US President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, The Washington Post has reported.

"The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself," noted the report.

"That work is underway already," it said. "The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring staff to voluntarily quit."

Meanwhile, roughly 20 people with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, have begun working inside the Education Department, looking to cut spending and staff, it added.