Trump Calls Education Department a ‘Con Job,’ Wants It Closed ‘Immediately’

"If we’re ranked No. 40, that means something’s really wrong."

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Could the Department of Education (DOE), a massive boondoggle that has done nothing but oversee a decline in the quality of American education and the substitution of wokism for readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic, really go away? If Donald Trump wins yet another victory, it will.

Fox News reported Wednesday that reporters asked Trump how soon he wanted the department closed. “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately,” the president replied. “Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job. They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.” Trump also “said the last time he looked at where the U.S. ranked in education, it was 38th, but then he looked two days ago, and the country had fallen to No. 40.”

Trump also noted that China’s educational system appears to be in fine condition: “As big as it is, it’s ranked in the top five, and that’s our… primary competitor. So if we’re ranked No. 40, that means something’s really wrong.”

Yes. And it has been wrong for a very long time. Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education, and one of Ronald Reagan’s campaign promises was that he would close it, as it was an unnecessary centralization and bureaucratization of an educational system that had been getting along fine without a Cabinet-level federal agency. When Reagan took office, he appointed Terrel Bell to be his secretary of education, with the explicit task of dismantling the department. In this case, however, the swamp beat the Gipper, and the Education Department stayed open.

All these years later, however, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is proving to be up to the task it was given. Fox noted that “DOGE announced Monday that $881 million related to 89 DOE contracts was being cut. Of that $881 million, DOGE identified $101 million that was being used for DEI training, including teaching educators to ‘help students understand/interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.” Elon Musk pointed out what was no less outrageous for being obvious: “Your tax dollars were spent on this.”

Trump has also “signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT), and another to support school choice.” Nature abhors a vacuum, however. One hopes that Trump will also eventually mandate that American education be focused upon fostering a sense of patriotism, pride in one’s country, culture, and heritage, and the importance of national unity over identity politics and the Balkanization of America into a multitude of mutually hostile racial and ethnic identity factions.

Whatever happens, however, the decline in the quality of American education makes it abundantly clear that the Department of Education has been a massive failure. Reagan was right in his initial determination to close it down, and now it’s better late than never. If the DOE continues, far-left, green-haired, nose-ringed “educators” will continue to push their socialist internationalist agenda of gender delusion and hatred of America upon a new generation of schoolchildren. A nation that teaches its own children to hate itself will not long endure.

Still, Trump and DOGE face an uphill battle in trying to slay this particular dragon. Ever since the days of the New Deal, the federal government has been growing, and growing, and growing. It has been an iron law that no matter how useless or wasteful a government program is, it never goes away. Numerous politicians have been elected on pledges to cut the out-of-control growth of government spending, but all any of them have managed to do is to slow the rate of growth, not stop it altogether, much less reverse it.

Now, however, Donald Trump is taking real action to end fraud and waste in government, and those who have benefited all these years from that fraud and waste are howling. Much more than just the Department of Education is at stake.

Homeland Sec. Noem calls out Biden admin in NC

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Trump Calls for 1,500,000 Gazans to Be Moved to Egypt and Jordan

A proposal that deserves serious consideration.

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Trump has described Gaza as a “real mess” and a “demolition site.” He wants two-thirds of the population in Gaza — 1.5 million out of a total of 2.2 million people — to be removed and resettled in Jordan and Egypt.The proposal is startling, but deserves serious consideration. More on his proposal can be found here: “Trump: Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza,” Jerusalem Post, January 

US President Donald Trump said that Jordan and Egypt should take in more Palestinians from Gaza, when he spoke to reporters on Saturday.

Trump said he spoke about the matter with Jordan’s King Abdullah on the phone earlier in the day and told him that the Gaza Strip is currently a “real mess.”

He said that he told King Abdullah during the call, “I’d love for you [Jordan] to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza strip right now, and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people.”

King Abdullah relies heavily on American aid, which in recent years has made Jordan the third-highest recipient of such aid, after Israel and Egypt (and excluding the extraordinary sums given to Ukraine, which are likely to soon end). It would be difficult for him to refuse Trump’s request; he might have to agree to taking in about a quarter of that number, about 375,000, with Egypt, a much larger country, taking in the rest — 1,125,000.

With only 700,000 people remaining in Gaza after 1.5 million were transferred to Jordan and Egypt, the reduced numbers will make it much harder for Hamas, as a consequence of this transfer, to continue to be a threat to Israel. And with Gaza’s population so greatly reduced, the IDF’s task of locating and killing Hamas terrorists will be made much easier. Is it any wonder that Smotrich and Ben Gvir welcomed Trump’s proposal?

Trump has, in his first week in office, put a hold on all foreign aid, except for military aid to Israel and Egypt. He should make clear to General El-Sisi that he expects to continue to exempt Egypt from the general withholding of aid as long as Egypt shows a willingness to accept Gazans for resettlement. Jordan, like all recipients of American foreign aid, except Israel and Egypt, has just had its aid frozen; Trump could also make clear to King Abdullah that restoring aid to Jordan will depend on his willingness to take in a few hundred thousand Gazans.

The proposal could be presented to the world as what it, in fact, is meant to be: a humanitarian enterprise, helping Gazans out of their current misery, though it would bring geopolitical benefits to Israel as well.

The humanitarian aspect would be clear: Gazans who are now living in tents in what is a vast “demolition site” and hardly able to move through the piles of rubble that we see every night on the news, would be moved to the safety and much greater comfort of homes newly built for them in Egypt and Jordan, which would be paid for, in Trump’s calculations, not by the Americans, but by the fabulously rich Arab states of the Gulf — Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Would Jordan and Egypt be seen to reject helping their Palestinian brothers? And could the two richest of the Arab states, that each possess trillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds, refuse to pay for the building of those 1.5 million prefabricated homes that could be quickly erected? And to sweeten the pot, and overcome any reluctance to take part, Trump could perhaps increase his economic — but not military — aid to both Jordan and Egypt.

