A prominent Republican U.S. Senator is praising the Trump administration’s aggressive push to drastically slash staffing, programs, and the scope of the U.S. Department of Education, as it aims for its complete elimination. U.S. Senator Jim Banks of Indiana asserts that the federal laws overseen by the agency—particularly those protecting children, including minority and disabled students—will be enforced by all 50 states.

In general, states lack the legal authority and jurisdiction to enforce federal law.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced on Tuesday that approximately 50% of the workforce of her agency, about 1300 employees, will be terminated. She said it is the first step in entirely eliminating the agency, which technically would require an act of Congress.

“This has been a long time coming,” Banks told Fox News, urging Congress to “abolish” the Department of Education. Banks also pushed so-called “school choice,” programs which allow taxpayer dollars to be used for private and religious schools.

READ MORE: Egg Prices Have ‘Soared’ — Trump Insists They Have ‘Come Down a Lot’

“I think it’s simple,” Senator Banks, a far-right Republican and former Chair of the ultra-conservative House Republican Study Committee, told Fox News on Wednesday (video below) when asked how disabled school children will be protected without the federal agency.

“That will be done at the state level. A federal bureaucrat who’s in Washington, D.C., can’t protect schools and kids in Indiana,” Banks insisted. “Getting the federal government out of the way and letting schools take care of these issues with those tax dollars — more tax dollars will be spent at the local level — will help that happen in a much better way.”

Senator Banks’s own state of Indiana has a less than stellar record of compliance with federal — and even its own state — nondiscrimination laws, going back as far as the 1940s and 1950s.

Later, Senator Banks declared, “It’s long past time that we have a President who is serious about getting the federal government out of education.”

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday that she will take the Trump administration to court over its attempts to shut down the Department of Education.

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“The U.S. Department of Education is vital to our students, our teachers, our parents, and countless communities across our nation. Gutting this agency is illegal and will harm millions. We will once again see this administration in court,” James wrote.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s website, the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children.”

That federal law prior to 1990 was called the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). It was enacted “in 1975 to support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their families.”

The Dept. of Education also noted that “Before EHA, many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. In 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or had an intellectual disability.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

FOX NEWS: The Department of Education is tasked with protecting disabled students across America. How are you going defend this?

SEN. JIM BANKS: I think it’s simple. That will be done at the state level. pic.twitter.com/qTm7hlZPTq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2025

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

As President Donald Trump showcased Tesla electric vehicles on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday, he faced questions about the timing of what is being called a “car commercial.” With stock markets tumbling—taking retirement accounts with them—and some Americans grappling with job uncertainty, some wondered about his decision to highlight automobiles made by a company run by his top advisor and largest donor, Elon Musk.

But President Trump insisted everything was fine.

“Well I think they’re going to do great,” he said, insisting that prices are “all coming down” as he complained about the economy he “inherited.”

“We didn’t have these problems,” Trump told reporters, referring to his first term in office.

READ MORE: ‘Cower Before a Mad King’: GOP Moves to ‘Surrender’ Congress’ Power Over Trump’s Tariffs

“I had no inflation. I had a great economy. He gave you high prices,” Trump said, criticizing President Joe Biden.

“You couldn’t buy bacon, you couldn’t buy anything, and also, I inherited a situation with eggs,” Trump said. “The price of eggs was through the roof. Well, now the price of eggs has come down a lot.”

“It’s all coming down. It’s all a beautiful thing,” Trump proclaimed.

Wednesday morning, The Associated Press reported, “US egg prices increased by an average of 10.4% last month, Consumer Price Index shows.”

“Egg prices have soared nearly 59% compared with a year ago, and is by far the highest inflated price on the Consumer Price Index report,” Fox9, a Fox affiliate, added.

The Consumer Price Index released one month ago also showed egg prices had risen to a “record high.”

“Egg prices hit a record high as the U.S. contends with an ongoing bird flu outbreak, but consumers didn’t need government figures … to tell them eggs are terribly expensive and hard to find at times,” the Associated Press reported last month.

READ MORE: ‘Heartless’: Trump’s $660 Million School Food Cut Is Latest GOP Attack on Nutrition Aid

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins declared that the “average cost of a dozen eggs has now gone down $1.85 since we announced our plan about a week-and-a-half ago,” before appearing to also blame the high cost of eggs on “Easter season.”

