Donald Trump has tapped his transition co-hair and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Linda McMahon as his Education Secretary.
The 76-year-old was in the running to be the president-elects pick to be Commerce Secretary but eventually lost out to Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, CNN first reported.
McMahon could be the nations last education secretary, as Trump has vowed to move its administration back to the states.
He has warned that shutting down the department could come early in his second term, but would need congressional approval to do it.
McMahon set up WWE with husband Vince in 1980 and would take on-screen roles before she left in 2009 to run for the Senate in Connecticut a year later.
With Vince she saw the company turn into a publicly-traded media empire.
During Trumps first administration she served as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, but now her loyalty has paid off with a more senior cabinet role.
She is the board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank that was formed in 2021.
Donald Trump has tapped his transition co-hair and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder Linda McMahon as his Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos, Trumps first education secretary, recommended to DailyMail.com how the president-elect could tear up the department she once ran.
DeVos, who resigned in protest over Trumps leadership on January 6 but is back in Trumps fold, detailed to DailyMail.com ways he could realize his goal of fully dismantling the organization.
‘He has doubled down on his attention to the issues with education and I am very optimistic that he is going to make education and the reforms necessary a high priority in his second administration,’ she said to DailyMail.com.
The bloated agency has spent over a trillion dollars since its conception in 1979 during President Jimmy Carters administration and now fills three different buildings in Washington, D.C., with over 4,000 employees.
DeVos said the Department of Education was created by Carter as a payoff to the teacher’s unions, and the entire department was filled with bureaucrats whose goals prioritized the the unions, not America’s children.
‘There are many ways to de-power the Department of Education and I am very optimistic that president trump in his second term is going to put the muscle behind seeing that happen,’ DeVos said.
She proposed that Trump should first pass federal tax credits to help parents pay for school choice, fueling education freedom across the country. She also proposed the federal government begin offering block funding grants to the states.
McMahon set up WWE with husband Vince in 1980 and would take on-screen roles before she left in 2009 to run for the Senate in Connecticut a year later. They are pictured together in 2013
McMahon (second from right) stands on stage watching Trump deliver his victory speech in Palm Beach on the night of the election
McMahon could be the nations last education secretary, as Trump has vowed to move its administration back to the states
Title IX, she explained, would have to be clarified and fixed after the Biden administration tried to use it to enact a very controversial agenda around transgender students. DeVos proposed sending the enforcement of Title IX to the Justice Department.
She also criticized the Biden administration for ‘trying to buy votes’ by forgiving federal college student loans. She proposed sending the he Free Application for Federal Student Aid program to the Department of Treasury or moving to a private program.
‘The status quo is not going to back down at all and they’re not going to get quieter. Whomever is there is going to if they are standing up to the status quo they’re going to get all the protests and all the stuff the same way because they are fighting for power and control,’ she said.
DeVos resigned from her position after the January 6th riots on Capitol Hill in protest of President Joe Biden’s election certification, citing the importance of the ‘peaceful transfer of power.’
But she said that she had spoken to Trump since that day ‘very recently’ about his proposed education reforms and was enthusiastic about the possibilities.
She explained that the window of opportunity for dramatic reform was possible, citing the growing number of American parents realizing that the teachers unions were not prioritizing their children.
‘The status quo and the unions have overplayed their hands through the whole covid experience, it has opened families eyes, grandparents, communities, it has opened everyone’s eyes to how much control and influence and power these teacher unions have had and I think there is backlash against that today,’ she said.
DeVos did not rule out returning to the position, if Trump asked, and said there were a number of good people who could serve in the role.
She said the only way she would return was if Trump was serious about closing down the department and if Republicans were serious about passing a tax credit for educational freedom.
‘I want to help accomplish those goals in any way, I want nothing more than for him to be successful in seeing these policies through,’ she said.