President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he has picked Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive, to head the Department of Education, an agency he vowed to dismantle during his White House campaign.
“We will send education back to the states, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump said Tuesday in a statement.
McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, stepping down in 2019 to help with his 2020 reelection campaign.
She is also currently a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald. Trump announced on Tuesday he picked Lutnick to be his commerce secretary.
McMahon and her husband, wrestling entertainment magnate Vince McMahon — who cofounded the WWE and led it for decades before leaving the company in January following allegations of sexual misconduct — have been friends of Trump for over 20 years and are among his most prolific donors.
McMahon has no experience as an educator, although Trump in his statement cited her time serving on the Connecticut Board of Education from 2009 to 2010 — as well as her time as a member of the board of trustees for Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University — and stated that McMahon has a “deep understanding of both education and business.”
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump promised to shut down the Department of Education, complaining that the agency’s budget is too large and that its staff is filled with “people that in many cases hate our children.”
One of the smallest federal agencies, the Department of Education is responsible for the distribution of federal financial aid for education, collecting and disseminating data and research related to schools, and prohibiting discrimination in schools.
Its funds account for less than 10% of the nation’s public school funding, which is primarily driven by state and local taxes.
