President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday night that he plans to nominate Linda McMahon, the co-chair of his transition team, to lead the Education Department in his second term.
“We will send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will lead that effort,” Trump said in a statement, referring to his promise during that campaign abolish the Ministry of Education.
McMahon, a decades-long executive at World Wrestling Entertainment and head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first presidency, served on the Connecticut Board of Education. The statement said she also served on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, twice and for a total of over 16 years.
She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut twice and was a major fundraiser for Republicans, including Trump.
McMahon led the SBA from 2017 to 2019 and took a position on a Trump political action committee ahead of his reelection in 2020. She later became board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.
McMahon and her husband Vince McMahon, the founder and longtime leader of the WWE, turned the professional wrestling company into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. A recent lawsuit also alleges that WWE and Vince McMahon failed to stop the sexual abuse of underage ring boys. Axios recently reported. Linda McMahon is a co-defendant in the lawsuit.
Trump’s education secretary in his first term was Betsy DeVos, another wealthy donor. DeVos resigned from government on January 7, 2021, a day after a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol.
In a statement, National Education Association President Becky Pringle said McMahon was not qualified for the post.
“During his first term, Donald Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers,” Pringle said. “Now he and Linda McMahon are at it again with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to abolish the Department of Education, steal resources from our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, and make higher education more expensive and unattainable. for middle-class families, eliminating special education services for students with disabilities, and jeopardizing students’ civil rights protections. ”
Last updated on November 19, 2024 at 10:05 p.m
