President-elect Donald Trump is nominating the billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump has promised to dismantle.
McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut.
McMahon served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she has expressed 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 make America Number One in Education in the World," Trump said in a release. "We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort."
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Trump has said he plans to sign an executive order that would strip federal funding “from any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the shoulders of our children,” NBC News reported.
McMahon has criticized diversity, equity and inclusion programs, writing in an op-ed published by Fox News this year that DEI provisions were “irrelevant to training skilled workers” and that such policies “add costs and administrative burdens to all apprenticeship programs.”
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McMahon is married to Vince McMahon, whose father was a prominent professional wrestling promoter. They followed him into the business, founding their own company that's now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE. It became a juggernaut in the industry and American culture.
When Trump was the star of the reality show “The Apprentice,” he made an appearance at Wrestlemania in 2007. The billionaire entertainment mogul participated in an elaborately scripted feud that ended with Trump shaving off Vince McMahon's hair in the middle of the ring.
Linda McMahon stepped down from her position as WWE's chief executive to enter politics. She ran twice for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut, but lost in 2010 to Richard Blumenthal and in 2012 to Chris Murphy.
Shifting gears, she focused on providing financial support to candidates. McMahon provided $6 million to help Trump's candidacy after he secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Trump appointments and nominees
Here are some of the people that President-elect Donald Trump has named for high-profile positions in his administration. Positions in orange require Senate confirmation.
Source: NBC News
