Trump taps pro-wrestling mogul Linda McMahon for secretary of education

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

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

Trump, in his announcement, 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 pledges to dismantle the federal Department of Education.

“Linda has been a fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights … giving 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.”

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 teacher job protections in K-12 schools and Head Start preschools.

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

“I don’t have any idea of her qualifications on education, and I’ve not heard her enunciate 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, slammed the nomination. “America’s schoolchildren 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. This is embarrassing and a slap in the face to our nation’s talented educators.”

Others praised Trump’s selection.

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

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

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, who 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 to where it truly belongs — back into classrooms, focusing on the fundamentals like reading, writing, and math,” Shaw said. “Resources have been wasted on bureaucracy and, far too often, on indoctrination instead of empowering students with the skills they need to succeed.”

Some expressed more cautious views on her selection.

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank, praised McMahon’s executive experience but said giving her the education portfolio as a “consolation prize” for losing out on the Commerce job demonstrated 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 in addressing many of the overreaching and punitive regulations put forth by the Biden administration, especially those targeting private career schools.”

Rick Hess, an education expert with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he also was not familiar 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 profound ineptitude of veteran school administrator Miguel Cardona, I’d avoid gross assumptions based on biography.” DeVos was Education secretary in Trump’s first administration, and Cardona currently holds the position.

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

Her husband, Vince, founded the company and was a household name as televised commercial wrestling exploded in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. McMahon also twice ran unsuccessfully for 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 resigned in 2019, she did so on good terms with Trump — unlike many appointees — and later became the chair of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-connected policy 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 over using classrooms for political activism rather than teaching a complete and accurate account of American history have reinvigorated calls for greater parental and citizen involvement in the curriculum approval process,” the site says about curriculum.

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

The institute also notes: “Many high school graduates finish school not knowing how to create a budget, balance a checkbook, read bank statements, or plan for savings.”

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

A major question is whether Trump will direct McMahon to move forward on his desire to weaken the Education Department — or eliminate it — which would require an act of Congress.

Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education, warned that Trump officials who move to do so “should prepare for lots of resistance, 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 common priorities we look forward to working on in the coming months with Secretary-designate McMahon and her team at the Department of Education.”

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

“We need an Education Secretary who understands these issues and will work alongside educators to secure more resources for public schools and protect the institution of public education,” he said. “Our students and communities deserve no less.”