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President-elect Donald Trump has said that he intends to dismantle the Department of Education. But for now, he plans to fill the agency’s top position, naming WWE co-founder Linda McMahon as his Secretary of Education and implying she would help close the department down.
“We will send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday night.
If confirmed as the head of the department, McMahon would have major influence over policies impacting college sports landscape, including how Title IX, the law governing gender equity in college sports, is interpreted and enforced.
McMahon is the first major sports industry figure to be named directly to Trump’s cabinet, and one of the few appointees from his first term to be invited back for the second.
McMahon co-founded the WWE with her husband Vince in 1980, serving as both president and CEO throughout WWE’s rise. She was named as a defendant in an October lawsuit alleging she “knowingly allowed” an ongoing pattern of sexual abuse of underage boys hired to help put on WWE events. Vince is the center of multiple other lawsuits related to sexual abuse, including a federal investigation. The McMahons are separated, while she still owns tens of millions of dollars of stock in the company.
After resigning from WWE in 2009, McMahon went on to conduct two failed campaigns for U.S. Senate seats in Connecticut, running as a Republican both times. But her political career was far from over—Trump appointed her as head of the Small Business Administration in 2017 during his first term after she sailed through the Senate by an 81-19 vote.
In 2019, she left the role to lead a Trump super PAC called “America First Action.” She then transitioned to become the board chair of a pro-Trump think tank called America First Policy Institute, which she ran while Trump was out of office. McMahon is also a prolific donor to Trump’s campaigns and a board member of Truth Social, a social media platform owned by Trump’s media conglomerate.
McMahon is currently serving as the co-chair of Trump’s transition team, alongside Howard Lutnick, who Trump recently named Secretary of Commerce—a job for which McMahon was also thought to be in the running.
As the head of the Department of Education, McMahon would have the power to interpret and enforce Title IX, the law stating that federally funded educational institutions cannot discriminate on the basis of sex. It’s the law that governs equitable sports participation opportunities and is used to adjudicate sexual harassment and abuse allegations, among other issues.
McMahon will be positioned to carry out Trump’s agenda regarding transgender students. Trump wants to ban transgender athletes from playing women’s sports and roll back a Biden-era interpretation of Title IX that says discrimination on the basis of any gender identity is prohibited—including discriminating against people for being transgender. Trump has pledged to reverse Biden’s executive order and the subsequent DOE interpretation, saying Title IX’s discrimination protections only apply to a person’s sex assigned at birth.
McMahon will also have a say in whether Title IX will be applied to college athlete pay—a major question given that the pending House v. NCAA settlement could result in revenue-sharing between schools and athletes for the first time. NCAA president Charlie Baker has said it’s unclear how Title IX might apply to the distribution of revenue-sharing, and whether there’s a legal obligation to provide equitable amounts to men’s and women’s sports athletes. (Last week, three House Democrats sent a letter to the DOE requesting clarity on this issue.)
In addition to interpretation, McMahon will oversee Title IX’s enforcement—or lack thereof. McMahon can influence which Title IX violations to investigate or ignore. During Trump’s first term, Title IX enforcement significantly declined under education secretary Betsy DeVos, experts previously told Front Office Sports. They expect a similar result in his second term. Trump has also said that he wants to end the federal DOE altogether, which could further inhibit the ability to track or enforce Title IX.
Ending a federal agency requires approval from Congress, however, and it’s not clear if Trump would have the votes to do so; several Republican presidents have promised to close the department before, including Trump himself. So until then, McMahon may be in charge.
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