Trump Selects WWE Co-Founder Linda McMahon as Education Secretary
Linda McMahon, co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and transition co-chair, has been named Donald Trump's nomination for education secretary.
McMahon, a longtime Trump supporter, managed the Small Business Administration during Trump's first presidency and donated millions to his presidential campaign.
Trump announced his decision on Truth Social, saying McMahon would "use her decades of leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next generation of American Students and Workers."
Trump has criticized the Department of Education and pledged to close it, a mission that McMahon may take on.
Her nomination comes shortly after President Trump appointed Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and former television host, to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The two nominations on Tuesday, along with Trump's choice of Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary, continue a pattern of the president-elect appointing loyal allies to key positions in his cabinet.
McMahon has a lengthy connection with the WWE, and Trump has made infrequent cameos at wrestling contests. She co-founded the wrestling league with her husband in 1980 before stepping down as CEO in 2009 to pursue a failed Senate campaign.
She has no educational background, yet she served on the Connecticut State Board of Education from 2009 to 2010.
She is the board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank, thus her confirmation in the Republican-majority Senate is expected.
"For the past four years, as the Chair of the Board at the America First Policy Institute, Linda has been a fierce advocate for Parents' Rights," the president stated in his press release.
About his promise to dissolve the agency, he stated that McMahon would "spearhead" the drive to "send Education BACK TO THE STATES".
McMahon was mentioned in a lawsuit filed last month regarding WWE.
It claims that she, her husband, and other company executives intentionally permitted young boys to be assaulted by a ringside announcer who died in 2012.
The McMahons deny wrongdoing. A lawyer for the couple told USA Today Sports that the allegations are "false claims" based on "absurd, defamatory, and utterly meritless" media reports.
Trump previously appointed Mehmet Oz to lead the influential agency that regulates millions of Americans' healthcare.
Oz, who was chosen to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was a surgeon before becoming famous on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the early 2000s and then having his television show.
Experts have condemned Oz for advocating what they describe as dubious health advice about weight loss medications and "miracle" cures, as well as offering malaria drugs as a cure for Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
"There may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again," Trump said in a statement.
According to a statement from the Trump transition team, Oz "will work closely with [Health Secretary nominee] Robert F Kennedy Jr to take on the illness industrial complex and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake."
Oz must be confirmed by the Senate next year before taking over the agency.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services handle the country's major healthcare programs, which cover more than 150 million Americans. The agency supervises health insurance and establishes policies that govern how doctors, hospitals, and drug firms are compensated for medical services.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the United States government will spend more than $1.4 trillion on Medicaid and Medicare combined in 2023.
In a statement, Trump stated that Oz would "cut waste and fraud within our country's most expensive government agency," while the Republican Party platform promised to promote openness, choice, and competition, as well as expand access to healthcare and prescription pharmaceuticals.
Oz, 64, was a cardiothoracic surgeon who specialized in heart and lung procedures. He worked at Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University in New York.
After appearing in scores of Oprah episodes, he launched The Dr Oz Show, where he gave viewers health advice.
However, the boundary between marketing and science on the show was not always apparent, and Oz has advocated for homeopathy, alternative medicine, and other treatments that opponents have labeled "pseudoscience".
During Senate hearings in 2014, he was chastised for promoting unproven drugs that he claimed would "literally flush fat from your system" and "push fat from your belly".
During the proceedings, Oz stated that he never sold any specific dietary supplements on his show. However, he has publicly advocated items off-air and his financial ties to healthcare corporations were revealed in filings submitted during his 2022 race for the US Senate from Pennsylvania.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Oz advocated the antimalarial medications hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which scientists say are useless against the virus.