Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, but the idea that he has a broad “mandate” to do whatever he wants is pretty dubious given that as of Monday he didn't even crack 50 percent of the popular vote. Nonetheless, the president-elect's elected followers are behaving as if the rules no longer apply — from Republican senators readying themselves to punt on their “advice and consent” role in vetting Cabinet nominations, to Oklahoma Ryan Walters Superintendent Ryan Walters ordering the state's schools to students play a bizarre video of himself railing against the “radical left” and praying for Trump.
“President Trump has a clear mandate,” Walters told CNN on Monday when asked what gives him authority to order the video played. “He wants prayer back in school. He wants radical leftism out of the classroom. He wants our kids to be patriotic. He wants parents back in charge with school choice. We're enacting upon that agenda here in Oklahoma.”
The video — in which Walters tells students that “woke teachers unions” are pushing “a hatred for this country” before bowing his head and praying for “President Donald Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country” — has elicited outrage in Oklahoma. At least seven superintendents are refusing to play the video, and Genter Drummond, the state's Republican attorney general, has said Walters cannot mandate schools play the video for students.
“There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video,” the attorney general's office said in a statement. “Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents' rights, local control, and individual free-exercise rights.”
CNN's Pamela Brown also asked Walters about a petition to impeach him that has been signed by nearly 15,000 people. Walters attacked her for “pushing a left-wing narrative” before claiming he gets his authority to order schools to show the video from the Constitution.
The video send comes as Walters — who has long been using his position to push right-wing extremism into schools — has been under scrutiny for ordering the state's schools to keep a Bible in each classroom and teach that “the Bible and the Ten Commandments are foundational for Western civilization.” The order was handed down this summer, and bid documents stipulated that the Bibles must include founding documents that also happen to be included in a Bible that Trump started selling for a whopping $60 a piece earlier this year.
The order led to a lawsuit from a group of parents, teachers, and faith leaders, who argued it was “highly unlikely” that any Bibles other than the ones Trump is selling could meet the specifications.
Sure enough, Walters posted a video last week announcing that the state has purchased over 500 Bibles “that will be in the AP government classrooms across the state,” before holding one up that looked exactly like Trump's version. “We have the Bible, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights — these are foundational documents in our nation's history,” Walters said of the Bible he spent taxpayer money to put in classrooms.
Walters seemed to confirm on Monday that the money went into Trump's pocket. When Brown asked him why he's using the Trump Bible, and what he has to say to critics who call it “clear-cut political pandering,” Walters said he needed to buy the Trump Bible so kids “can understand the full context of the founding documents.”
Walters offered a terrifying thought when Brown pointed out that Oklahoma ranks 48th in the nation in education, and critics have said he should probably think about spending the state's money on educating students rather than overpriced Trump-branded holy books. “We are in the middle of a turnaround,” he claimed, adding that the improvements to Oklahoma's school system are going to be replicated across “the whole country because of President Trump.”
