Trump names pro-wrestling mogul Linda McMahon as education secretary

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is nominating Linda McMahon, a billionaire professional wrestling mogul and small business champion with minimal school experience, to be secretary of education.

The nomination of McMahon, a major Republican donor, surprised many education experts. She was not on Trump’s transition team’s short list of education secretary candidates, one informed source said, and many had expected leading opponents of diversity and equity programs to be tapped for the job, including state superintendents in Oklahoma and Louisiana.

In his announcement, Trump touted McMahon’s “decades of leadership experience” and said she would work for what he called parents’ rights, including the ability to use taxpayer-funded vouchers to allow children to attend any school, public or private. He also said she would spearhead efforts to “send education BACK TO THE STATES,” possibly alluding to earlier promises to dismantle the federal Department of Education.

“Linda has been a fierce advocate for parents’ rights … to give children the opportunity to receive an excellent education, regardless of zip code or income,” Trump said in a statement. “As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every state in America and empower parents to make the best education decisions for their families.”

The reaction was swift — and divided — over McMahon, who is said to have wanted the job of commerce secretary but lost out to Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick.

She will spearhead the Trump administration’s education policies, which could reshape federal financial aid, federal research funding and civil rights for LGBTQ+ people and those accused of sexual assault. Trump is also expected to roll back President Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts.

Other areas of potential scrutiny are job protection for teachers in primary schools and pre-school children.

In Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Times he knew little about McMahon beyond her background as a wealthy Trump donor who comes from a family of entertainers.

“I have no idea about her qualifications in education, and I haven’t heard her express a vision that gives me much confidence that it’s anything other than payback for political support,” he said.

Shaun Harper, a USC professor of education, public policy and business, opposed the nomination. “America’s school children and college students deserved an education secretary who brings deep education experience to the role,” he said. “Instead they got a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive. It’s embarrassing and a slap in the face to our nation’s talented educators.”

Others praised Trump’s choice.

Madison Miner, Orange County chair of Moms for Liberty, a conservative organization that opposes curriculum on LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity, called McMahon a “wonderful choice.”

“She is an advocate for parental rights and child protection,” Miner said. “She will make a huge difference in our education department. … I would love for all parents to have rights over their children.”

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, which has become a national figure among conservative parents and school leaders, said McMahon’s appointment seems like a strategic move.

“She has proven her ability to manage money and run a business, and now she has the opportunity to redirect funding where it really belongs – back into classrooms, focusing on the basics of reading, writing and math,” said Shaw. “Resources have been wasted on bureaucracy and too often on indoctrination instead of giving students the skills they need to succeed.”

Some expressed more cautious views on her choice.

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank, praised McMahon’s leadership experience but said giving her the education portfolio as a “consolation prize” for losing the Commerce job showed the “low priority” Trump places on education.

Jason Altmire, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, which represents 1,300 for-profit campuses across North America, said he was optimistic that McMahon would lead the department to take a more “reasoned and thoughtful approach to dealing with many of the excessive and punitive regulations put forth by the Biden administration, particularly those targeting private career schools.”

Rick Hess, an education expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he was also unfamiliar with McMahon, but cautioned against quick judgments.

“Those seeking reflexive celebration or condemnation should look elsewhere,” he said. Referring to current and former education secretaries, he added: “After the admirable performance of ‘outsider’ Betsy DeVos and the gross ineptitude of veteran school administrator Miguel Cardona, I would avoid making gross assumptions based on biography.” DeVos was education secretary in Trump’s first administration, and Cardona currently holds the position.

McMahon served two years on the Connecticut Board of Education and has been a board member of Sacred Heart University, a Catholic school in Connecticut. Born a Baptist and converted to Catholicism, McMahon has considerably more experience in business, including being the longtime CEO and president of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

Her husband, Vince, founded the company and was a household name when televised commercial wrestling exploded in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. McMahon also ran twice unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, losing to Connecticut Democrats Richard Blumenthal in 2010 and to Christopher S. Murphy in 2012.

During his first term, Trump tapped McMahon to lead the Small Business Administration. When she stepped down in 2019, she did so on good terms with Trump — unlike many appointees — and later became chairman of America First Policy Institutea Trump-affiliated political think tank.

While McMahon’s views on many hot-button education issues are not well known, the institute’s website focuses its priorities on “school choice,” parental approval of curriculum, basic skills and “teaching the truth about America’s history.”

“Today’s contentious debates about using classrooms for political activism rather than teaching a full and accurate account of American history have renewed calls for greater parent and citizen involvement in the curriculum approval process,” the curriculum website says.

Regarding the history curriculum, the website says: “Racially divisive policies and theories and false teachings of the American founding indoctrinate America’s youth with an anti-American ideology instead of preparing them for engaged citizenship by teaching rigorous subjects.” The episode directly targets the 1619 project of the New York Times, which links the founding of the United States to its history of slavery and racism.

The Institute also notes, “Many high school students leave school without knowing how to create a budget, balance a checkbook, read bank statements, or plan to save money.”

If McMahon joins the America First Policy Institute and related super PACs, “it appears that ending the DEI and accreditation reform is at the top of her list, along with promoting vocational education,” said John Aubrey Douglass, senior researcher and research professor of public policy and higher education at the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.

A big question is whether Trump will direct McMahon to move forward with his desire to weaken the Department of Education — or eliminate it — which would require action by Congress.

Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education, warned that Trump officials who move to do so “should prepare for a lot of opposition because the public generally supports public education, especially in rural areas.”

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said he looked forward to working with McMahon.

“Higher education and our colleges and universities work hard every day to build America and improve lives,” he said in a statement. “Ensuring college access and affordability, supporting student success, and advancing cutting-edge research that saves lives and protects our national security are just some of the shared priorities we look forward to working on in the coming months with Secretary-designate McMahon and her team at the Ministry of Education.”

David Goldberg, California Teachers Assn. president, said the nation’s public schools are facing a critical moment — needing more funding for safe and stable learning environments, higher pay for teachers and more support for students with special needs.

“We need an education secretary who understands these issues and will work with educators to secure more resources for public schools and protect the institution of public education,” he said. “Our students and communities deserve nothing less.”