Trump announces nominees for education, commerce and health posts

US President Donald Trump announced late Tuesday his selection of Linda McMahon as his nominee to lead the Department of Education.

McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s previous term and was known for his decades-long role in helping to lead World Wrestling Entertainment.

“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 statement. “We want to send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”

Earlier Tuesday, Trump nominated Wall Street financier Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary in his new administration.

The 63-year-old billionaire is co-chairman of Trump’s transition team, helping to consider and process several people to take on top-level government jobs after Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Lutnick has been an outspoken Trump supporter in recent months.

The CEO and chairman of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick was reported to be in contention to become Treasury secretary, another top job Trump has yet to fill. But Trump aides say Lutnick fell out of favor with the Treasury Department amid conflicts with another leading candidate, investor Scott Bessent.

If confirmed by the Senate, Lutnick could play a leading role in implementing the president’s economic and trade policies.

Trump has proposed widespread increases in tariffs on imported goods, an effort to boost U.S. manufacturing of the same products, but which in the short term threatens to raise prices for U.S. consumers and disrupt the global economy.

The Commerce Department oversees a range of federal business policies, including on semiconductors, cybersecurity and patents, and helps promote new businesses and economic growth in the United States, the world’s largest economy.

Lutnick has previously donated to Democrats and Republicans. He also appeared once on Trump’s NBC reality television show “The Apprentice” before Trump was first elected president in 2016.

The Cantor Fitzgerald firm, which Lutnick heads, lost more employees — 658 out of 960 — than any other firm in the September 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another 46 contractors and visitors who were in Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices that day were killed when the towers collapsed.

Lutnick’s brother Gary was among those killed when hijackers flew commercial jetliners into the skyscrapers and hit the North Tower just below, where Cantor Fitzgerald occupied floors 101 to 105. Howard Lutnick would have been there too, but brought his son Kyle to his first day in kindergarten.

Back on the scene, Lutnick survived the collapse of the South Tower by taking cover under a nearby car. He later created the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund to help families of victims of the attacks and natural disasters.

On Tuesday, Trump also appointed Dr. Mehmet Oz, a longtime TV show host, as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees the government’s two key health insurance programs for older Americans and poor people. Trump backed Oz’s failed bid to win a Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022.