Donald Trump and Elon Musk are considering an executive order that would gut the Department of Education and take a first step toward abolishing it entirely, according to reports.
Unnamed inside sources told The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post that White House officials have discussed shutting down all department programs that aren't explicitly provided for by law.
The order would reportedly also call for legislative proposals for shutting the entire department down, though this would require an act of Congress.
The Post also reported that roughly 20 members of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is not an actual government department, have been working inside the Department of Education's Washington, D.C. headquarters as they look for programs and staff to slash.
Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to abolish the Department of Education in line with the proposals of the controversial Project 2025 – which roughly a third of Trump's executive orders so far have reportedly echoed.
Previous bills to abolish the department were shot down in Congress, and the idea is opposed by a majority of voters.
“I would not hold my breath that [closing the department] would ultimately become law,” Republican Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan, who chairs the House Education Committee, told The Washington Post last month.
News of Musk and Trump’s next target follows reports that Musk and DOGE gained direct access to the Treasury's payment system and other federal computer systems, allegedly in violation of U.S. privacy laws, in what some have described as an effective "coup.”