Separately on Tuesday, Secretary Rollins wrote: “Wholesale egg prices dropped roughly ~$2.60/dozen from their peak this month — prices will likely fluctuate but relief is in sight as we fix what Biden broke!”

Secretary Rollins did not mention her source, but the weekly “Egg Markets Overview,” a publication of her USDA, on March 7 reported that a decline in demand was the cause for lower wholesale egg prices.

Last week, Secretary Rollins suggested Americans might want to consider raising chickens in their backyards to alleviate the high cost of eggs.

Watch the Trump Tesla event below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrat Schools Musk on ‘What Makes America Great’ After He’s Called a ‘Traitor’

Image via Reuters

As the stock market continues to drop due to President Donald Trump’s tariff program and resulting anxiety over the possible recession economists warn may come — reinforced by his refusal to rule one out — the President has decided to go on a campaign to promote Tesla, the electric vehicle company owned by the leader of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk. Tesla’s stock price reportedly had been sliced nearly in half since Trump was elected.

Late Tuesday afternoon Trump and Musk “turned the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom in a conspicuous favor to his adviser Elon Musk,” NBC News reported. “Tesla delivered five of its vehicles to the White House and parked them on a driveway for Trump to personally inspect, hours after he said in a post on his app Truth Social that he planned to buy a Tesla to demonstrate his support for Musk and for the slumping car company.”

READ MORE: ‘Cower Before a Mad King’: GOP Moves to ‘Surrender’ Congress’ Power Over Trump’s Tariffs

CNN called it “an extraordinary scene” as Trump “effectively held a combination press conference and live Tesla ad outside the White House,” while noting that “Tesla stock climbed on Tuesday, with Trump saying that he would label any violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.”

“I will do that. I’m gonna stop them.” — Trump on declaring that Tesla protesters are domestic terrorists

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM

Many Americans are increasingly concerned about the economy as Trump’s tariffs start to take hold and the markets continue to drop. The DOW, for example, has lost 2800 points in the past month, including Tuesday’s drop of 478 points.

Trump lavished praise on Musk’s Model S, repeatedly calling it “beautiful” and expressing surprise, remarking, “everything’s computer.” His remarks are in stark contrast to his history of denouncing electric vehicles, and more recently, indicating he plans to make it more expensive for Americans to buy them.

According to Kelley Blue Book, the Model S starts at $76,880.

During the event, Musk lavished praise on President Trump, declaring, “As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to DOUBLE vehicle output in the United States within the next two years. Double.”

Trump told reporters he was going to buy a Tesla today “because number one this is a great product, as good as it gets, and number two because this man has devoted his energy, and his life to doing this.”

“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people, Trump continued. Earlier this week on social media Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics” for “illegally,” he claimed, boycotting Tesla.

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“And I just want people to know that you can’t be penalized for being a patriot. And he’s a great patriot. And he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla and I mean, nobody else has a car company started up in the last 30 years that’s been successful, and I don’t think so. And not only successful, but super successful and because he’s able to find billions and billions and billions of dollars of fraud and waste and all other things.”

News reports question the evidence of fraud and waste unearthed by Musk’s DOGE team.

“I mean, our country is gonna be very strong very soon,” Trump added, “because of a lot of the things that he’s done, and a lot of the things that I’m doing. And uh this there is no better team, but there’s no better for what we’re doing. There’s nobody like this, and he shouldn’t be penalized, and when I watched the other day, I said, I can’t believe it. It should be the opposite.”

But it was Fox News’ Peter Doocy, known for his attacks on the Biden administration, who shifted the conversation, challenging the event that resembled a presidential endorsement of Tesla.

“President Trump, buying a new car while there are some folks who will see this clip at home, and they are struggling with their retirement accounts — down at the moment — uncertainty about work ahead,” he told Trump.

“Well I think they’re going to do great,” Trump declared, bypassing the line of questioning. “Our country had to do this. We had to go and do this.”

“Other countries have taken away our business. They’ve taken away our jobs,” Trump insisted.

DOOCY: You’re buying a new car. There are some folks who will see this clip at home and they are struggling with their retirement accounts down at the moment.

TRUMP: Well I think they’re gonna go great. Our country had to do this.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 11, 2025 at 3:49 PM

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrat Schools Musk on ‘What Makes America Great’ After He’s Called a ‘Traitor’

Image via Reuters