There is no correlation between the amount of money spent on education and education results, but according to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel on his Thursday show, the reason why President Donald Trump wants to get rid of the Department of Education is because it will make people too dumb to criticize him.
Kimmel began by reporting, “Today, he set in motion his plan to dissolve the Department of Education. He directed his new Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the one from wrestling, that's right, WWE co-founder Linda McMahon will supervise the important work of dismantling the Department of Education.”
Switching to his sarcastic mode, Kimmel continued, “Good for him, though. Another genius tactical move. I'll tell you why. He keeps getting attacked by all these smart people, so what does he do? He outlaws smart. There will be no more smart.”
As for McMahon, Kimmel quipped, “Of course, it's also a win for Linda McMahon. The less educated we are, the more likely we are to believe that wrestling is real.”
Kimmel also alleged that any attempt to bring about a federalist approach to education won’t work because some states are too stupid to know how to spell their own name:
It's interesting how this will work. An executive order to close the department would likely require 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans only have 53 seats in the Senate, so they won't get that, but they will be able to bleed the department out. Their plan, they say, is to turn control over education to the states. In other words: bad news, Mississippi, your kids aren't going to be able to spell ‘Mississippi’ anymore.
Maybe the joke should have been making fun of the inference that allegedly nobody in Mississippi knew how to spell prior to the Department of Education’s founding in 1979.
Here is a transcript for the March 6 show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
3/6/2025
11:36 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: Today, he set in motion his plan to dissolve the Department of Education. He directed his new Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the one from wrestling, that's right, WWE co-founder Linda McMahon will supervise the important work of dismantling the Department of Education.
Good for him, though. Another genius tactical move. I'll tell you why. He keeps getting attacked by all these smart people, so what does he do? He outlaws smart. There will be no more smart.
Of course, it's also a win for Linda McMahon. The less educated we are, the more likely we are to believe that wrestling is real. It's interesting how this will work. An executive order to close the department would likely require 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans only have 53 seats in the Senate, so they won't get that, but they will be able to bleed the department out. Their plan, they say, is to turn control over education to the states. In other words: bad news, Mississippi, your kids aren't going to be able to spell "Mississippi" anymore.
