The Morning Briefing: Trump Chips Away at the Department of Education, but Will It Be Enough?

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Kethelbryndtz eschewed sleep while working to finish his all-accordion opera tribute to the early works of Bea Arthur.

When President Trump was putting together his cabinet after the 2024 election, one of the picks I was most intrigued by and excited about was Linda McMahon. When he tapped her to be the Secretary of Education, it just felt like she had the right kind of outsider vibe necessary to dismantle the bureaucratic monstrosity and make her job obsolete. After the announcement, I wrote this:

The New York Times described McMahon as "a former professional wrestling executive with little experience in education policy." What the perennially clueless leftists don't understand is that it's a feature, not a bug in this situation.

It's been a mixed bag for me since she took over, but my expectations are pretty intense. The president and Secretary McMahon have to deal with bureaucratic realities while I'm dreaming of them taking a blowtorch to the whole department. Rather than deliver a knockout punch, they've been trying to weaken the Department of Education (ED) via a series of body blows in the form of offloading its duties elsewhere.

My RedState colleague Bob Hoge wrote about the latest news on that front:

President Donald Trump has long vowed to eliminate or at least vastly downsize the Department of Education, saying we should “shut [it] down” and “move education back to the states where it belongs.”
On Tuesday, the administration made moves to accomplish just that. Officials announced that they’re moving authority over key programs from the ED to other departments:

In this case, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services will be stepping in to help strip the ED down. (Side note, it's hilarious that Education is referred to as "ED" in order to avoid confusion with DoE — the Department of Energy. I think we all know what else "ED" refers to.)

Here is Secretary McMahon's explanation of these moves:

Parents: I've heard you.

Our four new partnerships, including to protect special education services and bolster civil rights enforcement, provides us with the best opportunity to address the very things you've told me need to be fixed. pic.twitter.com/mLEZSNbSuC
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) June 16, 2026

As a longtime skeptic of all things having to do with the federal bureaucracy, the dance about scaling back micromanagement while bolstering efficacy is a difficult sales pitch for me to buy. Still, I guess I can try to be open-minded and believe that some parts of the federal behemoth are run better than others. If I had to rank all of the cabinet-level departments in order of objectionability, Education would always be the worst of them.

True, this could be viewed as merely shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. As Bob goes on to note in his post, the head of the union that represents ED employees is complaining about it, so it must be a good move.

While I enjoy the idea of greatly weakening the Department of Education if it can't be completely eliminated, my fear is that it will be too easy to make it come roaring back the next time that the Democrats get their filthy, bureaucracy-loving hands on real power in Washington. They have a perverse talent for bloating the bureaucracy in the blink of an eye.

I've long lamented that Republicans haven't fought hard enough for school choice or been serious about diminishing the Department of Education. President Trump and Secretary McMahon may not be moving at the demolition pace that I would like, but they're doing a lot more than any of their GOP predecessors.

That will have to do for now.

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The Mailbag of Magnificence

My Polish-American compadre Gary B. gets us going today:

Jak Sie Masz - I've been waiting for your analysis of the World Cup but it doesn't seem to be happening. Many years ago, the Washington Post asked readers for suggestions that could be made to soccer that would make the game more interesting to American sports fans. My suggestion was one of several published. I suggested that the game be played backwards. Begin with penalty kicks and decide the winner in 20 minutes. Then take down the nets and allow the players to run around for 3 hours kicking the ball - just like a real game. You could stay and watch or go do something else knowing which team had already won. Apparently, FIFA didn't approve. BTW - my hunting camp in Northern Michigan is Camp NaZdrowie.

Dobrze. True, I haven't done any analysis yet, but Kevin and I have discussed the World Cup on "Unwoke" for two episodes in a row now. I have watched several games and, honestly, enjoyed them. Watching all of the international visitors fall in love with all things American has been amazing entertainment. You know it's wrecking the "America Last" Democrats. That's reason enough alone to enjoy this whole spectacle. Na Zdrowie!

Paul S. asks a question I think a lot of us have:

I support Trump 100%. I voted for him 3 times and would again if it were possible. I believe bombing the crap out of Iran was justified. My question is why did he stop?

First, I love talking about Trump running for a third term because it makes the proggies' heads go full Scanners. I'm not sure what the heck this Memorandum of Understanding is all about because international politics isn't my thing; I'm more of an American domestic wonk. I do believe that my good friend and partner in thought crime, Stephen Green, will be addressing the MOU, though.

Bruce F. will take us home today:

Dear Mr. Kruiser. Long time listener, first time caller. Thanks for the quick return to my college music memories! Going to have to go dig up some old INXS, Stray Cats, and R.E.M. to round out what would have been the start of a constant party playlist - if we had the ability to push a few buttons to create those back then. Closest we had was creating cassettes. Keep up the good work!

Because I was on the road so much, I was constantly making mix tapes for myself. It was easier than hauling around dozens of cassettes from individual artists. My two cents on a couple of the bands you mentioned: REM has been one of my favorites for a very long time. I only saw them live once, though. And Shabooh Shoobah has always been my favorite INXS album. I liked it a lot better than the ones the band found huge commercial success with. I've got "Don't Change" on a playlist I've been listening to a lot since last summer.

Thanks to everyone who's been writing!

Everything Isn't Awful

Story time.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/qzsGN2WxZu
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) June 16, 2026

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The Green Parrot - 1886 #artbots #vangogh pic.twitter.com/ZP61E5nSps
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