Trump Dismantles Ed Dept, RFK Goes After Food Chemicals, American Released: AM Update 3/21
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's March 21st, 2025, and this is your AM Update. I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all. President Trump announcing an executive order aimed at shuttering the Department of Education. Any new chemical that they want to add to our food is...

is generally recognized as safe and gets no review. RFKJ announcing a sweeping review of industry food standards aimed at ridding the food supply of potentially harmful ingredients.

A Georgetown researcher on a student visa arrested by Homeland Security. The reporting largely sympathetic to the student, glossing over a key detail about his personal life. An American citizen held captive by the Taliban released what the Taliban was offered in return. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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On Thursday afternoon, President Trump announcing the beginning of the end for the Department of Education. Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making.

In a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all. My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It's doing us no good. Completely abolishing the Department of Ed will require an act of Congress not likely to happen under the current slim Republican majorities.

The order will instead, quote, begin to eliminate the department. Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announcing a reduction in workforce amounting to half of the department's employees. Prior to the new order, the DOE was responsible for developing federal education guidelines and initiatives like Common Core, enforcing civil rights compliance in schools, and administering federal student aid. Press

Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt describing to reporters Thursday morning what tasks will remain under the department. Pell Grants and student loans will still be run out of the department in Washington, D.C., but the great responsibility of educating our nation's students will return to the states. 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. President Trump saying Pell Grants, a common form of undergraduate aid and Title I funding allocated toward children with disabilities, will be preserved in full and eventually handed over to other agencies. The details of how exactly the Trump administration plans to hand education back to the states remain unclear.

Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and critic of the move, outlining her fears to left-wing journalist Molly Jong Fast. They're saying, oh, don't worry, let's block grant it. So we'll give it to a state education department.

So and then let the state education department decide what to do. So we know, for example, what Texas would do. Right. They'll use it for vouchers. Math and reading scores for 13 year olds have fallen to the lowest level in decades. Six in 10 fourth graders are not proficient in math and standardized test scores have shown little to no improvement.

In fact, per-pupil spending has risen by more than 245 percent since the 1970s, with test scores rising less than 2 percent. Critics say federal involvement in education caused less competition, innovation, and now students will have more choice and taxpayers will have more of their own money.

A Georgetown University researcher on a student visa detained by Homeland Security. Part of a broader crackdown by the Trump administration on foreign students supporting causes deemed counter to U.S. foreign policy.

Badr Khan Suri, an Indian national, arrested outside of his home in Arlington, Virginia on Monday night. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin posting on X, Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University, actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media. The statement also claiming Mr. Suri has close ties to a senior advisor to Hamas, rendering him deportable under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

His lawyer has since filed a lawsuit demanding his immediate release. Media reporting surrounding the case largely sympathetic to Mr. Suri. Politico, the headline, Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawyer says. The AP, Georgetown scholar, detained over American wife's Palestinian ties, lawyer says. MSNBC, Trump administration seeks to deport Georgetown University student with no apparent criminal record.

Well, it's not quite that simple. In the petition for release obtained by Politico, Mr. Suri's lawyer arguing that his client is being punished because his wife, a U.S. citizen, is Palestinian. Is that it? His lawyer, Hassan Ahmed, also claiming the government suspects Mr. Suri and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. Again, is it quite that simple?

Badr Khan Suri is married to Mafizi Salah, also a Georgetown University student. A February investigation from National Review identifying her as the daughter of Ahmed Youssef, a former advisor for Hamas, a terrorist organization. National Review reporting Ms. Salah, quote, "...has been open about her own role with the Hamas government."

She served with the Hamas government's Committee to Break the Siege in Gaza, which happened to be chaired by her father.

Ms. Salah's father is co-author of a book titled The End of the Jewish State, Just a Matter of Time. A review of her own social media reveals the glorification of Hamas and the atrocities they committed on October 7th. Just days after the terror attack resulting in the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of approximately 250 people, including Americans, the

Ms. Salah posted on Facebook an image of a Palestinian hang glider, a reference to the vehicles used to infiltrate Israel, with the caption, We shall prevail. In a July post on Instagram, Ms. Salah writing in Arabic, America is the plague. Do you believe these press reports?

Scholar detained over American wife's Palestinian ties. It's a little more complicated than that, AP. Another Instagram post showing images of Israeli hostages in Gaza saying their smiles and healthy appearance indicated how nicely they were treated. I'm sure it was a real joy. Many freed hostages have spoken out about their treatment after they were returned back safely to Israel.

There were lots of moments when they tortured us, when they moved us one of the times and they put black material on our eyes that we won't be able to see anything. And I had to find out where to put my next step while holding the wall. And I thought that I'm going to fall and I thought that they're going to kill me. Then we started a phase of almost two months of extreme starvation. And I couldn't walk for more than a month.