Here's how Trump put his proposal:

“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just cleaned out that whole thing,” Trump said. “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”

This is one of those Trump surprises that at first glance seem so crazy, but then, the more you think about them, the more sense they make.

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Iran Calls on Islamic Nations to Sever Ties With Israel

Grand plans to unify and magnify the Muslim Ummah.

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/iran-calls-on-islamic-nations-to-sever-ties-with-israel; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]

Virtually all of the states in the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (56 nations and “Palestine,” which is not a state) support the interests, causes and ambitions of their Palestinian “brothers,” with no acknowledgement of Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. This was crystal clear at the recent OIC summit in Gambia. “Gaza tops agenda at Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit,” Africa News, May 5, 2024:

The 15th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation got underway on Saturday in the Gambian capital, Banjul, with the conflict in Gaza at the top of the agenda….

The OIC condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza and reaffirmed the organisation’s support for, and commitment to the people of Palestine.

The rogue nation of Iran, the main funder of Hamas, which is embraced by the OIC, was present. Less than two weeks prior to October 7, the Secretary General of the OIC, Hissein Brahim Taha, emphasized the need for unity among Muslim nations, stressing the importance of Iran’s place in “Muslim unity” in dealing with “common threats,” as he referenced “the Zionist regime.” In mid-October, the OIC accused Israel of “crimes against humanity,” with no mention of Hamas atrocities.

Saudi Arabia is a key member of the OIC, and it included Iran in its commitment to host Arab and Islamic summits in order to promote “peace” and discuss Gaza the conflict. With talk frequently circulating in the West about Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, the Saudis have already laid out their demand for Israel to return to the pre-1967 Auschwitz borders, and blamed Israel as “occupiers” on the very date of Hamas’ savagery, October 7. Until Israel signals that it is willing to return to the pre-1967 borders, which it has not done, normalization with Saudi Arabia is in question, despite the subject being a focal point of the Biden administration, with many following along. It is up to Israel to normalize the negotiated conditions, not to the Biden administration working with Saudi Arabia in Israel’s absence.

Although the Saudis will continue to push for normalization to benefit from its economic growth, so far it has presented its own conditions and interests, not Israel’s. Saudi Arabia is more loyal to the Muslim ummah, and proved it in spades at the Gambia OIC summit, where its Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan reaffirmed “the Kingdom’s call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, safe humanitarian corridors, and the fulfillment of Palestinians’ legitimate rights, including their right to self-determination and an independent state.” Faisal also “expressed regret over the failure of the UN Security Council and the international community to halt Israeli attacks on Palestinians”; and just in case there is still any ambiguity where the Saudis stand, Faisal added: “The Palestinian cause has remained a priority for the OIC since its inception,”  adding:

“It is unfortunate to witness the failure of the Security Council and the international community to halt unprecedented Israeli attacks, which have escalated through indiscriminate shelling, destruction of hospitals, schools, shelters, and infrastructure in Gaza, leaving thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly, as victims,”

Iran meanwhile, called on Islamic countries “to sever ties with Israeli regime.” Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian delegitimized the State of Israel in his speech:

Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only occupying apartheid power…Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.

There is no doubt that severing diplomatic and economic relations and practical arms and trade embargo is an important tool in stopping Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its crimes in the West Bank and Al-Quds Al-Sharif. We sincerely appreciate the Muslim and freedom-loving governments and countries that took action in this direction…

Abdollahian’s words echoed Article 19 of the Palestinian National Charter:

The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations; particularly the right to self-determination.

The Palestinian “resistance” against Israel “from the River to the Sea” means the obliteration of Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The Palestinian cause remains central to the OIC. In remarks at the summit, Gambia’s President Adama Barrow blamed Palestinian oppression and “endless human suffering” on Israel from the day of Israel’s founding. The OIC stood unified in condemning “Israel’s attacks on Gaza and reaffirmed the organisation’s support for, and commitment to, the people of Palestine.”

But where was the condemnation of Hamas?

In the next stage of the 15th OIC session, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar “expressed his deep concern over Israel’s ‘brutal military onslaught.’” He also urged OIC member states “to formulate a joint strategy to fight Islamophobia at the global level, work together to bring in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and implement its ‘Action Plan’ on Jammu and Kashmir.” Pakistan, known for its cruel blasphemy laws, zeroed in on the rise of “Islamophobia,” while ignoring, of course, the antisemitism has risen to alarming proportions since October 7.

The goals of obliterating Israel, the conquest of India, and pushing Islamic blasphemy laws globally — using the “Islamophobia” subterfuge — have been primary concerns of Islamic supremacists everywhere.

In keeping with the principle of striking the iron while it’s hot, expect an increase in collective antagonism to emerge from the OIC summit, not only toward Israel, but against Western interests, particularly in the face of a weak leader such as Joe Biden. Days ago, Biden was ripped for bringing up “Islamophobia” amid the worst outbreak of antisemitism in decades. His alignment with OIC interests is certain to be noted globally.

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Christine Williams

Christine Douglass-Williams is Associate Editor of Frontpage, regular writer for Jihad Watch, a nine-time award-winning journalist, past Canadian government appointee to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Office of Religious Freedom; author of "The Challenge of Modernizing Islam" and "Fired by the Canadian Government for Criticizing Islam".