Trump on Walz: “He’s a Loser — I’d Put Him at the Bottom”; SBA Takes Student Loans; Hegseth: F-47 “Gift to Our Grandkids”

President Trump addressed three major topics in March 2025: he dismissed former VP candidate Tim Walz after Walz claimed he could “kick most” of Trump supporters — “Oh boy, he’d be in trouble. He’s a loser. I’d probably put him at the bottom of the group.” He then announced that the SBA under Kelly Loeffler would immediately take over the student loan portfolio from the Department of Education, while HHS under RFK Jr. would handle special needs and nutrition programs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluded with an emotional statement on the F-47: “This is a gift to my kids and your kids, to my grandkids and your grandkids."

"He’s a Loser”

The exchange began when reporter Peter Doocy read a Tim Walz quote.

“Tim Walz is now saying about Trump supporters — and forgive me, I’m just reading a quote from Tim Walz — ‘I think I could kick most of their ass,’” Doocy said.

Trump’s response was instant: “Oh boy, he’d be in trouble.”

Then the assessment: “Well, he’s a loser. Yeah, I think so. He lost an election.”

Trump then offered a surprisingly detailed analysis of why the Harris-Walz ticket had failed: “He played a part, you know — usually a vice president doesn’t play a part, they say. I think Tim played a part. I think he was so bad that he hurt her.”

He spread the blame: “But she hurt herself, and Joe hurt them both. They didn’t have a great group.”

The final verdict: “But I would probably put him at the bottom of the group.”

The “bottom of the group” ranking was devastating because it was hierarchical. Trump was not just calling Walz a loser — he was ranking him below both Harris and Biden in a ticket that had lost by a substantial margin. The implication was that Walz had been the weakest link on an already weak team.

The Walz quote about physical confrontation with Trump supporters — “I think I could kick most of their ass” — was itself a departure from normal political rhetoric. The fact that a former vice presidential nominee was making physical threats about his political opponents while checking Tesla stock prices for emotional comfort painted a picture of someone who had not adjusted well to defeat.

SBA Takes Student Loans: “Coming Out Immediately”

Trump then made the most concrete announcement of the Department of Education dismantling process.

“I’ve decided that the SBA, the Small Business Administration, headed by Kelly Loeffler, a terrific person, will handle all of the student loan portfolio,” Trump said.

He described the scale: “We have a portfolio that’s very large, lots of loans. Tens of thousands of loans. Pretty complicated deal.”

The directive was immediate: “And that’s coming out of the Department of Education immediately, and it’s going to be headed up by Kelly Loeffler, SBA. And they’re all set for it. They’re waiting for it.”

Trump predicted improvement: “That would be serviced much better than it has in the past. It’s been a mess.”

The decision to place student loans at the SBA was not arbitrary. The SBA already managed a substantial loan portfolio — its primary function was administering loans to small businesses. The infrastructure for loan servicing, collection, and management already existed. Adding student loans to that portfolio was an operational expansion of an existing capability, not a creation of new capacity.

The choice of the SBA also carried a philosophical message. Student loans were, at their core, investments in human capital — not unlike small business loans that invested in entrepreneurial capital. Placing them under an agency focused on economic development rather than an education bureaucracy reframed the relationship between students and the government: borrowers were making economic investments in their futures, not seeking educational entitlements.

HHS Takes Special Needs and Nutrition

Trump announced the second major transfer from the Department of Education.

“And also Bobby Kennedy — the Health and Human Services will be handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else,” Trump said. “Rather complex, but that’s going to be headed by and handled by Health and Human Services.”

He expressed confidence: “So I think that will work out very well. Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education.”

The transfer of special needs programs and nutrition programs to HHS was logically sound. Both areas were fundamentally health-related — special needs programs addressed developmental and physical disabilities, while nutrition programs addressed children’s dietary health. The Department of Education had administered them because they occurred in school settings, but the underlying expertise resided in health services, not education policy.

With RFK Jr. leading HHS and his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, the nutrition programs in particular would receive attention from a secretary who had made food quality and children’s health his defining cause. The transfer aligned the programs with the leadership most motivated to reform them.

”Students Get Guidance from People Who Love Them”

Trump articulated the vision for what education would look like without a dominant federal department.

“And then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them, including their parents,” Trump said. “By the way, they’ll be totally involved in their education along with the boards and the governors and the states. And it’s going to be a great situation.”

The “people that love them” framing was simple but powerful. The Department of Education was staffed by bureaucrats who managed programs for statistical categories of students. Parents, teachers, and local school boards knew individual children by name. The federal approach was institutional; the state and local approach was personal. Trump was arguing that education worked better when the people making decisions had personal relationships with the students affected.

Hegseth: F-47 as “Gift to Our Grandkids”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the most emotionally resonant statement about the F-47.

“Well, Mr. President, this is a big day,” Hegseth said. “This is a big day for our warfighters. This is a big day for our country, a big day in the world.”

He placed the F-47 in the lineage of American air power: “We’ve had the F-15. We had the F-16, the F-18, the F-22, the F-35. Now we have the F-47, which sends a very direct, clear message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere, and to our enemies that we will be able to project power around the globe, unimpeded, for generations to come.”

Then the personal note: “Mr. President, this is a gift to my kids and your kids, to my grandkids and your grandkids. This is a historic investment in the American military, in the American industrial base, in American industry.”

Hegseth connected the F-47 to his broader mission: “That will help revive the warrior ethos inside our military, which we’re doing. Rebuild our military, which the previous administration did not do, by the way, Mr. President.”

He revealed a crucial detail: “They paused this program and were prepared to potentially scrap it.” The Biden administration had considered canceling the next-generation fighter program — a decision that, had it been carried out, would have left the United States without a sixth-generation aircraft while adversaries developed their own.

Hegseth summarized the F-47’s advantages: “We know this is cheaper, longer range, and more stealthy. President Trump said, we’re reviving it and we’re doing it.”

He concluded with the strategic vision: “And then we are also going to reestablish deterrence. Under the previous administration, we looked like fools. Not anymore.”

Key Takeaways

• Trump dismissed Walz’s claim about fighting Trump supporters: “He’s a loser. I’d probably put him at the bottom of the group,” ranking him below both Harris and Biden.
• SBA under Kelly Loeffler will take over the student loan portfolio “immediately” from the Department of Education.
• HHS under RFK Jr. will handle special needs and nutrition programs, transferring them out of the education bureaucracy.
• Defense Secretary Hegseth called the F-47 “a gift to my kids and your kids, to my grandkids and your grandkids” and revealed Biden’s administration “paused this program and were prepared to potentially scrap it.”
• Hegseth: “We will be able to project power around the globe, unimpeded, for generations to come. Under the previous administration, we looked like fools. Not anymore.”