Betsy DeVos confirms that Trump's budget slashes Special Olympics funding

Betsy DeVos

To hell with those Special Olympics athletes: Budgets are statements of priorities, and that’s what Donald Trump’s budget says. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos confirmed Tuesday that the Trump administration’s proposed budget would eliminate Special Olympics education funding, which is currently housed in the Education Department.

And, of course, because it’s the Trump administration, there’s a tweet. “It was great to spend time with the @SpecialOlympics athletes,” DeVos tweeted in 2017. The funding cuts were also initially announced as Karen Pence prepared to lead a delegation to the Special Olympics. Then again, that just fleshes out the statement of priorities from the Trump administration: funding, no. Photo ops for the vice president’s wife and the education secretary? Yes.

Congress will have a say on Trump’s budget, and it’s likely that even many Republicans will refuse to go down the road of cutting a valuable—yet relatively inexpensive—program like the Special Olympics.