President-elect Donald Trump has tapped longtime ally and the former CEO of WWE, Linda McMahon, to lead his education department—an agency he has previously vowed to shutter.
McMahon, 76, served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term in office and has played a key role as the co-chair of his transition team.
During Trump’s time out of office, she served as the chair of two key groups that helped propel him back to the White House: Super PAC America First Action and the America First Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to enacting and marketing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policy agenda.
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“For the last four years, as the Chair of the Board at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Linda has been a fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights, working hard at both AFPI and America First Works (AFW) to achieve Universal School Choice in 12 States, giving children the opportunity to receive an excellent Education, regardless of zip code or income,” Trump said in a statement after naming McMahon as his choice.
“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World. We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort. ”
McMahon first vaulted onto Trump’s radar thanks to her time as the president–and later CEO–of WWE, a job she left in 2009. She founded the company alongside her husband, Vince McMahon.
After leaving WWE, McMahon twice ran for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut as a Republican, losing both times despite sinking massive sums of her own money into the races: $50 million in 2010 and $48 million in 2012, according to watchdog organization OpenSecrets. By comparison, her opponents, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, raised just $8.7 million and $10.5 million, respectively.
McMahon has also served as one of Trump’s largest financial boosters, contributing more than $7 million of her own money to Super PACs supporting the president-elect’s 2016 campaign.
Four sources familiar with the matter told CNN that McMahon’s impending nomination to lead the Education Department only came after she was passed over for Commerce Secretary—a post that ultimately went to her co-transition chair Howard Lutnick.
The Department of Education is a key post in Trump’s cabinet—and one that will be closely watched after the president-elect promised to close it down on the campaign trail.
“One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states,” Trump said in a video last year. “We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it.”
