Education Secretary Linda McMahon affirmed late Tuesday that mass layoffs are the first step toward shuttering the Education Department — a long-time goal of President Trump's since his time on the campaign trail.

“Actually, it is, because that was the president's mandate," McMahon told Fox News's Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. "His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished,”

“But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat and........

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