During his inaugural address on January 20th, a newly-appointed President Donald Trump stood in the Capitol Rotunda and offered a preview of the next four years, including his plans for the U.S. education system: “We have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves—in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.” Since then, Trump has signed over 50 executive orders, a record-breaking number for the first few weeks of a presidency, many of them targeting vulnerable students. Opponents of his administration, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have posited that this is a ploy to “overwhelm” the public with rapid developments, invoking a “state of passivity” and preventing defensive measures from being taken.

“We need to try,” said Ocasio-Cortez in an Instagram livestream. “I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh, we can’t do that. That’s impossible.’ That’s called consenting in advance.” In the spirit of focused and effective opposition, here are some of the latest developments from the Trump administration that will most affect students.

During his first term, President Trump sought to shrink the Department of Education. Although he campaigned on the promise of dismantling the department entirely in 2016, just as he did in 2024, the plan never got off the ground once he entered office. Despite this, the Trump administration had a notable impact on the education system: at the midpoint of his presidency, the office of elementary and secondary education (which oversees funding for vulnerable students at K-12 schools) had lost 14% of its staff. Trump’s first education secretary pick, Betsy DeVos, pushed for religious education, reversed certain protections for transgender and BIPOC students, and threatened to cut federal funding to schools that refused to reopen during the pandemic. She ironically advocated for reduced spending on her department, wrote new Title IX regulations aimed at protecting accused college students rather than victims of sexual assault, and criticized teacher unions.

The impact Trump’s first term left on the U.S. education system, however, seems almost quaint compared to the formidable education policies he ran on prior to the 2024 election, and the slew of executive orders he has signed since. His new education secretary pick is Linda McMahon, who may be looking at a short term if Trump follows through on his intention to gut the Department of Education: “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job,’” said Trump this past Tuesday. On February 12, Trump stated that he would like the Education Department “to be closed completely,” calling it a “big con job.” Although closing a government agency is not as simple as signing an executive order—it would require congressional approval—doing so would disrupt billions of dollars in student aid and college tuition assistance.

McMahon was previously president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where she infamously turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of minor boys occuring within her organization. McMahon’s experience in academia is limited to the year she spent on Connecticut’s State Board of Education, but her former position as chair of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and her $22 million donation to his campaign seemingly made her a shoe-in for the position. 

If she is confirmed as education secretary (a likely event, given that all of Trump’s cabinet picks have been confirmed thus far), McMahon, according to the AFPI website, intends to support “parental rights in education,” “state and district control of education,” and “reducing the federal education bureaucracy,” while opposing “political indoctrination in classrooms,” and “government overreach.” Parental rights in education, while innocuous-sounding, stems from the Parental Rights in Education Act (also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law) signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022. The goals of this act were to restrict classroom instruction and discussion on topics such as gender and sexuality, require schools to notify parents if students seek out mental and physical health services (notably, to notify parents if a student is questioning their gender identity), and to allow parents to opt their child out of these services. 

Paired with McMahon’s intention to place decisions about education into district and state hands, these policies could allow schools in homophobic and transphobic areas to similarly restrict LGBTQ+ students’ education and endanger their physical and emotional wellbeing. Transgender students—particularly trangender women—are major targets of the Trump administration. One of Trump’s latest executive orders prevents transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports, another restricted federal funds for gender-affirming healthcare for minors, another restricts “indoctrination…based on gender ideaology” in K-12 schools.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives—which originated during the civil rights movement when non-discrimination policies were introduced in academia and corporate America—first became a hot-button issue for Trump and his supporters during his 2016 presidential campaign, and Trump’s mission to eliminate DEI initiatives and affirmative action has continued into his second term. The executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” in sweeping and repressive terms, aims to ban DEI efforts in the federal government (all race and gender-focused programs have been eliminated and federal staff is required to report any disguised continuation of these programs), although it also nods toward DEI programs in colleges. Under this order, “up to nine” colleges with DEI policies that are deemed to be in violation of federal civil rights laws will be identified, as a way to discourage all institutions of higher education from continuing their diversity efforts

In line with the xenophobia of Trump’s first term and campaign trail, the new administration has already taken aggressive action against international and undocumented college students, especially those who have been involved in campus protests. The “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” order, which establishes Homeland Security Task Forces in every state, also requires the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to: “Immediately review and, if appropriate, audit all contracts, grants, or other agreements providing Federal funding to non-governmental organizations supporting or providing services, either directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens,” and pause funding based on the results of these reviews. This could cut funding to institutions that enroll and offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, and those that operate legal aid clinics. 

Another order, titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” makes the vetting process for all visa applicants stricter (this includes F-1 and J-1 students) and requires that applicants “do not bear hostile attitudes toward [the United States’] citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.” This has enormous implications for international college students who participated in pro-Palestine protests, as does an add-on to the 2019  “Executive Order to Combat Anti-Semitism,” which enourages institutions to “monitor for and report activities by alien students,” with the overall objective to “remove such aliens” if deemed necessary. On January 30, Trump said of this executive order: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Of course, education-focused executive orders and cabinet picks are not the only actions taken by the Trump administration that will impact students. Some of Trump’s recent decisions—including the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, the ending of birthright citizenship, and the freeze on refugee admissions—will impact students’ livelihoods and ability to access education for years to come. Numerous college students are already wondering what’s going on behind the scenes: the newly-minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has reportedly gained access to student loan databases; this includes private information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s licence numbers, and dates of birth. While the Department of Education has stated that “nothing inappropriate or nefarious is going on,” a federal lawsuit filed last Friday noted that it violates the privacy rights of student loan borrowers.

Thankfully, some of the most important tools required to oppose a budding authoritarian regime are tools that students already possess: the ability to research, to think critically, to pay attention, to organize and collaborate with others. Organizations such as the American Council on Education and publications like Education Week can help students stay vigilant during this time, and youth political groups such as the Alliance for Youth Action have chapters across the nation for students looking to get involved at a grassroots level.