The Trump administration will not back away from its investigations on college campuses to stamp out antisemitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs despite an executive order to dismantle the Education Department, according to Secretary Linda McMahon.

President Donald Trump’s directive last week to shut down the department has not slowed down enforcement actions against colleges, with a multiagency task force meeting Tuesday to continue its work, McMahon said.

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HOW TRUMP WILL STILL USE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REGARDLESS OF PUSH TO SHUT IT DOWN

In response to a question from the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, McMahon insisted the dozens of colleges and universities under investigation should not take Trump’s closure order as a free pass.

“Absolutely not, because as of right now, we’ve not shifted any of those responsibilities,” McMahon said at the Education Department headquarters in Washington.

Should the department’s Office for Civil Rights, which has led the investigations, eventually be absorbed into the Justice Department as part of a broader dismantling of the agency, McMahon expressed confidence that Attorney General Pam Bondi would carry the torch.

“So if Office of Civil Rights were to shift, likely as not, it would go under DOJ and some of the staff that’s here may be taken,” McMahon said Tuesday during a roundtable discussion with a handful of reporters. “I’ve had no conversation with the attorney general, except for the fact that this may be happening. Clearly, their Office of Civil Rights [is] very geared up, very ready to take on that kind of responsibility. So rather than a free pass, understand that we have an attorney general that means business.”

The Education Department has gone on offense under the Trump administration with a flurry of letters to colleges and universities on alleged civil rights violations and warnings that federal funding could be yanked for noncompliance.

Just days after her confirmation as secretary, the department’s Office for Civil Rights sent investigation letters to 60 colleges for antisemitic harassment and another 45 colleges and universities for race-based DEI programs.

In the most high-profile move yet, the Education Department joined other federal agencies in pulling $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing the private Ivy League school’s alleged inaction in protecting Jewish students from discrimination. Columbia has since agreed to certain Trump administration demands, including a mask ban and allowing campus police to make arrests, but funding has not yet been restored.

McMahon did not offer a timeline for funding restoration. Rather, she said Columbia’s concessions were merely to get to the bargaining table.

“They have to abide and comply with the terms,” McMahon told another reporter, adding that the deal was needed as a first step to start “total negotiations to restore the defunding.”

McMahon said Columbia’s campus protests in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent counterattack on Gaza turned dangerous and warranted the federal action.

“This is a civil rights issue and a safety issue on campus, which is why we participated in defunding relative to Columbia because of the antisemitism actions on campus that really produced danger to students,” McMahon said. “Faculty were attacked. Students were locked in the library. [We] talked to students who said they were afraid to walk across campus. They didn’t feel safe. I don’t think that’s the education environment that federal funding [support] is going to allow.”

Trump signed an executive order Thursday at a White House ceremony featuring schoolchildren, directing McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”

While Congress would have to pass a law to formally shut the department down, Trump’s order directs McMahon to “return authority over education to the states and local communities” but also to ensure the congressionally authorized programs such as federal student aid and special education services are “uninterrupted” during the dismantling.

McMahon kickstarted the process by laying off nearly 50% of the department’s staff, from
4,133 workers to 2,183.

As part of the shutdown, Trump said Friday that the Small Business Administration will take over federal student loan programs and the Department of Health and Human Services will take over programs for children with special needs.

That reorganization, however, will take some time.

TRUMP’S EDUCATION EXECUTIVE ORDER FACES CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGAL HURDLES

“The president has talked about potentially our … student loans going over to SBA, so we’re working with SBA and Treasury on that,” McMahon said Tuesday. “Also, the HHS would take over our special needs, our IDEA funding, and a lot of the Title I funding (for low-income students) probably would go through HHS as well.”

The Washington Examiner contacted the Justice Department and Columbia University for comment.