Linda McMahon confirmed as Trump’s Education secretary
by Lexi Lonas Cochran - 03/03/25 6:34 PM ET
Linda McMahon will be the next secretary of the Department of Education after passing a full Senate vote for her confirmation on Monday.
The Senate voted 51-45 long party lines to confirm President Trump’s nominee to lead a federal agency he has been vocal about wanting to shut down.
“Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Education focused on everything but student success,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R-La.) chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “We need a strong leader at the Department who will get our education system back on track. Secretary McMahon is the right person for the job.”
Though not as controversial as some of his other picks, McMahon — a former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) executive who served as head of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first term — did draw Democratic opposition over her general lack of education experience and her and Trump’s shared goal of eliminating the department.
“I rise in opposition to Ms. McMahon. I like her personally,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said during the earlier vote for her in the HELP Committee, adding he admired the business she built but opposes the idea of getting rid of the department.
“Is it a perfect entity? No. Is it bureaucratic? Yes. Can we reform it? Yes. Should we abolish it? No,” Sanders said.
McMahon will have to catch up quickly, as the Department of Education has undergone multiple changes in the roughly six weeks since Trump took office.
Dozens of employees have been fired or placed on administrative leave, more than a billion dollars in government contracts have been severed, Title IX has been reset to its prior Trump-era form, multiple states are under investigation for their policies around transgender athletes and the federal government is at war against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including at schools.
And all of that exists in the context of the president trying to 86 the Education Department.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5165800-linda-mcmahon-trump-education-secretary-senate-vote/
