Which agencies would GOP candidates cut? Try to remember all of these

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It all but sank his presidential campaign in 2011 when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry forgot one of the three federal agencies he had promised to erase.

“Oops,” he said, during the Republican presidential primary debate, drawing a blank on live TV.

Perry, oddly enough, was appointed years later to lead that very same agency by then-President Donald Trump. It was the Department of Energy, in case you’ve forgotten that Perry was a Cabinet secretary.

And Trump, rather than shrink the number of government agencies, actually created a new one, in the US Space Force.

Most presidents are pretty good at creating new federal agencies or at least putting their mark on at least one. But Republicans’ promises to cut the government have accelerated in recent years, driven by outrage over Covid-19 school shutdowns, anger at federal regulations and distrust propelled by Trump’s attacks on the justice system.

Most of the candidates hitting the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate stage on Wednesday have advocated for ending at least one government agency. Here’s a look at which candidates would erase which government agency.

Note: CNN’s Abby Turner, who has previously written about Trump’s campaign promises for a second term, contributed the backbone of this report by poring over the campaign sites and speeches of the top Republican candidates to identify which parts of the government they’d cut.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy, young political neophyte who made a fortune in biotech, has built his campaign around his effort to combat what he views as “woke” ideology in corporate America. But Ramaswamy also pushes the idea that voters need to take the government back from the government.

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