temporarily blocked the administration's efforts to invoke a rarely used wartime law to justify deportation flights.

"Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency," Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling Boasberg's rulings "ridiculous."

Trump has repeatedly attacked judges who have impeded his efforts, including calling for the Boasberg's impeachment. He did not call for Boasberg's impeachment in tonight's post, which came shortly after Boasberg called the Justice Department's recent responses to his questions "woefully insufficient."

In an earlier post this evening, Trump derided judges who have issued injunctions against some of his policies, claiming they "could very well lead to the destruction of our Country!" Trump also called on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to immediately "fix" the issue of nationwide injunctions.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon today expanded on Trump's order to dismantle the Education Department and how soon it could affect students.

In an interview with NBC News’ Garrett Haake, McMahon said implementing changes at the department will take time. She said students and families will most likely not “immediately” feel the effects of the order.

“I don’t think anything happens immediately. I’d like to snap my fingers and have education reformed, you know, throughout the country, but it’s going to take a bit, and then we’re going to work very strongly and consistently with the states,” she said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said this afternoon that he plans to soon introduce legislation to eliminate the Education Department.

“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said 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.”

His statement came almost immediately after Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Education Department.

A federal judge today blasted the Justice Department’s latest response to his demand for more information about deportation flights that were carried out under a wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act, calling it “woefully insufficient.”

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in a three-page ruling that the government “again evaded its obligations” to provide information that he had been demanding for days about the timing of the flights Saturday. Trump had invoked the rarely used law to deport people the administration claimed were members of a Venezuelan gang deemed a “foreign terrorist organization.”

At an emergency hearing Saturday, Boasberg had directed that any deportation flights being carried out under the Alien Enemies Act authority immediately return to the United States. Two flights landed in Honduras and El Salvador within hours of his order.

The Justice Department submitted its response under seal, but Boasberg said it told him he could disclose the contents. It comprised “a six-paragraph declaration from the Acting Field Office Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Harlingen, Texas, Field Office” that did not include any new information about the flights, Boasberg wrote.

Read the full story here.

Trump said at the White House today that he will sign a rare earth minerals deal "very shortly" with Ukraine.

"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," Trump said.

Trump also referred to his recent conversations with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, saying, "We spoke yesterday with, as you know, President Putin and President Zelenskyy, and we would love to see that come to an end."

"I think we're doing pretty well in that regard," Trump said. "I believe we'll get it done. We'll see what happens, but I believe we'll get it done today."

A visit from DOGE staffers this afternoon at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the bedrock of federal support for the nation's museums and libraries, has ignited fears among union leaders that the agency's staff could be next on the chopping block.

DOGE staffers appeared at the agency's office in Washington's L'Enfant Plaza on the heels of Trump’s ordering that the independent government agency be downsized to only what is statutorily required, a move museum advocates worry could cost the country its cultural and public institutions as the agency all but shuts down.

"IMLS is one of the biggest funders for museums, specifically small, rural museums," a Washington museum professional who showed up at the office in support of the agency after the DOGE visit told NBC News. "It is like the main funder for libraries both in universities and your public library. And if you think of all the services your public library provides, those are going to get gutted."

The layoffs at the Education Department have gutted a statistical agency — the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) — that is responsible for compiling the Nation’s Report Card and measuring the academic performance of students nationwide, according to union officials.

NCES is a federal statistical agency tasked with data collection, analysis and reporting on U.S. education with the goal of boosting academic outcomes, according to its website.

Policymakers and the public have used NCES data to measure student performance in the classroom, the productivity of teachers, school safety and other topics.

ABC News reported earlier on the impact of the layoffs on the NCES. 

Trump signed an executive order today directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to start dismantling the Education Department.

“It sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education. We’re going to eliminate it,” Trump said in the East Room of the White House at a ceremony where he was flanked by children seated at school desks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the department would not be completely eliminated, saying its “critical functions” would continue, including enforcing civil rights laws and overseeing student loans and Pell grants.

Read the full story here.

Trump said at the White House today as he prepared to sign an executive order to dismantle the Education Department that the matter is likely to come before Congress and encouraged Democrats to vote for it. Fully abolishing the department would require a vote from Congress.

"Everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right, and I hope they’re going to be voting for it, because ultimately it may come before them," Trump said, adding that the United States hasn't performed well globally in education "for a long time."

