The College Fix

OPINION: President Trump is delivering on his promise to cut government spending. Every dollar helps trim down our bloated budget

Much like an obese person who is trying to lose weight, President Donald Trump is starting off his government waste initiative by tossing the junk food out first.

In this case, the Department of Education has announced nearly $1 billion in wasteful spending in just a few days.

The cuts include “$600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies” and “$350 million in woke spending.”

The teacher training cuts will have benefits down the road, as future educators learn less about “white privilege” and “systemic racism” and more about math and teaching kids how to read.

Grant applications focused on “[b]uilding historical and sociopolitical understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning instruction relationship building discipline and assessment,” according to examples provided by the Dept. of Ed.

The “woke spending” cuts included “grants to four Equity Assistance Centers totaling $33 million, which supported divisive training in DEI, Critical Race Theory, and gender identity for state and local education agencies as well as school boards.”

Naysayers against Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency will say the $1 billion is just a tiny cut and it does not make a difference when the federal government spends $7 trillion.

These people like to write long essays about how the cuts will face legal challenges or how the federal government cannot be changed because it’s a massive bureaucracy.

Now that someone is finally in office trying to make cuts to our bloated budget, the harping critics are confused as to what to complain about. They are the ones pouring grease on the pole instead of cheering the monkey on as he climbs to the top.

But these people do not understand politics (despite ostensibly getting paid to think and write about politics).

The Dept. of Ed. cuts, and others like it targeting the United States Aid to International Development, are smart because they are tangible. Some of the critics might be upset that no one ever read their 700-page briefing books about Medicare reform. All Elon Musk has to do is post on X about one crazy study or how much the government spends on premium Politico subscriptions, and it will drive the news cycle for days.

Average Americans do not think in large, abstract terms like think tank wonks and magazine essayists. Rather, they think about the silliness of government spending, like $70,000 on a DEI music festival in Ireland.

Trump and Musk understand storytelling and how to push a broader agenda through soundbites and anecdotes. Their critics fail to grasp this, which is why they remain without influence while the second Trump term continues to steamroll through the D.C. establishment.

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IMAGE: White House/X

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