The Trump team’s dismantlement of the U.S. Department of Education continues apace, indeed has now reached the very top of the organization.
On March 26, Education Secretary Linda McMahon arrived at her customary office atop the undistinguished Lyndon Baines Johnson Building at 400 Maryland Avenue SW, only to find it nearly empty. The administration had just announced that the Department of Energy would be taking over the space.
There was no desk, no computer. Her many photos and citations still covered the walls, including seventeen awards from World Wrestling Entertainment. But the lights were off and no aides were visible, though when she had departed a few days earlier on her latest Returning Education to the States tour—her fifth straight time to Palm Beach—all 27 members of her personal staff were present to see her off.
Now, however, nobody was present in the office of the Secretary except one associate assistant deputy to the deputy assistant to the Secretary’s assistant deputy. “What’s happened?,” McMahon asked this nephew-in-law of Stephen Miller. “Oh, Madam Secretary,” he replied, “didn’t they tell you? We’re being dismantled and returned to the states.”
“What do you mean, ‘returned to the states?’” asked the McMahon. “I am the U.S. Secretary of Education and this is my office. It’s the functions of the Department that are supposed to be returned to the states, not the leader.”
“You’re definitely still the leader,” the young man explained, “but we won’t be leading from here. You have a lovely new office set-up in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, near the soon-to-reopen Three Mile Island energy facility. Although your staff will be spread across the country.
“Well, I never!” quoth the Secretary.
The young man checked his phone. “The closest airport is Reagan National.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” McMahon said, picking up her bag and one of her championship belts.
He hesitated. “Though…you may want to allow extra time.”
“For traffic?”
“For…ICE.”
