Former President Donald Trump will address national parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty in D.C. on Friday, making a return after pledging to the group that he would eliminate the Education Department if elected.
Trump will speak at the third annual National “Joyful Warriors” Summit in Washington, DC, as a special guest on Friday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia, Friday, June 30, 2023.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich told Fox the speech will be in a “more relaxed setting.”
“We’re going to be able to have discussion with him about the things we’re concerned about,” Descovich said.
Trump spoke at the organization’s national convention last year in Philadelphia. He told the group he would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and make school principals an elected position. He accused the “radical left” of “slandering Moms for Liberty as a so-called hate group.
“But Moms for Liberty is no hate group,” he said. “You are joyful warriors, you are fierce, fierce patriots. You’re not a threat to America.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified Moms for Liberty as an extremist hate group. The organization has longstanding ties to Project 2025 authors Heritage Foundation. Moms for Liberty has invited members of Oath Keepers to its events as well as supported chapter members who quoted Adolf Hitler.
Trump had also promised last year to cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”
The Republican Party platform currently calls for universal school choice, merit pay for teachers and an end to teacher tenure.
Moms for Liberty rose to prominence after leveraging parent frustrations with schools during the Covid-19 pandemic on safety protocols. Since, the organization has endorsed and funded campaigning for conservative school board candidates across the country.
Moms for Liberty co-founders Tina Descovich speaks at the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia, Friday, June 30, 2023.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Descovich said the election could come down to suburban moms and the “so many issues” they’re facing.
“80% of moms and dads and everyone across the country agrees with us on our issues,” Descovich said. “(The Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz) ticket as a whole is the most anti-parent ticket that they ever could have put together…The Biden-Harris administration is tied 100% to the teachers union. They buddy up.”
In 2022, about half of the Moms for Liberty-endorsed school board candidates won their elections. This year, however, mobilizing efforts to defeat Moms for Liberty candidates have led to Florida school board candidates losing almost all of their positions.
In May, the conservative group announced it plans to spend over $3 million on multi-state advertising to increase membership and election engagement leading up to November.
Moms for Liberty’s 2024 national summit is being held from Thursday, Aug. 29 through Sunday, Sept. 1. The organization expects “hundreds of moms, dads and friends for three days of training, strategizing and building relationships.”
The Republican presidential nominee will be joined by other speakers, including former rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Glenn Beck, a conservative political commentator and CEO of Blaze Media.
Watch it here.
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