Trump Taps Linda McMahon, Donor and Former Wrestling Exec, to be Education Chief

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President-elect Donald Trump didn’t look far to find his pick to be the next education secretary. 

Linda McMahon, who co-chairs his transition team and previously led the WWE, or World Wrestling Entertainment, has known him for 30 years, served in his first administration, and since 2019, has been laying the foundation for his return to the White House. 

A former Connecticut State Board of Education member who led the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019, McMahon would likely shift the focus of the department toward workforce development while also pursuing key policy priorities, like school choice. 

Those who defend traditional public schools see McMahon’s nomination as an effort to eliminate important civil rights protections for students and slash funding for high-poverty schools, but some advocates saw room for her to make a positive impact.

“I don’t hate it,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. “Having an education secretary that is focused on economic mobility and getting our kids prepared for the jobs and the economy in the future is not a bad thing.” 

In choosing McMahon, 76, Trump passed over others who expressed interest in the post. They include Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, and Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters, who some say has been “auditioning” for the job for over a year by enacting policies in line with Trump’s “anti-woke” platform. Just last week, Walters mandated that schools show a video of him praying for the president-elect.

Meanwhile, McMahon — as board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a far-right think tank — has been integral to shaping the incoming administration’s agenda. The organization argues that parents should have more control over their children’s education, including the ability to review all curriculum materials. But Trump’s agenda also includes wiping out the U.S. Department of Education, a goal that could become McMahon’s primary charge.

In a statement, he said McMahon would lead efforts to “send education BACK TO THE STATES.”

Advocates who have worked to stem the conservative effort to win school board seats and limit progressive ideas in curriculum said Trump’s goals are clear, regardless of who he tapped to lead the department.

“They all seem identical policy-wise,” said Katie Paris, founder of Red Wine and Blue, a network of suburban women who support moderate candidates for office. She said she expects McMahon to be “less bombastic” than culture warriors like Justice or Walters, “but just as dangerous for kids.”

The nation’s largest teachers union said McMahon, like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during Trump’s first term, will undermine public education.

“Rather than working to strengthen public schools, expand learning opportunities for students, and support educators, McMahon’s only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement.

McMahon is also likely to face questions about a lawsuit, filed in October, in which she and her husband Vince are accused of knowing about and not stopping Mel Phillips, WWE’s ringside announcer in the 1980s and ‘90s, from sexually abusing young “ring boys” who ran errands related to wrestling shows. Vince McMahon has said the claims are false. 

He also resigned in January as executive chairman of TKO, which owns WWE, amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a former employee. He has denied the accusations. 

‘Consolation prize’

The fact that McMahon initially expressed interest in leading the commerce department was a red flag for Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

“Treating the Department of Education as a consolation prize demonstrates the low priority that President Trump places on the issue,” he said. 

It was during the years Petrilli served in the education department, under former President George W. Bush, that McMahon said she became interested in education. She learned that her local schools near Greenwich, Connecticut, weren’t meeting expectations under No Child Left Behind, the federal law that tied accountability to improvement on test scores. 

“I​​t’s a very wealthy community. We pay a great deal of our taxes towards education,” she told former football coach Lou Holtz, who hosts a talk show sponsored by America First Policy Institute. “How can that happen?”

Through her connections with then-Gov. Jodi Rell, she began visiting public, charter and private schools. And in 2009, Rell appointed her to finish out a term on the state board, a seat she resigned in 2010 to run for the U.S. Senate, losing to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

“I said ‘I’m certainly not in the world of education. I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for,’ ” McMahon told Holtz. “[Rell] said ‘I’m looking for exactly who you are, somebody from the outside.’ ” 

Outgoing Secretary Miguel Cardona served as education commissioner in Connecticut from 2019 to 2021 but didn’t overlap McMahon’s short tenure on the state board.

In 2006, McMahon also launched WWE’s Get Real program, in which celebrity wrestlers promote literacy through posters and public service announcements. 

She lost a second bid for the Senate, against Democrat Chris Murphy, in 2012. 

Like Trump in his first term, she touts apprenticeships, but has said diversity initiatives force businesses to spend more money on training. And she has advocated for bipartisan legislation that would extend Pell Grant eligibility to students in workforce training programs, not just traditional colleges.

“Congress should recognize the effort and commitment of American workers by funding the skills training and technical education most laborers rely on,” she wrote in an op-ed.

Rodrigues, with the National Parents Union, described McMahon as someone who would be “an education secretary with some serious juice” and would also have a “direct line” to the president because of her long-time connections with him. McMahon is also a leading campaign donor, having given $814,600 to Trump’s campaign as of July.

“It’s going to be interesting to see an education secretary who’s going to have the ability, and frankly the balls, to call the president and get some things done in the education system,” Rodrigues said.

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