President Trump slammed congressional Democrats Friday for attempting to barge into the Department of Education – where he assigned his team of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutters to go in and “check the books.”
“The Democrats have lost their minds, and they’ve lost their confidence,” Trump said in remarks to Senate Republicans at his Mar-a-Lago estate, after highlighting massive GOP Senate election victories last November.
“They looked foolish today. They tried to break into the Department of Education just because we want to go in and check the books,” the president continued, referring to the fracas outside the DOE and his latest directive to DOGE, led by Elon Musk.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) shouted “get out the way!” as a man who identified himself as a “federal employee” blocked a handful of House Democrats from storming into the DOE building earlier Friday.
The lawmakers had demanded a meeting with the department’s acting secretary Denise Carter amid reports Trump is seeking to dismantle the agency.
“Maxine Waters is a lunatic,” Trump said. “They are all lunatics. It’s so sad to see.”
The president told senators that after Musk’s team uncovered the “horrible things” that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was “spending money” on, he directed the DOGE chief to look into the Department of Education next.
Trump said he expects DOGE to find “similar” spending patterns at DOE and hopes the government-wide spending cuts will soon allow lawmakers to pass a balanced budget.
“Why don’t we balance the budget? Why should we wait 10 or 15 or 20 years to balance it?” Trump argued.
“We can have big cuts that don’t affect anybody – waste, fraud and abuse. And we’re finding it now.”
Trump went on to praise Musk’s team at DOGE, noting that the billionaire tech titan got started “with a group of 25 super geniuses” with “182 IQs.”
“That’s what we need,” Trump said of Musk’s cost-cutting foot soldiers.
In his remarks, the president also touted the “unity” he’s seen in the Republican Party and predicted the GOP is “gonna do well for a long time” against Democrats, including in the 2026 midterm elections.
“Open borders are never going to sell. Men playing in women’s sports, transgender for everybody, it’s never going to sell. And they haven’t changed,” Trump said of the current state of the Democratic Party.
The president also claimed that he had raised $500 million since defeating Kamala Harris on Election Day and that GOP donors were clamoring to get inside the room where he was meeting senators at his Palm Beach, Fla., club.
