President Donald Trump signed more executive orders this week — including one to upend the Department of Education — battled the judicial branch, and spoke to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Thursday, Trump announced plans to work with Congress to upend the Department of Education. Closing down an agency requires the approval of Congress, according to the U.S. Constitution.
“We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time,” Trump said Thursday before signing the executive order.
A White House fact sheet on the executive order said the directive aims to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies” and instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of 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.”
Trump said Thursday programs for Pell Grants, student loans for undergraduate students, and others that provide resources for children with special needs would continue to exist, just under different agencies.
“They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” Trump said.
Those in favor of shuttering the agency have pointed to the “Nation’s Report Card,” the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released every two years, released on Jan. 27. The exam tests fourth and eighth grade students and found almost stagnant math scores for eighth graders compared to 2022. Reading scores dropped two points at both grade levels.
As a result, Trump said without evidence that new efforts to upend the Department of Education would allow states like Texas to provide education comparable to countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
“And then you’ll have some laggards, and we’ll work with them,” Trump said. “And we can all tell you who the laggards will be, right now, probably, but let’s not get into that.”
Here’s also what Trump did this week:
Calls to impeach federal judge
Trump called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in a social media post Tuesday, prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement condemning Trump’s remarks.
Trump’s pushback stems from Boasberg issuing an order on Saturday halting the Trump administration from deporting migrants allegedly part of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The law permits deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing.
The flights carrying the migrants continued to El Salvador, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday the order had “no lawful basis” since Boasberg issued it after the flights departed from U.S. airspace.
JUDGES BLOCKING TRUMP’S ORDERS ARE ACTING ‘ERRONEOUSLY,’ WHITE HOUSE SAYS
In response to Boasberg’s order, Trump said the judge should be impeached. However, Roberts said that “it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Boasberg’s order is one of multiple injunctions issued against the Trump administration, blocking various executive orders he’s signed since taking office in January. The White House has accused judges of behaving as partisan activists to stop Trump’s agenda.
“I would like to point out that the judges in this country are acting erroneously,” Leavitt said in a Wednesday news briefing. “We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench.”
Plans for new, next-gen F-47 fighter jet
Trump also announced that Boeing had won out among defense companies for a contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet, known as the F-47.
“I’m thrilled to announce that at my direction the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office at the White House. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be called the ‘F-47,’ the generals picked that title.”
BOEING TO BUILD NEXT-GEN ‘F-47’ US FIGHTER JET, TRUMP ANNOUNCES
The Next Generation Air Defense initiative that the Biden administration put on the back burner will oversee the effort. The Trump administration revived the program, a move that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Friday “sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere, and to our enemies that we will be able to project power around the globe.”
An experimental version of the jet has been covertly flying for “years,” according to Trump.
“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” Trump said.
Calls with Putin, Zelenskyy
Trump also spoke with both Putin and Zelenskyy this week over the phone, amid ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Following the calls, both Russia and Ukraine agreed to a limited ceasefire against energy. The next step is for respective teams to conduct meetings to navigate how to reach a full ceasefire, according to the White House.
“Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security. President Zelenskyy was grateful for the President’s leadership in this effort and reiterated his willingness to adopt a full ceasefire.”
The Associated Press and Fox News’ Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
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