This week, Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education, a department he wants to eliminate. McMahon is the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, and she’s been a consistent supporter of Trump and Trumpism for years. She’s hyper-conservative and she absolutely wants to turn the Department of Education into a huge voucher program. But of course there are other problems. What’s weird is that even though credibly accused rapists like Pete Hedseth and Matt Gaetz are taking up so much space, people are still like “wow, Linda McMahon is problematic.” First of all, she lied about her education:
On Jan. 9, 2009, Linda McMahon filled out a vetting questionnaire to serve on the state board of education in Connecticut.
On it, she indicated she earned a bachelor’s degree in education, according to a copy of the original form the governor’s office provided to USA TODAY.
She did not.
McMahon, a billionaire and wrestling executive who graduated from East Carolina University in 1969, actually has a bachelor’s degree in French, the school confirmed to USA TODAY Wednesday. Although her academic program at the time was designed to prepare teachers for instruction, the school said, McMahon does not have a degree in education.
This is such a normal scandal, I almost felt relieved. This is the normal kind of confirmation scandal – someone lied on their CV years ago or claimed to have a degree they do not have. If this was the only thing, McMahon would be confirmed with flying colors. Except that McMahon now has her own sex scandal(s).
Former WWE CEO Linda McMahon left the spectacle of televised wrestling more than a decade ago, but her new appointment to Donald Trump‘s administration has brought fresh scrutiny to her time presiding over the testosterone-charged industry. McMahon on Tuesday was tapped to lead the Department of Education as she and her husband, the embattled Vince McMahon, are embroiled in a sex scandal, something of a developing trend in the second Trump administration.
Last month, a group of five former “ring boys” named the McMahons in a sex abuse lawsuit along with World Wrestling Entertainment and its parent company, TKO Group. The John Does alleged that from the 1970s to the 1990s, former WWE announcer Melvin Phillips Jr. groomed and sexually assaulted them and other minors, without any consequences from his employer.
What’s more, they claimed the McMahons—in their capacity as chief WWE executives—specifically knew about and ignored Philips’s predation. His “peculiar and unnatural interest” in young boys prompted the couple to fire Phillips in 1988, the lawsuit says; they quickly reinstated him on the condition he “steer clear from kids,” which he didn’t.
Linda’s lawyer, Laura Brevetti, called the lawsuit’s complaints “baseless” and said the McMahons were separated.
In addition to the ring boys‘ lawsuit, Vince is the subject of a federal investigation probing undisclosed multi-million-dollar payments he made to settle sexual misconduct and even rape complaints during his tenure at WWE. A former WWE employee has also accused McMahon of sexual coercion and assault, and of trafficking her to other men.
Ah, this is more on brand for the second Trump administration. Decades of covering up sexual abuse, rape, child abuse. See, she’s only being accused of knowingly covering up the abuse, not perpetrating it. Which is why she’ll probably breeze through the confirmation process, right?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
- Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda E. McMahon speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on Thursday, February 28, 2019. Credit: Ron Sachs / CNP Where: National Harbor, Maryland, United States When: 28 Feb 2019 Credit: Ron Sachs/picture-alliance/Cover Images
- -Washington, District of Columbia – 8/1/2017- President Donald Trump speaks at a small business event in the East Room of the White House -PICTURED: President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Linda McMahon -PHOTO by: Ron Sachs/startraksphoto.com -Startraks_President_Donald_Trump_at_a_Small_10011215017 Editorial – Rights Managed Image – Please contact www.startraksphoto.com for licensing fee Startraks Photo New York, NY For licensing please call 212-414-9464 or email sales@startraksphoto.com Image may not be published in any way that is or might be deemed defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification or question you may have. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this image. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable for actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image, and where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or statutory damages. Featuring: President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Linda McMahon Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 01 Aug 2017 Credit: Ron Sachs/startraksphoto.com
- Former Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda E. McMahon, makes remarks during day four of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Featuring: Linda E. McMahon Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States When: 18 Jul 2024 Credit: Ron Sachs/CNP for NY Post/INSTARimages **NO Daily Mail. NO New York or New Jersey Newspapers.**
Calling this situationa a banana republic is an insult to banana republics.
I’d rather have Dole than dolt.
With Hegseth, it’s apparently not the fascist tattoos or the sexual assaults that potentially could get him. It’s the cover-up: TFG didn’t know this about him, and TFG didn’t like not knowing. The isht doesn’t bother him though.
Linda McMahon just suddenly labeled herself as separated from her husband a few days ago. Some Ultra Christians might be upset about Phillips, there may be some nasty surprises about Vince (hence the sudden separation), but it will come down to TFG’s reaction. If he thinks she kept it from him, she’s possibly in trouble. My guess though is that TFG knew what Vince was up to.
Yeah, Trump likes to have all the blackmail material in advance.
That’s why he doesn’t want them vetted by the FBI. He wants the black male material in order to control them while they serve in their positions.
