Former President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said she would return to the White House for a second term, despite having dramatically left the administration on January 6.
DeVos appeared at a fundraiser for Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Aug. 5.
There he told The Detroit News who was open to returning to the fold.
“I don’t think President Trump would ask me to do that again,” DeVos admitted.
She added that she was open to the idea “only if it was with the goal of phasing out the Department of Education as we attempted to do through the budget process in the first administration.”
Former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told The Detroit News last week that she would be open to returning to a position in a second Trump administration, despite having resigned from her Cabinet-level post over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“We are also securing a commitment to pass an important education freedom bill in the form of a tax credit facility at the Treasury Department,” DeVos added.
Conservatives have long wanted to eliminate the federal Department of Education, pushing for education tax dollars to go toward policies like school voucher programs rather than funding the K-12 public school system in the United States.
Trump has said he is open to closing the Department of Education and at a recent rally said he would “move everything back to the states where it belongs.”
Congress would have to pass legislation for that to happen, and it is unlikely to survive a filibuster threat in the U.S. Senate.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has outlined some ways Trump could dismantle the Department of Education if elected in the fall.
While Trump has had feuds with several former aides who were later reinstated (Steve Bannon being a prime example), it is unclear whether he would be willing to rehire DeVos, a Michigan-based billionaire.
DeVos was one of two Cabinet secretaries who resigned following the assault on the Capitol.
Betsy DeVos was among officials working for President Donald Trump (left) who resigned from the administration over the attack on the U.S. Capitol (right) on January 6, 2021, in which a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol and disrupted the certification of the election.
She resigned after Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, said she was ready.
“There is no question about the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the tipping point for me,” DeVos told Trump in a letter announcing her resignation.
“We should highlight and celebrate the many accomplishments of his administration on behalf of the American people,” he also offered.
“Instead, we are left alone to clean up the mess caused by violent protesters who invaded the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people’s business,” DeVos added.
President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was certified on the day of the attack on the Capitol.
DeVos also acknowledged that she had spoken with other Cabinet members about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power before Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
Still, he told the Detroit News that while he has not officially endorsed Trump for 2024, he would “definitely support the Republican nomination” in the November election.