Linda McMahon will appear before a Senate committee for her confirmation hearing to be education secretary Thursday as President Donald Trump publicly floats dismantling the department she’s seeking to lead.
McMahon, 76, previously was the chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, the company founded by her husband, Vince McMahon, a Trump ally. She was also the head of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first term and went on to lead several pro-Trump political groups.
The Education Department has come under scrutiny by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has claimed credit for canceling $881 million in contracts at the department — though the administration has refused to release details. Some of Musk’s aides have also gained access to Education Department systems and been granted administrator email accounts, a development that longtime employees call highly unusual.
Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee are expected to quiz McMahon about policy questions rather than controversies surrounding her time at WWE. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking member on the committee, said he’s likely to focus his questioning on how strongly she’d push to privatize public education, whether she’d support pay raises for teachers and whether she’d support efforts to cut programs in low-income school districts.
McMahon is looking to join Trump’s Cabinet after four years as chair of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank that backs redirecting federal education dollars toward private schools, reducing the influence of teachers unions and supporting skills-based technical career training. Several of the early appointees at the Education Department came from the think tank.
It’s unclear whether McMahon supports eliminating the department, a longtime goal of some Republicans. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he wants to close it because it’s “a complete con job.” Trump said this month he hopes McMahon would “put herself out of a job.” And NBC News has reported that Trump is preparing an executive order to abolish the Education Department — though he can’t unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without congressional approval.
McMahon left WWE in 2009 and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012. She was recently named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that the WWE sought to conceal sexual abuse committed against boys assisting the ring crew on productions during her time running the wrestling giant. The case is currently on hold, and the McMahons have denied the claims.
She has also faced criticism since she left WWE for how it handled steroid use and for the graphic and sexual storylines that dominated its productions in the ’90s.
In addition to her role with the America First Policy Institute, McMahon is on the boards of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut; the political activist group America First Works; the right-wing media group The Daily Caller News Foundation; and Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group. According to a financial disclosure report she filed in December, Truth Social’s parent firm paid her $55,200 last year, and she would divest from the company if she is confirmed.
Linda and Vince McMahon spent over $20 million to help elect Trump last year, according to OpenSecrets, a campaign finance watchdog, making them among his largest financial backers.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
