Ex pro-wrestling chief confirmed as Trump education secretary

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump's pick for US education secretary, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, was confirmed by the Senate Monday to lead a department the president has been clear he wants to dismantle.

Trump, 78, promised to decentralize education as he campaigned for a return to the White House, saying he would devolve the department's powers to state governments.

McMahon, a 76-year-old businesswoman, appeared to concur as she told the Senate education committee earlier in February that “the excessive consolidation of power” in Washington was damaging education.

“So what’s the remedy? Fund education freedom, not government,“ she said.

The co-founder of the wildly popular WWE wrestling league, McMahon worked in the organization from 1980 to 2009, serving as its president and chief executive.

She also served in Trump's first term government, as the head of the Small Business Administration.

The Republican leader's threat to shut down the education department has angered Democrats, teachers' unions and many parents, who see it as an attack on the public education system.

Underscoring his intention, Trump had earlier directed McMahon to “put herself out of a job.”

“The American people do not want to see cuts to education and the consequent rise in property taxes. But that is the danger of confirming Ms McMahon,“ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Conservative groups hail the proposal to dismantle the department as a long-overdue measure to reassert local control over American classrooms.

But they acknowledge that the task of winding down the vast department will not be easy.

At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Bernie Sanders said the department was “providing vital resources for 26 million children in this country who live in high-poverty school districts.”

He asserted it was “the responsibility of the federal government to say that every kid in America, whether you’re poor, middle class, rich, gets a quality education.”

McMahon, a major donor to the Republican Party, has financially backed Trump's political career since 2016.

She is married to Vince McMahon, also a powerful figure at the WWE, a wrestling empire that was founded in the 1950s and combines scripted combat with stunning stunt work and soap-opera-esque storylines.

The nominee was questioned about the WWE “ring boys” scandal, in which teenage employees were allegedly sexually assaulted in the 1980s and 90s by a ring announcer.

Five former ring boys filed a civil suit against the McMahons in October, accusing them of knowing about the assaults but failing to act.

Linda McMahon’s lawyers dismissed the accusations as “baseless.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune described her as an “accomplished businesswoman and public servant.”