How do any of these people live with themselves?
Trump selecting his cabinet from a sexual offenders registry is all perfectly fine and normal. Of all the things Kamala warned us about, she missed this one. So I guess voters will blame her—and Joe.
Well, Harris didn’t warn us that Trump would essentially choose his line up of sex offenders from his TV programs either./s
I’m waiting for those tariffs to hit and see voters’ reactions to common goods going up in price and the pure unadulturated insanity returning. We could have had Kamala!
Democrats need to have their messaging ready on the tariffs because otherwise the MAGAs will blame Biden for the price hikes.
Biden kept a lot of Trump’s tariffs in place, actually, and added some more. The problem with tariffs is that once they’re put into place, they become entrenched and difficult to remove because the importing country has a vested interest in collecting the revenue they produce.
Of course Trump is proposing sweeping tariffs that will inevitably tank our country, so that’s obviously different than the more strategic approach that Biden took.
Our problem is that when we hear taxes need to go up (even if the very rich would be the only ones affected), Ronald Reagan’s evil “trickle down” fairytale gets a new life. For the government to function, people need to pay into it. Our roads, healthcare, education, protections, etc, all cost money. Cutting taxes is popular even if thr consequences can be problematic for society (because individuals are happy: penny wise/ pound foolish). Tariffs obviously mitigate some of the lack of taxes, but upset trading partners. TFG wants *more* tariffs than we currently have: I think this is going to bite us in the butt.
The people who voted for Tr*mp clearly don’t care. Predation is Tr*mp’s brand.
If you elect someone who is a sex offender and criminal, don’t be surprised that those he works with are sex offenders and criminals. I wonder if any of this reality is getting through to his voters or do they all just see the (irrational) thought that he is going to save the economy? Love of money is the root of all evil and DT is growing the branches to prove it.
None of it is getting through to them. None of it will get through to them. I made the mistake of reading some comments on YouTube about a piece on Hegseth’s sexual assault allegations. So many people defended him, think people are out to get him, and said that all the criticism makes them think he’s the right guy for the job. There’s literally no way for facts to get through to them.
That’s it right there. Once you have a particular mindset, facts to the contrary do not matter. Trying to argue with facts is useless.
It’s a feature not a bug in their CVs. I guess they want to be surrounded by like-minded individuals.
They sit with convicted sex offenders in church and pay lip service to them having “repented”. You have to understand that for serious criminals, one of the only ways they can re-integrate into society is by pretending to “find God” and joining a church which preaches full forgiveness of sins. So they end up in evangelical/pentecostal/born-again churches where everyone has to be nice to them and suppress any internal disagreement. It’s no surprise that that then gets extended to politicians.
This is such a thug operation writ large. I can’t stomach asking Magats I know what they think of this, if this is really okay with them. He is actively seeking out people with no experience AND a history of unlawful conduct.
I honestly wonder if his supporters just get their information from Fox, Musks’s giant media platform, and Pravda. I mean, Truth Social. Maybe they just ignore everything that’s not 100% positive about their leader. I just cannot fathom how they fall into line for such a rotten soul.
I can’t stand this witch. Her whole family is a racist, abusive mess. Thats why they’re friends with trump
This woman has tried to run for basically every office in Connecticut with no success so of course she gets a cabinet position. I think she was pissed that she didn’t get one last time around because she gives so much money to him.
She was part of the cabinet. She was head of small business administration.
I hear you. We managed to keep Dr. Oz out of a senate seat in PA and now, bam, he’s going to be in the Trump administration. It is maddening.
Right on cue, it turns out the Pizzagate party are the actual ones covering up child abuse and sex trafficking
I think Trump’s act of selecting all of these sex offenders is on brand. He thrives on revenge. You find him guilty of raping someone? He’ll show everyone by filling his cabinet with rapists (or in Linda’s case, a person who aided and abetted a rapist). He is such a sick man.
The ring boy scandal is absolutely NOT talked about enough. Mel Phillips, Terry Garvin, and Pat Patterson were all accused of exploiting teenage boys and were fired VERY briefly. There’s also the company covering up murder, drugs, and so many more crimes all while she was CEO with Vince.
Netflix had a chance to cover so many things during their “Mr. McMahon” doc but *gestures broadly*
They covered enough for me to believe he should be in prison.
Vince should definitely be in prison along with more than a few wrestlers (Jimmy Snuka comes to mind). I refuse to believe that Linda and Stephanie never knew what was going on at any given point of their involvement with the org.
The smartest thing Shane did was walk away for as long as he did. I think even now he isn’t involved outside of occasionally being considered “talent”.
Someone shake me from this nightmare!
Isn’t this hatchet face c**t like ninety years old?
Everyone should watch that documentary about her husband on Netflix. He is being investigated by the FBI as we speak (although supposedly they live separate lives and live apart ala Don and Melania).
Small blessing that Gaetz is out.
Real Life Dolores Umbridge.