Welcome to Meet the Press now. I'm Kristen Welker. We start with breaking news from the White House,

where President Trump is about to hold an event from the East Room where he is expected to sign an executive order.

The White House saying it's aimed at closing the Department of Education.

We should note it would take an act of Congress to fully eliminate the department,

and the administration has already taken a number of steps to dramatically dismantle the department,

including cutting half of its staff.

The White House is also insisting that while the department will be, quote, greatly minimized,

the president's actions today will not affect what it called the department's critical functions.

Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt with more.

The Department of Education plays a critical role in enforcing civil rights laws that prohibit

discrimination.

Who's going to do that now?

Any critical functions of the department such as that will remain.

But again, we're greatly reducing the scale and the size of this department.

What about federal Title I funding and special education funding?

Same answer.

Now, the President's push to eliminate the Department of Education is the latest in an

escalating series of moves pushing the limits of executive power.

While Mr. Trump assails federal judges who question or challenge the legality of his

actions, today the Justice Department submitted answers under seal to a judge who is trying to determine

if the White House defied a court order tied to the president's use of a wartime authority

to deport alleged gang members to a super prison in El Salvador.

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