Off the top rope! Trump hires former WWE boss as education secretary
She also served in Trump’s first-term Government, as the head of the Small Business Administration.
The Republican leader’s threat to shut down the Education Department has angered Democrats, teachers’ unions, and many parents, who see it as an attack on the public education system.
Underscoring his intention, Trump had earlier directed McMahon to “put herself out of a job”.
“The American people do not want to see cuts to education and the consequent rise in property taxes. But that is the danger of confirming Ms McMahon,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Conservative groups hail the proposal to dismantle the department as a long-overdue measure to reassert local control over American classrooms.
But they acknowledge that the task of winding down the vast department will not be easy.
At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders said the department was “providing vital resources for 26 million children in this country who live in high-poverty school districts”.
He asserted that it was “the responsibility of the federal government to say that every kid in America, whether you’re poor, middle class, rich, gets a quality education”.
McMahon, a major donor to the Republican Party, has financially backed Trump’s political career since 2016.
She is married to Vince McMahon, also a powerful figure at the WWE, a wrestling empire that was founded in the 1950s and combines scripted combat with stunning stunt work and soap-opera-esque storylines.
The nominee was questioned about the WWE “ring boys” scandal, in which teenage employees were allegedly sexually assaulted in the 1980s and 1990s by a ring announcer.
Five former ring boys filed a civil suit against the McMahons in October, accusing them of knowing about the assaults but failing to act.
Linda McMahon’s lawyers dismissed the accusations as “baseless”.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune described her as an “accomplished businesswoman and public servant”.
– Agence France-Presse
