President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Linda McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment govt who served within the first Trump administration, as his decide to guide the Education Department.
If she is confirmed by the Senate, McMahon would oversee a division that Trump mentioned he deliberate to “get rid” of because it presently exists and permit every state to individually “deal with training.”
“As Secretary of Education, Linda will combat tirelessly to broaden ‘Choice’ to each State in America, and empower mother and father to make the very best Education selections for his or her households,” Trump mentioned in an announcement that described McMahon as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights.”
McMahon reposted Trump’s announcement, which had been shared by his marketing campaign, on X. Earlier within the day she joined Trump and Elon Musk, who was named as a co-chair of a brand new “Department of Government Efficiency,” on the SpaceX Starship launch in Texas.
CNN first reported on McMahon as Trump’s decide for training secretary.
McMahon, 76, is a co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition crew. She was head of the Small Business Administration throughout his first presidency earlier than she stepped down from the Cabinet-level publish in 2019 to guide the pro-Trump America First Action tremendous PAC.
Before she joined the primary Trump administration, McMahon served on the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009, earlier than she resigned to make unsuccessful bids in 2010 and 2012 for U.S. Senate seats within the state.
McMahon was certainly one of Trump’s high donors throughout the 2024 marketing campaign — contributing greater than $20 million to the Make America Great Again Inc. tremendous PAC, in addition to $937,800 to his marketing campaign and affiliated joint fundraising committees. She is married to former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon.
The Education Department has a funds of $241.6 billion and employs about 13,000 staff, in accordance with information from the Office of Personnel Management.
Under the Biden administration, the Education Department has authorised the cancellation of $175 billion in pupil mortgage debt. The administration has additionally sought to broaden civil rights protections for LGBTQ college students with a brand new Title IX rule that broadens the definition of sex-based harassment in faculties. The rule has been blocked in a number of states that challenged the coverage.
Trump mentioned on the marketing campaign path that he would undo Title IX protections for transgender college students. He additionally mentioned that he plans to signal an govt order that will strip federal funding “from any faculty pushing crucial race principle, transgender madness, and different inappropriate racial, sexual or political content material onto the shoulders of our youngsters.”
McMahon has criticized range, fairness and inclusion applications, writing in an op-ed printed by Fox News this yr that DEI provisions have been “irrelevant to coaching expert staff” and that such insurance policies “add prices and administrative burdens to all apprenticeship applications.”
McMahon is chair of the board on the America First Policy Institute, a conservative suppose tank she launched with different former Trump administration officers in 2021. Trump has mentioned he plans to appoint others affiliated with the group, together with former Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia for veteran affairs secretary and former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York to guide the Environmental Protection Agency.
McMahon can also be the newest Cabinet decide from Trump’s transition crew. Earlier Tuesday he named Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who’s co-chairing his transition alongside McMahon, as his alternative for commerce secretary.