President Trump: clear devolution message

Donald Trump’s widely anticipated order to close the Department of Education is part of his “shock and awe” doctrine in his second term in the White House, say education experts in the US.

Prior to his inauguration, observers had struggled to predict what President Trump’s plans for higher education would be. They feared he would be guided by the Project 2025 policy playbook crafted by his allies, who advocate shuttering the government department. The Republican Party has attempted to eliminate the department since it was created in 1979. But there is more appetite to do so now than in recent decades, says Rebecca Natow, associate professor of specialised programmes in education at Hofstra University.

Along with unprecedented orders on research funding, the Trump administration is sending a clear message that education should be handled by the states. “I think higher education is very aware of what’s going on, they know that what was said during the campaign trail was serious and now they have to prepare for what’s coming,” she says.

Other high-profile interventions in higher education include allowing immigration agents on campuses, launching anti-semitism investigations at five universities, trying to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) positions, and banning transgender women from college sports. Comparing this to George W. Bush’s military campaign in Iraq, Jennifer Steele, a professor of School of Education at American University, says this represents the Trump administration’s “shock and awe” tactics — of which closing the department is a key proposal.

Commentators have linked this over-activity within the federal government to right-wing mogul Steve Bannon’s tactics of “flooding the zone” and disorientating opponents. “I think that they’re trying to make people scramble so fast and seeing what they can get away with and what they can’t. So the strategy is really gamesmanship,” comments Steele.

Closing the department would affect all levels of education. But with vice president J.D. Vance’s stated view that professors are “enemies,” it is becoming apparent that colleges are the real target.

Yet because of the difficulty of passing an act of Congress, Steele believes that shuttering the Department of Education is “political theatre”. Nevertheless it indicates President Trump’s commitment to his more serious threats. “What I think is most scary for higher ed is that it will be increasingly difficult for people from many countries to get visas to study in the US, so I think that is going to hurt the bottom line of higher ed,” she says.