Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon to lead the Education Department, which he has promised to dismantle.
Describing McMahon as a “strong supporter of parents’ rights,” Trump said in a statement: “We will send education back to the states, and Linda will lead that effort.”
McMahon is co-chairman of Trump’s transition team ahead of his return to the White House in January. It has been tasked with filling approximately 4,000 posts in the government.
Regarding McMahon’s experience in education, Trump cited her two-year tenure on the Connecticut Board of Education and her 16-year tenure on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic school.
McMahon left WWE in 2009 to run unsuccessfully for the US Senate, and has been a major donor to Trump.
Since 2021, he has chaired the Center for the American Worker at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
During the election campaign, Trump promised to abolish the federal Education Department if he returned to the White House.
During a rally in Wisconsin in September, he said, “I say this all the time. I’m dying to get back to doing this. We will eventually abolish the federal Department of Education.”
At the Republican convention in Milwaukee, McMahon said he had the privilege of calling “Donald Trump a colleague and a boss” as well as “a friend.”
Her relationship with Trump dates back to his years in the professional wrestling industry – she said she first met him when he was chief executive at WWE.
At the culmination of an onstage feud, Trump once beat up her husband, famed wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.
In 2017, he was confirmed as head of the Small Business Administration, which is responsible for supporting America’s millions of small businesses, which employ nearly half of the country’s private sector workforce.
When nominating him, Trump pointed to his experience in business, which has helped WWE grow.
After leaving the administration, he served as chair of the pro-Trump America First Action superPAC, or political action committee.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