It's unclear how exactly or when the daughter of a Hamas advisor was able to obtain U.S. citizenship. The State Department has yet to publicly identify specific actions taken by Mr. Suri to spread Hamas propaganda. A Georgetown University spokesperson saying, quote, we are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity and we have not received a reason for his detention. Mr. Suri is currently held in a Texas detention center. His deportation proceedings set for May.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFKJ, announcing a complete review of GRAS, or Generally Recognized as Safe Standards, in the food industry. Mr. Kennedy describing on Fox News the evolution of GRAS standards since their inception in the 1950s. When FDA was created to regulate food, it was a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

There were foods that were generally recognized as safe, G-R-A-S, generally recognized as safe, like flour, like dairy, like eggs. And they didn't want to make companies test those products, so they created that designation. That designation was expanded by an industry.

I began taking advantage of it so that any new chemical that they want to add to our food is generally recognized as safe and gets no review. That's why we have 10,000 ingredients in our food in this country. In Europe, they only have 400. Food companies are not, in fact, required to submit a grass notice to the FDA when introducing a new chemical. That reporting? Entirely voluntary.

A 2022 analysis by consumer watchdog group, the Environmental Working Group, finding since 2000, food and chemical companies have petitioned the FDA just 10 times to approve a new substance. In that same time period, the EWA says more than 98% of the at least 766 new food chemicals were not approved by the FDA at all.

CBS News reporting there are at least 950 substances in our food that are not permitted in Europe. Chemicals linked to health concerns show up in hundreds of products that line the shelves of American supermarkets.

President Trump's nominee to head the FDA, Dr. Marty McCary of Johns Hopkins, at his confirmation hearing connecting the dots between childhood illness and chemicals in the food industry. Half of our nation's children are sick, and nobody has really been doing anything meaningful on this front. Food has a big part of it. When we eat foods with a lot of molecules that do not appear in nature, these are chemicals.

These are chemicals that the industry insists are safe, a subset of which are concerning. There's a body of research now that suggests concern with some of these ingredients. RFKJ's sweeping review of grass standards comes just two weeks after a closed-door meeting with the heads of major food companies. Secretary Kennedy made clear artificial food dyes must be phased out by the end of his term.

Industry leaders were urged to take proactive steps to reformulate their products before any regulatory action. Those leaders reportedly resistant to the move. A memo from the Consumer Brands Association warning a ban on food dyes threatens the industry's reliance on cheap, vibrant dyes to maintain product appeal and affordability.

Many of these same companies already sell similar products in European markets, which have far more restrictions, with reformulated recipes to meet safety standards. Coming up, an American citizen held captive by the Taliban released what the Taliban was offered in return, and the long-awaited release of the JFK files. What new info was contained in those thousands of pages?

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An American citizen declared by the State Department as wrongfully detained by the Taliban returning back to the United States after more than two years in custody. George Glesman, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, Georgia, captured by the Taliban's intelligence service in December 2022. The Foley Foundation, an advocacy organization for Americans detained overseas, says Mr. Glesman, 66 years old, was traveling in Afghanistan as a tourist

The Taliban held Mr. Glesman without any charges. Under President Biden, the Taliban offered the release of Mr. Glesman and another American, but only in exchange for three Taliban members in American custody, including an al-Qaeda aide held in Guantanamo Bay. The Wall Street Journal reporting the Taliban now agreeing to release Mr. Glesman in exchange for improved relations with Washington.

The Taliban has no diplomatic relations with the U.S., nor is it recognized as the official government of Afghanistan. Mr. Glezman's release was brokered by the Qatari government. The talks took place between U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Bowler and Taliban officials in Kabul. The New York Times reporting the meeting between American and Taliban officials was the first known in-person contact of any significance between the two governments since President Trump's return to office.

The Trump administration fulfilling a long-awaited campaign promise, the release of the JFK files. People have been waiting for decades for this. I don't believe we're going to redact anything. It's going to be very interesting.

Approximately 80,000 pages, so it's a lot of stuff. On Tuesday, the documents, totaling about 60,000, released to the public. A newly unredacted memo from a special assistant, Arthur Schlesinger, to President JFK, criticizing the CIA for overusing the State Department to cover for its agents in other countries.

Mr. Schlesinger informing President Kennedy the number of undercover CIA agents, quote, outnumbers regular State Department personnel in some countries. Another unredacted document from 1964 revealing the CIA did not have any direct agents operating in Cuba despite Cold War tensions.

This revelation particularly significant in the context of the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, a disastrous attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Spotty intelligence, a key factor identified in the failure of that invasion attempt, the fiasco deeply damaging President Kennedy's trust in the CIA.

The New York Times reporting in 1966, a frustrated President Kennedy telling an aide in the aftermath of the debacle, quote, I want to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.

Despite the new documents providing a clearer look at tensions between President Kennedy and the CIA, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and others agreeing with the conclusion brought to us by The Washington Post, quote, so far nothing upends the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman.

And that'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Tramp Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megynkelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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