Trump Taps Linda McMahon to Dismantle the Education Department

Donald Trump said he would nominate World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon to lead the Education Department that he has vowed to dismantle.“We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump said in a statement Thursday evening.The selection of McMahon as education secretary came hours after Trump picked Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary, a job for which McMahon had been a leading contender.McMahon, a former head of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first term, serves as co-chair of the Trump transition team. She and her husband, Vince McMahon, built WWE into an entertainment powerhouse that popularized wrestling showmen like Hulk Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.She briefly served on the Connecticut State Board of Education, has supported literacy programs, including through WWE, and has been a board member of Sacred Heart University.McMahon, who twice ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, has said she supports school choice, tougher accountability and local oversight in education. “I believe in local control. I am an advocate for choice through charter schools,” McMahon said, according to an archived version of her 2010 Senate campaign site. She has also promoted career and technical education, according to a policy report she wrote for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that she chairs.