Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education while seated at a tiny desk surrounded by schoolchildren. The Telegraph has more.
The order hands control over education policy from the federal government to states and local boards.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” the President said at the White House ceremony.
Before sitting down behind his desk, the President asked the group of assembled children if he should sign the order and was greeted by enthusiastic nods.
As he put pen to paper, the children behind him, who were each given their own black felt tip pen and document, signed their own names before raising the documents in the air.
It is not the first time the President has been given an under-sized desk for a signing ceremony. In 2017, he signed several pieces of legislation into law behind a desk he described as a “child’s desk” and “the smallest desk I’ve ever seen”.
The decision to close the department is likely to set up another battle in the courts as shuttering it completely requires the approval of Congress, and the President does not currently have enough votes for that.
The order follows the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff and is the latest step by Mr Trump to cut through federal bureaucracy.
Mr Trump said he wants Linda McMahon, the Education Secretary, who attended the White House event, to put herself out of a job. “Hopefully you won’t be there too long,” he said.
Worth reading in full.
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