WWE mogul and Trump’s Education chief pick advances to final round

The nomination of Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO picked by President Donald Trump to head the Department of Education, will head to a final Senate vote after passing the final procedural hurdle of the confirmation process.

The chamber passed a cloture vote on Thursday afternoon that advanced McMahon’s nomination to a final floor vote to decide on her confirmation.

The vote passed by a 51 to 47 tally.

Trump tapped McMahon to serve as head of the Department of Education, which he has said he wants to close “immediately.” 

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Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, arrives for a hearing of the Health, Education, and Labor Committee on her nomination, on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington.  (Jacquelyn Martin)

Trump has also said he wants McMahon to “put herself out of a job.”

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“It’s a big con job,” the president said the day before McMahon’s confirmation hearing. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Linda McMahon, the outgoing administrator of the Small Business Administration, as she sits beside him after announcing her resignation, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, March 29, 2019. (Joshua Roberts)

McMahon testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee in February, focusing her remarks on the idea that “education is the issue that determines our national success and prepares American workers to win the future,” according to an excerpt of her opening remarks, shared first with Fox News Digital.

The confirmation hearing was marked by protesters, discussions on the participation of biological men in women’s sports and scrutiny over recent spending cuts proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the newly formed cost-cutting department led by Elon Musk.

Linda McMahon, former administrator of the Small Business Administration and Trump Education secretary nominee, center, arrives for a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg)

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McMahon co-founded WWE with her husband, Vince McMahon, before serving as administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) until 2019, when she stepped down to “return to the private sector.”