President Donald Trump tapped Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education precisely because she lacked significant experience in the field, the education secretary said in an interview.
The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) co-founder served as the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, and after he won re-election, her top choice was to lead the Commerce Department, McMahon told the Wall Street Journal.
After that role went to Howard Lutnick, she and the president discussed “many places” where she might serve the new administration, she said.
“When [Trump] talked to me about Education, one of the things I said to him was, ‘I don’t come from the world of education. So, is that absolutely the right fit?’” McMahon told the Journal. “He said, ‘I don’t want someone from the world of education.’”
McMahon served briefly on the Connecticut board of education and earned a teaching certificate, but she only worked as a student teacher.
She founded WWE with her husband, Vince McMahon, and spent most of her career in business operations, marketing, and promotion, which is how she met Trump decades ago. She also served as a trustee at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
McMahon’s lack of experience in education has made itself evident.
She has blanked on the name of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, falsely claimed that test scores have fallen steadily since the Education Department was formed in 1980, flubbed the math during her Senate testimony on education spending, and accidentally referred to artificial intelligence as “A.1.,” like the steak sauce, instead of the acronym “AI.”
The AI gaffe was “embarrassing” and a “slip of the tongue,” she told the Journal. Her grandchildren made fun of it, and A.1. sent her two small bottles afterward.
McMahon has been tasked with the contradictory mission of shutting down the Department of Education (DOE) and returning education to the states, while simultaneously using the might of the federal government to pressure school districts and universities to conform to the president’s crusade against “diversity, equity, and inclusion” efforts.
For now, a federal court has halted Trump’s effort to shut down the department, which is still in the “planning stage,” McMahon told the Journal.
In the meantime, she’s keeping busy as the face of the president’s battle with Harvard University and is taking policy cues from the president’s social media use.
After Trump complained about a New York policy barring Native American mascots, which resulted in students at a Long Island high school no longer being called The Chiefs, the DOE opened and closed an investigation within a matter of weeks, the Journal reported.
The department concluded the policy violated civil rights law and is planning to ask the Department of Justice to prosecute.
A spokesperson for the New York State Education Department told the Journal that the move was the opposite of the administration’s stated goal of giving states greater control over their education policies.
The post Why Trump Thought Linda McMahon Would Make a Perfect Education Chief appeared first on The Daily Beast.
