Months after she was announced to be President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, Linda McMahon is on the hot seat in Capitol Hill Thursday as she faces senators over the future of the agency, which the president has vowed to kill.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is holding its hearing to grill McMahon, a businesswoman with close ties to Trump who has no teaching experience.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Department of Education has been mismanaged and has damaged education, calling it a “con job” during a news conference Wednesday. The president is expected to sign an executive order directing McMahon to submit a proposal for diminishing the department, and then the president said she should “put herself out of a job,” even though such an action would require an act of Congress.
Democratic senators have said they intend to scrutinize the nomination based on 76-year-old McMahon’s lack of experience in public education.
McMahon was interrupted by protesters during her opening statement where she defended her nomination and pushed for more school choice.
“If confirmed I will work with Congress to reorientate,” she said.
McMahon confirms that only Congress can shut down DOE
At an executive order signing event last week, President Trump said, “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.'”
“I want her to put herself out of a job,” Trump added.
The president has maintained that states should have control over their schools.
However, abolishing the agency can only be done if Congress passes legislation to eliminate it. Experts say it is illegal to dismantle the department without congressional authorization, which would require 60 Senate votes in favor of doing so.
HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., and ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., both pressed McMahon on whether she believes dismantling the agency can be done without Congress. McMahon responded that only Congress would be able to do so.
“The it is set up by the United States Congress, and we work with Congress. It clearly cannot be shut down without it,” McMahon told Sanders.
However, she told Cassidy she was “all for the president’s mission of returning education back to the states” and that the states would still receive federal funding.
“We want to be working with Congress. We’d like to do this right. We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators can get onboard with and our Congress would get on board with that would have a better-functioning Department of Education. But it certainly requires congressional action,” McMahon said.
McMahon’s journey from WWE matriarch to DOE nominee
McMahon co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is also the company’s former president and CEO.
Trump said he chose McMahon for being a “fierce advocate” for parental rights in education who will fight “tirelessly” to expand school choice and “spearhead” his effort to send education decisions back to the states, according to the president’s official nomination statement. The president also praised McMahon’s leadership and “deep understanding” of both education and business.
McMahon’s personal financial wealth is unclear but she reported owning assets that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and which could potentially surpass $1 billion. The Trump loyalist was co-chair of his presidential transition team and is a long-time donor who has given tens of millions of dollars to support pro-Trump causes.
McMahon previously worked in the first Trump administration as head of the Small Business Administration (SBA). She had previously made two unsuccessful bids for U.S. Senate when she ran against current Senate Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She is also Chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) board but will leave that position if confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Education.
McMahon has advocated for apprenticeship and workforce training programs, school choice and parental rights. Although she is not currently an educator she received her teaching certification from East Carolina University and sat on the Connecticut state board of education before her first unsuccessful senate bid. She has also served two stints on the Board of Trustees at Connecticut’s Sacred Heart University, where she is currently the treasurer.
McMahon’s scandals cast shadow over nomination
Meanwhile, McMahon’s years as a wrestling executive came with their share of alleged scandals, which has brought her experience with young people under scrutiny.
A 2024 lawsuit brought by five plaintiffs – John Does who served as the WWE ringside crew when they were teens – accused her and her husband, Vince McMahon, of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by an announcer and executives at the company. If confirmed by the Senate, McMahon would be tasked with overseeing sexual misconduct investigations within education programs.
The McMahons have denied the claims.
Laura Brevetti, Linda McMahon’s attorney, told ABC News that the FBI investigated the decades-old allegations at the time and found no grounds to further investigate them, calling the lawsuit “baseless.”
McMahon’s allies believe she will be an agent of change, a disrupter, and the dismantler that the Department of Education needs. Skeptics also claimed that the federal agency spends too much on education without adequate academic results.
But many in the education community fear that if McMahon helps Trump abolish the agency, it could adversely impact the millions of students who rely on critical programs overseen by the department that are intended to help vulnerable students succeed, like Title I funding for students from low-income communities.
