Donald Trump has chosen former WWE chief executive Linda McMahon to be his secretary of state for education – a department he has vowed to abolish.
Mrs McMahon, 76, swapped her and her husband’s wrestling empire for a career in politics in the early 2000s – twice running for the Senate before focusing her efforts on getting Mr Trump into the White House.
She has donated millions to his presidential campaigns and was given a key business role in his previous administration.
In a statement, Mr Trump promised she will “empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World”.
But he has also vowed to dismantle the Department of Education – handing powers back to individual states – and taking federal money away from “any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”.
Here’s what you need to know about Linda McMahon.
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Married into wrestling empire at 17
Linda McMahon was born and raised in North Carolina, where her parents both worked on a military base.
She met her future husband Vince McMahon when she was 13 and he was 16 – after their mothers made friends at work.
They dated during high school and got married in 1966 when she was 17.
Mr McMahon’s father was a famous wrestling promoter and the couple followed him into the family business, setting up their own company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which soon became a household name in the US and beyond.
The couple had two children – a son and a daughter – before moving to Connecticut in the 1980s.
Donald Trump, wrestler Bobby Lashley, and Vince McMahon on Wrestlemania in 2007. Pic: AP
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While Mr Trump was the star of The Apprentice, he appeared on WWE’s Wrestlemania where he and Mr McMahon staged a fake feud that ended in him shaving the other’s head in the middle of the ring.
Mrs McMahon stepped down as chief executive in 2009 to begin a career in politics. Mr McMahon was in the role until 2022 when he stepped down amid an investigation into allegations against him of sexual battery and trafficking. He denied the claims, describing them as “false, absurd, defamatory and utterly meritless”.
Linda and Vince McMahon in New York in 1994. Pic: AP
Senate bids and party donations
Mrs McMahon’s political career began with two consecutive attempts at the US Senate – to represent Connecticut as a Republican in 2010 and 2012.
She lost both campaigns to Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy.
At a rally during her 2010 Senate campaign. Pic: AP
When she took a step back from WWE in 2009 she also took up a post on the Connecticut Board of Education, where she told her colleagues she had always been interested in education – and had plans to become a teacher until she got married.
She also spent a number of years on the board of trustees for Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University.
Her views on education are relatively unknown – but she has expressed support for charter schools – a similar concept to free schools in the UK.
During a debate with her rival for Democratic Senate Chris Murphy in 2012. Pic: AP
Trump government job
After her failed Senate bids, Mrs McMahon started offering financial support to Republican candidates instead.
She donated $6m (£4.7m) to the 2016 Trump campaign. After he won the election, he rewarded her with the job of leading the Small Business Administration – the federal agency that gives disaster relief loans to businesses and monitors contract law compliance.
Her former Connecticut Senate rivals praised her appointment, with Mr Blumenthal describing her as a “person of serious accomplishment and ability” and Mr Murphy calling her a “talented and experienced businessperson”.
With Mr Trump for the announcement of her resignation from the Small Business Administration in 2019. Pic: AP
On her departure from government in 2019, he said: “She’s been a superstar.
“The fact is I’ve known her for a long time. I knew she was good, but I didn’t know she was that good.”
She continued to support him through his 2020 election campaign as chairman of America First Action where she raised $83m (£66m) – and on his defeat to President Joe Biden – spearheaded his America First Policy Institute that focused on returning him to the Oval Office.
Congratulating Donald Trump’s 2017 executive order on ‘reorganising the executive branch’ in the Oval Office. Pic: AP
This year she has co-chaired his transition team with financial services boss Howard Lutnick.
It is not clear how Mr Trump would execute his plan of stopping the “left-wing indoctrination” of US schools by dismantling the department he has charged Mrs McMahon with.
It was created by Congress in 1979 and would require its backing to abolish it.
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