‘The View’ Cohosts Rail Against Trump’s Plan to Dismantle the Department of Education

Amanda Bell February 13, 2025, 11:38 am

Another day, another Donald Trump decision for The View cohosts to dissect. On Thursday’s (February 13) edition, it was his stated plans to eliminate the Department of Education that had the panelists fired up as the first “Hot Topic.”

After reviewing footage of Trump saying he’d like it to be “closed immediately” and calling it “a big con job,” along with a segment of Elon Musk declaring he wants to “delete entire agencies,” cohosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin had their say.

“They just make things up,” Behar said about the White House’s explanation for the planned move. She also said that the part that makes her feel “crazy” is that the programs that are being targeted by the administration’s DOGE arm generally tend to service lower-income individuals. She added, “People should not put up with it.”

Hostin pointed out that this was something foretold in Project 2025, adding, “We warned everybody that that was the playbook, and it remains the playbook, and they are playing by that book.” She went on to play a clip from a congressman who pointed out how little financial impact eliminating the DoE would have on the federal budget before adding, “I think there’s a much more nefarious agenda for it. I think it’s because, without education, you get cheaper labor. I think what they want to do is create, in the United States, a permanent underclass, a permanent cheap workforce. Educated workers cost more. That is what they’re doing.”

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Griffin was more sympathetic to Trump’s argument that we’re paying a lot of money per student, adding, “For Democrats to act like they’re all saints and that this is horrible to get rid of anyone, most people have interacted with the federal government, and they think it is too inefficient. It doesn’t work.”

Haines argued that a move to turn all education administration to the states could have a very specific consequence: “Remember that throwing it back to the States has some massive risks in regard to indoctrinating of your kids. There are some really religious states. I go to church, love religion, [but] not my public schools and not my public institutions. That was a major virtue in the Constitution separating those two. When you leave this up to states, you’ve got 50 ways to approach it. There has to be federal oversight on something that is meeting our kids every day at school. And I would never leave that to the states.”

For Goldberg, the issue of spending cuts being ordered by a guy who just got another lucrative government contract is what really irked her. Citing the news that Musk got a $400 million contract for armored Teslas, she argued, “Cut that out.” (Note: That plan has reportedly been put on hold.)

She also listed off some of the things the Department of Education manages, including student financial aid, creating a national report card, and monitoring civil rights in schools, and concluded, “So basically, you’re saying to us, we’re on our own.” She then wondered, “I don’t know what our tax money is going to!”

“Why do we have to pay federal taxes?” Behar agreed.

The View, Weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC