Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Education, appears to be fully on board with destroying the agency she’s set to run.
In a series of questions asked by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) after McMahon’s confirmation hearing before the Senate education panel earlier this month, the nominee said she “wholeheartedly supports” Trump’s plan to abolish the department.
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs,” McMahon wrote, according to her testimony shared with HuffPost. “I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission.”
At the hearing, McMahon was more careful with her words, saying that Trump would like to “look, in totality, at the Department of Education,” and said she “believes that the bureaucracy of it should be closed.” She also repeatedly noted that Trump does not have the power to unilaterally shut down the agency and would need to work with Congress.
“Linda McMahon has made herself clear: She will do whatever Donald Trump asks her to do — including shutting down the agency she is supposed to lead, which supports millions of students trying to receive an education,” Warren told HuffPost. “Confirming her as education secretary would be a disaster for the success of students and teachers in public schools.”
Republicans have intermittently griped about shutting down the Department of Education since it was created in 1980. But with Trump’s election — and as right-wing culture warriors like the group Moms for Liberty continue to make misleading claims about “woke ideology” being forced on children in the nation’s public schools — that decades-old goal has inched closer to reality.
The Education Department doesn’t have much sway over the specifics of curricula. It is mostly tasked with providing resources for low-income schools, ensuring equal access to education and administering federal student loans.
“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump said the day before McMahon’s confirmation hearing. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.”
After issuing executive orders that threaten to withhold funding from public schools that teach about “diversity, equity and inclusion” or the existence of transgender people, multiple reports said that the White House was planning an executive order that would seek to shut down the agency, if Congress approves.
In their post-hearing questions, Warren and Kim asked whether or not she’d commit to funding for various programs, like ones that seek to strengthen historically Black universities or protect the civil rights of students. They also asked her about her thoughts on protecting the privacy of Americans. Officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have reportedly attempted to access sensitive information at the agency.
Before the hearing, members of Congress were denied entry to the agency’s building by DOGE, and multiple groups sued the Trump administration over who has access to its private information.
When asked by Warren and Kim about DOGE’s data access, McMahon didn’t seem bothered by it.
“My understanding is that all DOGE employees are in full compliance with the law,” she answered.
The first month of Trump’s return to power has been marked by chaos; DOGE officials have shown up at federal agencies, deemed a program or grant they don’t like to be in violation of Trump’s anti-DEI order or simply label it as fraud or waste, and try to slash it. Already, Musk has bragged about canceling $900 million worth of contracts from the Institute for Education Sciences, the agency’s research arm. The DOGE team has also tried to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and other government entities.
Federal agencies only receive funding after it’s been appropriated by Congress. Advocates are worried Musk and the DOGE team could run the same playbook on the Department of Education — that is, withholding money that Congress has already approved.
Warren and Kim asked McMahon if she would commit to not suspending or cutting any money appropriated by Congress — like funds for federal student aid, teacher training programs, rural schools and more — McMahon repeatedly answered, “I will follow the law.”
McMahon’s refusal to go into specifics or commit to funding for a variety of important programs at the agency was reminiscent of her nomination hearing. Then, she also refused to answer if schools would be at risk of losing their funding if they hosted ethnic clubs or groups that went against Trump’s executive orders.
Drastically reducing the department’s funding, or shutting it down completely, would be a disaster for the millions of children who rely on it to provide access to education and protect their civil rights.
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“Linda McMahon has made clear her top responsibility is complete and total loyalty to President Trump, including her openness to dissolve the very department she would be confirmed to run,” Kim said. “As the administration’s illegal funding freeze threatens already scarce resources for schools and critical programs, her blind loyalty is dangerous.”
“Instead of treating education as a public good that is a foundation for our society, the Trump administration is trying to demonize it and change it in ways that will leave many children vulnerable,” he continued. “We cannot let them.”
Last week, McMahon passed the first hurdle to leading the agency, receiving a party-line vote out of committee. With no opposition from Republicans, she will likely be confirmed as the next secretary of education.