President-elect Donald Trump has nominated billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Department of Education, tasked with overseeing the institution Trump has vowed to dismantle.
McMahon led the Small Business Administration during President Trump’s early term from 2017 to 2019 and ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut twice.
Mr. McMahon served on the Connecticut State Board of Education for one year starting in 2009 and served on the board of Sacred Heart University of Connecticut for many years. Although she is considered a relative unknown in the education world, she has voiced support for charter schools and school choice.
“Linda will use her decades of leadership experience and deep understanding of both education and business to empower the next generation of American students and workers and lead America to the world in education,” President Trump said in a statement. I’ll make it one,” he said. “We are bringing education back to America, and Linda will be at the forefront of that effort.”
Donald Trump vowed to take action on a range of issues on his first day in office.
President Trump signs executive order stripping federal funding from “schools that push critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on children.” NBC News reported that he said he planned to do so.
McMahon has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion programs, writing in an op-ed published by Fox News this year that DEI provisions are “unrelated to training skilled workers” and that such policies “Adds cost and administrative burden to all apprenticeship programs,” they wrote.
McMahon is married to Vince McMahon, and his father was a prominent professional wrestling promoter. They followed him into the business and founded their own company, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It became a huge presence in the industry and American culture.
Trump appeared at WrestleMania in 2007 when he was a star on the reality show “The Apprentice.” The billionaire entertainment mogul took part in a carefully scripted feud that ended with Trump shaving Vince McMahon’s head in the center of the ring.
Linda McMahon quit her job as CEO of WWE and entered politics. She ran for the Senate in Connecticut, losing to Richard Blumenthal in 2010 and Chris Murphy in 2012.
Shifting gears, she focused on providing financial support to candidates. McMahon provided $6 million to support Trump’s candidacy after he secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