A federal judge in Maryland blocked DOGE from accessing Social Security Administration records. In a blistering ruling, U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander said DOGE is “essentially engaged in a fishing expedition" at the agency "in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion.” 

Hollander said: “The American public may well applaud and support the Trump Administration’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and bloat from federal agencies, including SSA, to the extent it exists. But, by what means and methods?” She added that DOGE has launched a search for “the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., demanded that the Social Security Administration explain why its acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, plans to close an agency hearing office in White Plains, New York.

According to Lawler's office, SSA's lease of the space in White Plains, in Westchester County, expires at the end of May and Dudek has rejected calls from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to maintain the office — the only one in the Hudson Valley.

“This office handles over 2,000 backlogged cases and conducts hundreds of in-person hearings every year," Lawler said in a statement voicing anger at the Trump administration. "Telling my constituents that they now have to travel hours to Lower Manhattan, New Haven, the Bronx, or Goshen is completely unacceptable.”

A memo early last month to staffers at the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, ordered that any materials relating to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts be removed from bulletin boards.

The email, which was sent by Lois Lawson, the Forest Service's deputy director of civil rights, said employee resource groups for workers of certain ethnicities or affinity groups would be disbanded and told staffers to suspend plans to celebrate or observe “Special Emphasis Program[s].” That was in line with the guidance other agencies have also given employees after Trump signed an executive order seeking to eliminate DEI programs and celebrations from the federal government. 

“Please be advised that identity-based Employee Resource Groups and Special Emphasis Programs which involve Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI), should be disbanded. Additionally, all Special Emphasis Program observances should be held in abeyance, which includes any statements and written communication. Additionally, any information posted on bulletin boards or other areas, should be immediately removed,” Lawson wrote in the email, dated Feb. 3.

Later in the month, thousands of Forest Service employees were laid off, joining thousands at other federal agencies who were laid because of Musk and DOGE's push to reduce the federal workforce by firing workers who were still in their early probationary periods.

The Forest Service, which oversees national forests and grasslands, employs thousands of firefighters who help combat forest fires and assist in other emergencies. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed Trump's attempt to dismantle the Education Department, saying in a statement that it's "a code red for every public school student, parent, and teacher in this country."

"Trump is telling public school kids in America that their futures don’t matter. Billionaires like Trump and Musk won’t feel the difference when after school programs are slashed, class sizes go up, and help for families to pay for school gets cut," she said in a statement first to NBC News. "But working families, students, and teachers will pay a heavy price."

Trump is expected to sign an executive order later today attempting to close the Education Department. However, a department cannot be shut unilaterally; it would require congressional action.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former Republican leader, dodged questions today about whether he would vote to shut down the Education Department should the measure reach Congress as Trump prepares to sign an executive order to dismantle, and eventually shutter, it this afternoon.

McConnell, responding to questions from a reporter at a news conference in Kentucky who pointed out that Trump cannot shut down the department without congressional approval, said “it’s a good idea to reduce government spending” but declined to elaborate on whether he supports dismantling the Education Department. 

“The way to look at all of these reorganization efforts by the administration is what’s legal and what isn’t, and they’ll be defined in the courts,” McConnell said. “This is a different approach, and the courts will ultimately decide whether the president has the authority to take these various steps. Some may have different outcomes.” 

The Trump administration released a statement today on the president's plan for education ahead of his expected signing of an executive order aimed at dismantling the Education Department.

"Instead of maintaining the status quo that is failing American students, the Trump Administration’s bold plan will return education where it belongs — with individual states, which are best positioned to administer effective programs and services that benefit their own unique populations and needs," the administration said.

The press release did not explicitly mention the expected executive order.

Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman faced a torrent of heckles and boos during a town hall in deep-red Wyoming as she repeatedly tried to downplay constituents’ concerns about the Trump administration’s actions.

Hundreds of people attended the town hall for the state's sole House member, jeering Hageman on issues including cuts to the federal government spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government,” Hageman told attendees, prompting more outbursts from the crowd.

“You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down,” she added. “I’m sorry, your hysteria is just really over the top.”

Read the full story here.

Judge James Boasberg had ordered the government to provide, by noon today, "the information discussed in the Minute Order of March 18, 2025, or to invoke the state-secrets doctrine and explain the basis for such invocation.” 

