Trump to nominate former WWE executive Linda McMahon for education secretary
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Linda McMahon to head the department of education for his second term.
Trump has been announcing picks for his Cabinet and other key positions for his administration over the past few weeks, stacking his circle with people who were his strongest supporters during his 2024 campaign.
Also on Tuesday, Trump announced his nominations for Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and billionaire Howard Lutnick as his nominee for commerce secretary.
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Who is Linda McMahon?
McMahon served as co-chair of Trump’s transition team and was the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which she co-founded with her embattled husband, Vince McMahon.
During Trump’s first term, McMahon was the former Small Business Administrator director, according to the SBA website. She resigned from the role in 2019.
After her resignation, McMahon worked as one of the leaders of the America First Policy Institutes that strategized for another Trump presidency.
McMahon served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she has expressed support for charter schools and school choice.
McMahon lost races in 2010 and 2012, spending nearly $100 million of her own money on the campaigns.
Lawsuits and WWE
In 2022, Vince resigned from his CEO role at WWE amid allegations that he paid over $12 million in hush money over the past 16 years to "suppress allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity."
He then officially resigned from WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, in January 2024 after a woman who previously worked for WWE filed a federal lawsuit accusing him of serious misconduct, including offering her to be a star wrestler for sex and distributing pornographic pictures and videos of her.
In another more recent lawsuit filed last month, WWE and its founders were accused of fostering a culture of sexual abuse within the organization.
The lawsuit alleged that higher-ups looked the other way while a longtime ringside announcer preyed on young men he hired as "ring boys."
Both Linda and Vince were targets of the lawsuit which claimed the couple were well aware of the brazen misconduct that took place at the time.