# Linda McMahon Linda McMahon is the **U.S. Secretary of Education in the second Trump administration**, confirmed in early 2025. She co-founded World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) with her husband Vince McMahon and served as its CEO until 2009, before two unsuccessful U.S. Senate runs in Connecticut (2010, 2012). Trump appointed her **SBA Administrator** in his first administration (2017–2019). Between administrations she chaired the **America First Policy Institute** (AFPI), a Trump-aligned think tank that served as a personnel and policy preparation vehicle for the second term. As Education Secretary, McMahon's signature initiative is the **2025 Education Freedom Tax Credit** — a federal tax-credit-scholarship program that she has been actively lobbying blue-state governors to opt into (27 states had opted in as of March 2026). The program represents the federal-level breakthrough that the school-choice coalition had been unable to engineer for decades. McMahon's role aligns with the [[Project 2025]] Chapter 11 (Education) playbook drafted by Heritage's Lindsey Burke — abolishing or substantially gutting the [[Department of Education]], converting Title I funding into block grants, and expanding federal tax-credit scholarships. ## Biography and Business Career **Linda Edwards McMahon** was born **October 4, 1948** in New Bern, North Carolina. She married **Vince McMahon** in 1966; together they built **World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)** from a regional wrestling promotion (the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, later the World Wrestling Federation) into a global entertainment empire. Linda served as **CEO of WWE** from **1980 to 2009**, overseeing the company's transformation into a publicly-traded corporation (NYSE: WWE) and its growth into a billion-dollar brand. ## Connecticut Senate Campaigns McMahon ran for **U.S. Senate in Connecticut** twice — in **2010** and **2012** — spending a combined estimated **$100 million** of personal funds. She lost both races to Democratic opponents (Richard Blumenthal in 2010, [[Chris Murphy]] in 2012). The campaigns established her as a major Republican donor and political figure despite the electoral losses. ## SBA Administrator (2017–2019) Trump appointed McMahon as **Administrator of the Small Business Administration** in **2017** — her first government role. She served until **2019**, earning relatively bipartisan praise for non-controversial management of the SBA. Her tenure was notably free of the scandals that affected other Trump 1.0 cabinet members. ## America First Policy Institute (2021–2024) McMahon served as **board chair of the [[America First Policy Institute]]** from its **April 2021** founding through **2024** — the Trump-aligned think tank that functioned as a government-in-waiting and personnel holding pattern. Her AFPI chairmanship connected her to the policy-development and personnel-pipeline operation that fed directly into [[Trump 2.0]] appointments. ## Education Secretary (2025–) McMahon was nominated and confirmed as **U.S. Secretary of Education** in early **2025**. Her signature initiative has been the **2025 Education Freedom Tax Credit** — a federal tax-credit-scholarship program representing the federal-level breakthrough the school-choice coalition had pursued for decades. As of March 2026, **27 states** had opted into the program. McMahon's Education Department has also pursued **Title IX rollbacks** (reversing Biden-era trans-inclusive interpretations), **civil-rights enforcement reductions**, and alignment with the [[Project 2025]] Chapter 11 playbook (Heritage's Lindsey Burke) — including proposals to convert Title I funding into block grants and substantially restructure or reduce the department's footprint. ## The Presidential 1776 Award (July 2026) McMahon served as emcee of the Presidential 1776 Award, a civics competition staged as part of the [[America 250]] semiquincentennial programming and culminating in a televised championship at the [[Kennedy Center]]. On July 22, 2026, Sam Fortier of NOTUS reported that the Trump-appointed judges appeared to have rigged the contest — cutting a teenaged Indian immigrant contestant out of the final three in favor of three other finalists, and apparently changing the acceptable answers to questions about U.S. history to do it. Contestants and parents keeping their own scorecards believed the excluded student had qualified; when his mother requested the final scores, McMahon's Education Department told her they were "proprietary." The episode is a departure from the pattern of her career. McMahon's SBA tenure was notably scandal-free and her Education Department profile has otherwise been built on the tax-credit-scholarship program rather than on culture-war set pieces; this is the point at which she becomes the public face of one. The full account of the competition and its place in the anniversary year is on the [[America 250]] page. ## KB Significance McMahon's career trajectory — WWE CEO → failed Senate candidate → SBA Administrator → AFPI board chair → Education Secretary — illustrates the **business-elite-to-government pipeline** of the Trump-aligned ecosystem. Her AFPI-to-Education-Department trajectory is one of the most direct personnel-pipeline examples in the Trump 2.0 transition. The Education Freedom Tax Credit represents the most significant federal-level school-choice policy achievement in the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]'s educational-restructuring program. ## See Also - [[Donald Trump]] - [[America First Policy Institute]] - [[Project 2025]] - [[School Choice Ecosystem]] - [[Betsy DeVos]]