Senate confirms Trump pick Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted Monday to confirm billionaire GOP donor and former wrestling industry executive Linda McMahon as the next secretary of the federal Department of Education.

The approval was expected from the Republican-controlled chamber, where conservative lawmakers have signed on to even the most controversial of President Donald Trump's Cabinet picks. The vote was 51-45 in her favor.

She now faces the challenge of managing an agency her boss has said he wants "closed immediately." Education Department staffers are already reeling from massive upheaval and layoffs, with more on the way.

The president told reporters in the Oval Office last month that he wants McMahon to "put herself out of a job." The White House has been considering steps in recent weeks to dismantle the Education Department, though only Congress has the power to formally do away with a federal agency.

At her confirmation hearing Feb. 13, McMahon seemed to appreciate the limits on presidential power.

"We’d like to do this right," she said, adding in later remarks that the Education Department "clearly could not be shut down without" Congress.

Meanwhile, many student loan repayment plans are paused. The federal government's education research apparatus has been gutted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team. Fears of immigration raids are affecting student attendance from coast to coast. And school administrators nationwide are huddling with lawyers to understand whether they'll be forced to comply with the Trump administration's demands to halt diversity, equity and inclusion programs (those directives have been challenged in court).

McMahon has been an ardent supporter of conservative education priorities, including school choice programs, which allow families to use public money to subsidize nonpublic schooling, and barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Though she is a proponent of expanding Pell Grants, she also has advocated for college alternatives and said during her confirmation hearing that the federal government should "build up careers, not college debt."

Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.

(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)