Linda McMahon has been appointed as the new education secretary through Monday’s confirmation. However, people have their doubts about her as her dark history with WWE resurfaces. While many fear that her lousy resume is unfit for the job, experts think she is the perfect person to carry out a “final mission” before the U.S. Education Department is dismantled.
Since Donald Trump‘s White House takeover, the move has been expected, but was withheld until after McMahon’s Senate confirmation on Monday. The draft action instructs her to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of Department of Education,” as well as act “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
Trump has a history of appointing people to departments who possess no knowledge about those certain departments, and Linda McMahon is no exception. On Monday night, following her confirmation, the former WWE CEO sent out her first email to the staffers. The email, which was obtained by Zeteo News, provides more insights into her action as she writes that they will undertake “the historic overhaul of a federal agency.” She emphasized that this is “our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generation of students.”
In the same email, she also advocated against DEI, emphasizing strengthening “parental rights” and “school choice,” both of which are jargon for attacking curriculum that teaches students about LGBTQ+ or race and defunding public schools, respectively.
Trump’s new Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent an email to staff last night —
Talks about the central vision: “to send education back to the states.”
Refers to a “historic final mission,” a “final, unforgettable” act: “the historic overhaul of a federal agency.” pic.twitter.com/VR9K2eBECm— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) March 4, 2025
However, Linda McMahon‘s confirmation is deemed contradictory given Trump’s own speech stressing the importance of “a merit-based” society. She failed to acquire a successful background in education, only except for a few jobs that ended awfully, according to Jezebel.
McMahon served one year on the Connecticut State Board of Education back in 2009, but she was removed shortly after it was revealed that she’d lied about her education degree. Since then, she’s served on the board for Sacred Heart University and Private Catholic School. Linda also unsuccessfully ran for U.S Senate in 2010 and 2012, later working in Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term in office, and super PAC, America First Action.
Apart from her lousy resume, her history with WWE is being dragged on now. Just a month before Trump took over the White House for the second time, five former WWE employees filed a lawsuit, alleging Linda of enabling systemic se-ual abuse during her tenure from 1980 to 2009. The lawsuit claimed that she and her then-husband were both aware of the abuse of underage teens, known as the “ring boys,” back in the 80s and 90s. Although she was accused of not taking any action against it, her lawyer, at that time, dismissed the claims, citing “scurrilous lies.”
This is a major bullet point, as pointed out by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) last month. “I am so concerned about whether sexual assault survivors on campus can trust you to support them,” Baldwin lamented. However, McMahon responded by saying that she has grandchildren who are college-age, so she will ensure that both sides “are treated fairly,” in cases like this. Of course, she proved that she wasn’t aware of Trump’s revised Title IX policy from his first term, which attacked the rights of campus assault survivors while also revoking the protection against trans discrimination.
Her ignorance is alarming, pointed out Emma Grasso Levine, senior manager of Title IX policy and programs at the campus survivor justice organization Know Your IX, according to Jezebel. “Her promises to protect students from all forms of harassment ring hollow–both because of her demonstrated lack of knowledge of the Trump Administration’s far more stringent standard for addressing gender-based violence on campus, and her failure to address systemic sexual abuse under her leadership of the WWE,” said Grasso Levine.
There is a sexual abuse lawsuit against Linda McMahon, WWE and her husband. She and her husband were aware of the sexually exploiting of children. He husband would film the interactions. And Linda is the Secretary of Education. OMG Do these people ever get screened? https://t.co/HDZLZRsaJo
— Mary Hansen (@ELLANDOMG) March 4, 2025
Not only that, McMahon also clearly backed Trump in threatening to defund schools that allow “illegal” student protests, indicating last year’s wave of pro-Palestine activism. “November proved that Americans overwhelmingly support the president’s vision, and I am ready to enact it,” said Linda in her opening remarks before the Senate on Monday.
However, her total lack of experience and knowledge about the education system is why Trump seemingly chose her — because she is here to reinforce the administration’s plan to totally abolish the U.S. Education Department. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, “I know that some people feel the secretary of education should have extensive experience in a school system. However, it is important to remember that education is still mostly a state and local responsibility…the job is to manage a bureaucracy who runs a number of funding programs.”
Meanwhile, Trump administration justified the order of dismantling the Education Department by laying out that “since its founding in 1979, the Department of Education has spent more than $1 trillion without producing virtually any improvement in student reading and mathematics scores.”
