Donald Trump could take the final steps toward shuttering the Department of Education within 24 hours.

The president is anticipated to approve an executive order that will result in the elimination of the department as early as Thursday, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Referring to a preliminary version of the order, the report stated that Education Secretary Linda McMahon is expected to oversee all essential actions to help shut down the Education Department.

This will be done to ‘the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.’

As per the report, the initial order states: ‘The attempt to regulate American education through Federal initiatives and funding – and the unevaluated government officials those initiatives and funding endorse – has not been successful for our children, educators, and families.’

McMahon was only recently appointed to lead the doomed 4,200-person federal agency. 

She reportedly sent a company-wide email to staff on Monday in which she described her task of dismantling the department as a ‘momentous final mission.’

She said she had been ‘tasked… with accomplishing the elimination of the bureaucratic bloat here at the Education Department – a momentous final mission – quickly and responsibly.’ 

Donald Trump could shutter the Department of Education within 24 hours

McMahon (pictured ahead of Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress) will reportedly be helming the dismantling of her agency

Citing a draft of the order, the publication reported that Education Secretary Linda McMahon will be tasked with taking ‘all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department’ 

‘I want Linda to put herself out of a job,’ Trump said of McMahon in February.

The Department of Education has been low hanging fruit for Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. 

Already DOGE has celebrated cutting billions of dollars from the agency, over half a billion of which came from canceling DEI grants. 

And last month, Trump said the Education Department was ‘a big con job’ and that ‘I’d like to close it immediately.’ 

During her confirmation hearing in February, McMahon lauded the work of the Musk-led group. 

‘So DOGE, there are a couple of implants at the Department of Education as there are with agencies throughout the district,’ McMahon said.  ‘They’re doing an audit.’ 

During the session she claimed the department was guilty of ‘excessive consolidation of power,’ and called for ‘education freedom, not government-run systems.’ 

The Department of Education has been low hanging fruit for Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative

McMahon (pictured with  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr) vowed to lead the Education Department’s ‘momentous final mission’

‘I want Linda to put herself out of a job ,’ Trump said of McMahon in February

McMahon was recently pictured alongside Marco Rubio and President Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House

‘Listen to parents, not politicians,’ she said. ‘Build up careers, not college debt.’

Trump vowed during his election campaign to end what he called ‘wokeness’ and ‘indoctrination’ at the agency.

Education Department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said earlier this week that McMahon was very clear in her intention to bring Trump’s vision to life.

‘He was very clear about what his vision for the department looked like, and Secretary McMahon was clear in the hearing that she is here to implement his agenda,’ she said.

Trump advisers were reportedly considering executive actions to effectively dismantle the Education Department without falling foul of the law as soon as he returned to the White House.

They had reportedly discussed an executive order which would ‘shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments.’

That suggests officials concluded Trump could not get rid of the agency outright without buy-in from Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in both houses.

The order could call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department.