As of 1 p.m. ET, the government had not posted to the docket the information requested in five questions, nor had they posted to the docket invoking the state-secrets doctrine. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that “critical functions” of the Department of Education — specifically student loans and Pell grants — will remain under the department’s purview and will be “much smaller,” but stopped short of saying they will be eliminated.  

This contradicts what Trump said earlier this month in the Oval Office when he suggested that student loans and federal grants would be moved to a different department.  

"That would be brought into either Treasury or Small Business Administration or Commerce, and we've actually had that discussion today," Trump said to reporters then. "I don't think that Education should be handling the loans. That's not their business. I think it'll be brought into Small Business, maybe."

NAACP President Derrick Johnson criticized Trump's plans to try to dismantle the Department of Education, saying in a statement that Trump is "deliberately dismantling the basic functions of our democracy, one piece at a time."

"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," Johnson said ahead of Trump signing the executive order. "Don’t be fooled, Trump doesn’t have your back — he only cares about the billionaire class who will profit from the privatization of essential services, including education."

Trump does not have the power to unilaterally abolish a department. Congress would need to act.

American George Glezmann was freed Thursday from Afghanistan after being held for more than two years in Taliban captivity, Secretary of State Rubio said Thursday in a statement. The release was brokered by Qatar.

Glezmann, who was a Delta Airlines mechanic, has left Kabul and is now on his way to be reunited with his wife, Aleksandra, Rubio said. U.S. officials traveled to Kabul to bring Glezmann home, a U.S. official said.   

Trump administration officials were engaged with representatives of the Taliban to secure Glezmann’s release, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the discussions, but he was not freed as part of a larger prisoner exchange.   

Norm Eisen, a prosecutor and the former special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020 during Trump’s first impeachment case, said Article 3 of the Constitution will act as a safeguard for the judiciary amid the Trump administration’s mounting attacks on federal judges and institutions. 

“You have Article Three, the judiciary, that is acting as a guardrail,” Eisen said during an interview on MSNBC this morning. “We’ve gotten court orders saying Trump can’t target 6,000 FBI agents who worked on January 6th, just this week, we got a court order saying Elon Musk and DOGE operated unconstitutionally when they tore down, or as he put it, put USAID through the wood chipper.” 

Eisen pointed out that judges under the powers granted to them by Article 3 of the Constitution, which established the judiciary as a separate branch of government, are ruling against some of the Trump administration’s orders in cases across the country. He spoke shortly before the Justice Department was scheduled to respond to questions from Judge James Boasberg about deportation flights to Venezuela in a case that drew national attention after Trump called for Boasberg to be impeached. 

“The good news is they’re losing in court, and I think Judge Boasberg, who I’ve known for three decades, since he was a young prosecutor, I was a young defense lawyer in D.C. Superior Court, Judge Boasberg is going to impose consequences, and he should,” Eisen said.

Billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Trump’s right-hand adviser, made several maximum-allowable hard-dollar donations to members of Congress who have expressed support for impeaching judges who have ruled against or halted elements of Trump’s agenda, a source familiar with the donations confirmed to NBC News. 

The news was first reported by The New York Times on Wednesday.

The members of Congress include Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. 

Several Chinese students slammed legislation introduced last week by Republican lawmakers that seeks to keep them out of American schools. 

The bill, the Stop CCP VISAs Act, would halt the issuance of student visas to Chinese nationals looking to study at U.S. universities or take part in exchange programs. 

The bill cites national security concerns, saying that those on student visas have in the past attempted to spy for the Chinese Communist Party. But the Chinese nationals who spoke to NBC News said that they came to the U.S. looking for more academic freedom, calling the legislation “the new Chinese Exclusion Act.” 

“I think it’s just blatant racism and xenophobia,” said one Chinese student who recently graduated from a D.C.-area university and requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “We are not spies. We are students who want to get a better education.” 

Read the full story here.

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, criticized Trump's plans to abolish the Department of Education, calling the move "reckless."

"I am adamantly opposed to this reckless action," said the Virginia Democrat. "I am also disappointed, although not surprised, that Secretary McMahon’s first order of business after her confirmation is capitulating to the President’s dangerous, and illegal demands."

