World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder and Education Secretary Linda McMahon has made herself the latest star of the Trump administration’s MAGA-fication of childhood classics.
In a video titled “How Fraudsters (Nearly) Stole Student Aid,” McMahon narrates a parody based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas but made her take about the un-festive topic of alleged student loan fraud.
McMahon, 77, donned a sequined “Make Education Great Again” zip-up jacket and surrounded herself with a Grinch balloon display for the video, which appeared to be shot in a drab office building.
“You know the story of a green little thief who tiptoed through Whoville and caused holiday grief?” McMahon said. “Well, this year, a new crew tried to assemble their feet, sneaking and scheming to swipe Student Aid neat.”
“They slithered through paperwork, schemed with delight, like adding fake students deep into the night. They dreamed of a sack stuffed to the brim with billions of dollars. Prospects were grim, but we weren’t sleeping, not even a wink. We checked the numbers, the forms blink. We spotted the fakes, the tricks, the slight little plots, and followed the trail to connect all the dots,” the secretary continued.
“So instead of a billion dollars up the chimney to go, the whole scheme collapsed like a roast cooked too slow,” she said.
McMahon, who had essentially no experience in education before assuming her role as secretary, has overseen the dismantlement of her department. Trump reportedly chose her for the role because she had a lack of experience in the field.
Her video received backlash on social media.
“This is why you shouldn’t put stupid people in charge of education,” one user wrote.
“Tax payer funded clown show,” another wrote.
The Daily Beast reached out to Dr. Suess Enterprises for comment.
The video appears to be a reference to a claim the Trump administration made this week that it prevented $1 billion in federal student aid fraud since Trump took office in January. The federal government claimed that colleges and universities were “under siege by highly sophisticated fraud rings” and had requested the Trump administration for help in combating fraud.
“$1 billion in taxpayer funds will now support students pursuing the American dream, rather than falling into the hands of criminals. Merry Christmas, taxpayers!” McMahon said in a statement.
Parodying the classic is something of a MAGA reversal. Just four years ago, Republicans were furious with the Dr. Suess franchise—and the Biden administration—after Dr. Suess Enterprises announced it would no longer be printing six books which “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” Some of the books included And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo.
MAGA was quick to decry the move by the company as being a part of “cancel culture” under Joe Biden’s presidency, which in fact had nothing to do with the decision.
At the time, Fox News spent nearly a week airing hundreds of segments claiming Dr. Suess had been cancelled by Democrats, with headlines such as “CANCEL CULTURE COMES FOR DR. SUESS” and “SILENCING SUESS.”
Then-Sen. Marco Rubio even said the decision to cease publication of the six books was “an example of a depraved sociopolitical purge driven by hysteria and lunacy.”
McMahon’s take on a Dr. Suess story comes as the Trump administration in recent weeks has been using childhood classic stories to prop up their agenda.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used graphics from children’s classic story series Franklin to make his version titled “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists,” in an effort to make light of the Pentagon’s deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. The publisher condemned the Pentagon’s unauthorized use of their characters.
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