“Christopher Rufo, one of the conservative intellectuals shaping the ideological foundation of Trumpism, made a revealing statement in a recent New York Times podcast. When asked by the journalist why he advocates dismantling the Department of Education rather than simply eliminating its most controversial programs while keeping those that are popular and widely considered useful, Rufo responds that if part of the staff remains, they will simply wait out the next election cycle: ‘We have a system that is accountable to no one. And when the culture and bureaucracy of that system are captured, you get the status quo of the first Trump administration, with a radically leftist Department of Education that only funds radically leftist causes.’ The solution, then, is to tear everything down in order to permanently change both the culture and the institution itself.” (Le Monde, https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/03/19/trump-has-already-surpassed-his-hungarian-and-polish-models_6739313_23.html)