Scott said he thinks Trump's expected executive order "will be used to distract Americans from the fact that Republicans are not working to address the real problems facing students and families: widening academic achievement gaps, school shootings, and the burden of student loans."

Trump is expected to sign an executive order aimed at abolishing the department later today. However, formally shuttering the department requires congressional action.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., will join Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour today for a series of town hall events.

The pair will hold their first town hall in Las Vegas before they head to Tempe, Arizona, for a second event later tonight. Tomorrow, they'll hold events in Colorado.

The high-profile progressives are holding the events as many congressional Republicans shy away from holding in-person gatherings with constituents amid backlash to the Trump administration's efforts to slash the federal government's workforce and budget alongside Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Democrats have sought to fill the void by hosting events in Republican-leaning districts. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year, has held events in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin as part of the effort.

PHOENIX — The Pentagon restored some webpages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans on Wednesday, days after tribes condemned the action.

The initial removal was part of a sweep of any military content that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, or commonly referred to as DEI. Following Trump’s broader executive order ending the federal government’s DEI programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups. Department officials say the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously erased.

Read the full story.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is stepping into the Democrats’ leadership void, picking up her powerful megaphone to channel the base’s anger — toward both President Donald Trump and her own party. 

Some of the initial skepticism in the party around the progressive star when she first arrived in Washington six years ago has started to fade as she has established herself as a political player on Capitol Hill and demonstrated a unique knack for communicating with a younger generation. 

Read the full story.

The acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, Amy Gleason, shed some light on the agency's structure in an overnight court filing in a case brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington seeking the disclosure of its records.

DOGE has 79 employees who were directly appointed to it and 10 from other agencies, but no formal front office or organizational chart, Gleason said in the filing.

“Every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency,” Gleason wrote. “The DOGE Team members — whether employees of the agency or detailed to the agency — thus report to the agency heads or their designees, not to me or anyone else at USDS [U.S. Digital Service].”

Gleason said she reports to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and noted that she does not report to tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump put in charge of efforts to cut the government under DOGE, nor does Musk report to her.

Gleason said DOGE has an obligation to maintain records under the Presidential Records Act and will transfer records to the National Archives and Records Administration “at the appropriate time.” 

Federal immigration authorities have detained a Georgetown University graduate student from India who was teaching at the Washington, D.C., institution on a student visa, his attorney said last night.

Masked agents arrested the graduate student, Badar Khan Suri, outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, attorney Hassan Ahmad said.

The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa, Ahmad said.

Read the full story here.

The new Department of Government Efficiency leadership of the U.S. Agency for International Development sent a letter to the remaining staff last night about their plan to “lead USAID through a responsible, safe, and cost-efficient process to transfer USAID operations to the State Department.”

About 83% of foreign aid programs have been cut, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month. The approximately 1,000 remaining programs will be transferred to the State Department, the USAID email said.

"Our remaining programs exemplify the promise of responsible American foreign assistance: they invest in partners, deliver real and measurable impact for people in need, and further the foreign policy objectives of the country and President," the email said.

DOGE senior official Jeremy Lewinsky and Ken Jackson, who were made deputy administrators this week, committed in the email “to ensure the safety, dignity, and productivity of USAID personnel during this transition period,” adding that they “aim to share additional details soon on what this process will mean for USAID personnel.”

Former Vice President Al Gore championed the development of the internet so enthusiastically that one of the first myths of the online era was that he claimed to have invented it. 

It was in those early days of the world wide web that one of Gore’s successors came of age. JD Vance grew up with chat rooms and email and instant messaging. He graduated into young adulthood at the dawn of blogging. He entered politics with a millennial’s fluency in social media. 

Now, at 40, he is the nation’s third-youngest vice president — and, nearly a quarter-century after Gore left office, the nation’s first very online vice president. It’s a pioneering distinction that reflects the serious time and thought, as well as the debate-me vibes, that Vance puts into his interactions with othe

Read the full story.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order this afternoon to dismantle the Education Department, the White House confirmed.

Trump will participate in an event at the White House at 4 p.m. ET and sign an order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

Only Congress can formally close the department, but Trump can move to make it nearly impossible for employees to carry out their work, continue hollowing out the size of the agency or significantly reduce spending, as it has done with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Read the full story.