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Betsy DeVos Criticizes GOP’s ‘Infatuation’ With Trump

BY September 26, 2021

Billionaire Betsy DeVos “implicitly criticized the GOP’s ongoing capture by Donald Trump” during a speech she gave before the Michigan Republican Party as their former Chair. DeVos made the comments on Saturday at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference.

On the same day Trump was holding a campaign rally in Georgia, DeVos told attendees at the biennial conference on Mackinac Island she worries that “principles have been overtaken by personalities in today’s political environment,” as reported by the Detroit Free Press. “Though personalities can be important to point the party toward its policies, ‘ours is not a movement dependent on any one person,’ DeVos said. ”

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 12: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testifies during a hearing before House Education and Labor Committee December 12, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing on “Examining the Education Department’s Implementation of Borrower Defense.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“Education is about students, not systems,” DeVos said. Education funding “should be tied to students”, not systems and buildings.

DeVos, who served as education secretary under Trump,  compared her time in Washington, D.C., to a trip to the dentist, saying it was useful but she was glad when it was over. But one of the bright points, DeVos said, was that she “didn’t have to live under the thumb of that woman from Michigan,” a reference to Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and her “mind-boggling” actions during the pandemic that closed schools and businesses” according to DeVos. DeVos served as Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2004.

DeVos also said educational freedom is a great issue for the Republican Party and Michigan’s constitutional ban on public dollars supporting private schools “belongs on the ash heap of history.”

 

The Mackinac conference is often a testing ground for prospective GOP presidential candidates, but any such ambitions have been severely muted while many Republicans wait for a Trump announcement on his 2024 plans.



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