Donald Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder and his transition co-chair, for education secretary. A long-time ally of Trump, McMahon previously led the Small Business Administration during his first presidency and contributed millions of dollars to his presidential campaign.
Trump announced the nomination on Truth Social, stating that 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 promised to close it down, a task McMahon might be assigned.
Her nomination followed Trump’s decision to appoint Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and former television host, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
These two selections, along with Trump’s choice of Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary, highlight a pattern of the president-elect appointing loyal supporters to top roles in his cabinet.
McMahon has a long history with WWE and Trump, who occasionally appeared at wrestling matches. She co-founded the wrestling league with her husband in 1980 and resigned as CEO in 2009 to launch a failed Senate campaign.
Although she has little background in education, McMahon served on Connecticut’s board of education from 2009 to 2010.
She chairs the board of the pro-Trump think tank, the America First Policy Institute, which makes her confirmation in the Republican-majority Senate likely.
“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,” Trump said in his statement.
He added that McMahon would “spearhead” the effort to “send Education BACK TO THE STATES,” referring to his promise to close the Department of Education.
A lawsuit filed last month named McMahon in connection with WWE. The lawsuit alleges that she, her husband, and other company leaders knowingly allowed a ringside announcer, who died in 2012, to abuse young boys.
The McMahons deny the allegations. A lawyer representing them told USA Today Sports that the claims are “false” and stem from “absurd, defamatory, and utterly meritless” media reports.
Trump earlier selected Mehmet Oz to run the powerful agency that oversees the healthcare of millions of Americans.
Oz, chosen to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, trained as a surgeon before gaining fame on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the early 2000s and later hosting his own TV program.
Experts have criticized Oz for promoting what they called bad health advice on weight loss drugs and “miracle” cures, as well as for suggesting malaria drugs as a cure for COVID-19 during 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.
The Trump transition team added that 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 he officially takes charge of the agency.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee the country’s largest healthcare programs, providing coverage to more than 150 million Americans. The agency regulates health insurance and sets policies that guide the payments made to doctors, hospitals, and drug companies for medical services.
In 2023, the U.S. government spent more than $1.4 trillion on Medicaid and Medicare combined, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Trump said in a statement that Oz would “cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency,” and the Republican Party platform pledged to increase transparency, choice, competition, and expand access to healthcare and prescription drugs.
Oz, 64, trained as a cardiothoracic surgeon, specializing in operations on the heart and lungs, and worked at New York City’s Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University.
After appearing in dozens of Oprah segments, he started The Dr. Oz Show, where he offered health advice to viewers.
However, the line between promotion and science on the show was not always clear. Oz recommended homeopathy, alternative medicine, and other treatments that critics called “pseudoscience.”
He faced criticism during Senate hearings in 2014 for endorsing unproven pills that he claimed would “literally flush fat from your system” and “push fat from your belly.”
During those hearings, Oz said he never sold specific dietary supplements on his show. However, he publicly endorsed products off-air, and his financial ties to healthcare companies surfaced in filings during his 2022 Senate run in Pennsylvania.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz promoted anti-malaria drugs like hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which experts say are ineffective against the virus.
