Former President Donald Trump has said he would dismantle the Department of Education if he wins the White House in November.
“I want to close up Department of Education, move education back to the states,” Trump, the Republican nominee, said in an interview with Elon Musk on Monday night. “If you moved education back to the 50 [states], you’ll have some that won’t do well…but they’ll actually be forced to do better, because it’ll be a pretty bad situation.”
He added: “I’ll bet you’d have 30, 35 states that’ll be much better. And you know what it’ll cost? Less than half what it is in Washington.”
Musk replied that Trump was “making a good point.”
The policy is among those included in the controversial Project 2025 plan that Trump has sought to distance himself from.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign shared a clip of Trump’s comments on X, writing: “This is a key goal of Trump’s Project 2025.”
In a statement responding to Trump’s interview with Musk, the Democratic nominee’s campaign said Trump’s “extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda is a feature not a glitch of his campaign, which was on full display for those unlucky enough to listen in tonight during whatever that was on X.com.”
“It’ll be unbelievable” — Trump says one of his first acts will be to “close up the Department of Education” and cites states like Iowa and Idaho as examples of places that are doing well. Elon says he’s making a good point. pic.twitter.com/CrgfCF4oaD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2024
“Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself—self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024,” the statement said.
The Trump campaign has been contacted for comment via email.
Project 2025, an initiative spearheaded by the conservative Heritage Foundation, has published a nearly 1,000-page handbook for the next Republican administration that proposes a massive overhaul of the federal government, including firing thousands of government workers so that they can be replaced with Republican loyalists.
On education, the handbook says that “federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”
It adds: “States are eager to lead in K-12 education…The future of education freedom and reform in the states is bright and will shine brighter when regulations and red tape from Washington are eliminated.”
Project 2025 has said that it does not speak for any candidate or campaign.
“We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president,” a Project 2025 spokesperson previously said in a statement to Newsweek. “But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
Update 8/13/24, 3:43 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
