Donald Trump has picked a former wrestling executive to lead his fight to reshape America’s schools and colleges, including closing down the Department for Education.
The president-elect hailed Linda McMahon, the co-founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) franchise, as an advocate of giving parents the freedom to choose where their child is educated.
McMahon, 76, a billionaire and Republican donor, has been a longstanding Trump ally who was in his first cabinet as head of the Small Business Administration for two years. She is married to Vince McMahon, 79, the former WWE chief executive under federal investigation over sexual assault and sex-trafficking allegations.
The Department for Education, which has 4,400 employees, was created by Congress in 1979 and would require legislation to abolish.
“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 about her nomination. “We will send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”
McMahon, a co-chairwoman of Trump’s transition team, was understood to have her eye on the more powerful commerce secretary role, which went to Howard Lutnick, her co-chairman. Lutnick had been pushing for the job of Treasury secretary but Trump called in at least two more candidates for the position, which will oversee calming the markets and enacting his tariff agenda.
Howard Lutnick has been picked for the commerce secretary role by Trump although McMahon is understood to have wanted it
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Trump set a long list of goals for education reform during his campaign to “reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left and Marxist maniacs”. It included plans for a new credentialing body “to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values and support the American way of life”.
The department’s main role is distributing billions of dollars of federal money to colleges and schools, as well as managing the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing each of those duties to another agency.
Trump has vowed to cut off federal money for schools and colleges that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content” and to reward states and schools that adopt his policies.
He wants federal funding “to hire veterans, retired police officers and other trained gun owners as armed guards in our nation’s schools — a measure that will help deter unhinged maniacs and keep our nation’s children out of harm’s way”.
Trump also pledged to tax the wealthy endowments of top private universities to fund a degree-awarding American Academy that would have a mission “to make a truly world-class education available to every American, free of charge, and do it without adding a single dime to the federal debt”. Its material would be available online free of charge, he said, and “there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed”.
McMahon and Elon Musk attend an America First Policy Institute gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this month
ALEX BRANDON/AP
Mr McMahon’s father was a professional wrestling promoter. The couple turned WWE into a multibillion-dollar enterprise, with Mr McMahon appearing as a tyrannical character in the ring with the catchphrase “You’re fired!” several years before Trump, a wrestling fan, used it on his programme The Apprentice. Trump appeared in one stunt in 2007 that involved a dispute with Mr McMahon settled by wrestlers in the ring that resulted in Trump shaving Mr McMahon’s head.
Mr McMahon is under investigation over claims, which he denies, by a former employee, Janel Grant, which led him to step down as executive chairman of the WWE parent company TKO in January.
The lawsuit alleges that he and John Laurinaitis, the former head of talent relations at WWE, sexually assaulted Grant in the company building in June 2021. Grant also claims that the pair trafficked her to other men “as a sexual pawn to entice world-famous wrestling talent”.
Mr McMahon said: “Ms Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth.”
McMahon “wrestling” with her husband
McMahon ran twice as a Republican to represent Connecticut in the Senate but lost to Democrats in 2010 and 2012. After her stint at the Small Business Administration, she chaired America First Action, a fundraising committee that backed Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020. She later co-founded the America First Policy Institute to prepare policies and personnel for a potential return to the White House.
She is relatively unknown in education circles, although she served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year from 2009. At the time, McMahon said she had a lifelong interest in education and once planned to become a teacher, an ambition she dropped after her marriage. She also spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
Trump’s nominations continued on Wednesday with the choice of his former acting attorney-general, Matt Whitaker, to be the United States ambassador to Nato. Trump used the threat of US withdrawal from the 32-nation military alliance to put pressure on members to meet its target of 2 per cent defence spending and is considering a call to raise the bar to 3 per cent.
“Matt is a strong warrior and loyal patriot, who will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended. Matt will strengthen relationships with our Nato allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to peace and stability — He will put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said.
On Tuesday, Trump also named the retired heart surgeon and television personality Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Mehmet Oz has been nominated to run America’s public health administration
CHRIS PIZZELLO/AP
Oz, who promoted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, despite a lack of medical research into its efficacy, will work with the vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr at the Department of Health and Human Services if they are confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
• What are Dr Oz and RFK Jr planning for US health care?
Trump’s announcement highlighted Oz’s “nine daytime Emmy Awards hosting The Dr Oz Show where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices, and gave a strong voice to the key pillars of the Maha [Make America Healthy Again] movement”.
