‘A cabinet of quacks and hacks’: Trump taps a wrestling wacko haunted by scandals as education secretary

It increasingly feels like Donald Trump‘s selections for key government positions are one big prank. Thus far, his cabinet is comprised of a man with a worm-munched brain, a heavily investigated maybe-criminal, a Fox News flunky, a few crazed corporate cronies, a fake doctor, and now a wrestling wacko with literally zero qualifications.

That’s right, folks, Trump’s selection of the “very best” people now includes Linda McMahon as education secretary. If the name sounds familiar, it’s likely more due to McMahon’s husband, Vince McMahon, who co-founded and led the WWE from its inception through 2022, rather than due to Linda herself. McMahon left his position at the head of the WWE when troubling investigations urged him to resign, and those same investigations have links to WWE’s other co-founder — Linda McMahon herself.

Now Linda is headed into her second stint in politics, this time at the head of a department Trump himself has threatened to abolish. She was already tapped by the wrestling fan-turned president once — she served as the 25th Administrator of the Small Business Administration, something she likewise wasn’t qualified for — and apparently she impressed him the first time around.

Now Trump is eyeing McMahon for a much more important position — at least until it ceases to exist. This utterly cartoonish decision was as instantly unpopular as all of Trump’s other cabinet picks — Dr. Oz? Really? — but that dissent quickly deepened when discussions of the McMahons’ legal issues arose.

Yes, it was technically Vince McMahon that was at the center of that sex trafficking scandal, but there are very few people who think his wife was uninvolved. For one thing, she’s his whole wife — you’re going to tell me she was completely in the dark? And then there’s her deep involvement with the WWE — to which the scandal was linked — and her continued presence in McMahon’s life, despite their separation.

Scandal after scandal have haunted McMahon for years, but his wife has somehow stayed on the outside of those accusations of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and a full-blown federal investigation into her husband. It’s the latter that’s raising the most eyebrows, in the wake of Trump’s announcement, as people share rampant theories that Linda was far more involved in all aspects of the family business than she wants us to believe.

Even if she wasn’t, however, and Linda was genuinely unaware of what her husband was doing, she’s still utterly unqualified for her new position. She has no background in education, no history of championing educational progress, and no links to politics outside of her friendship with Trump. She is simply yet another example of Trump rewarding his most loyal hangers-on, regardless of qualifications, and damn what they’ll do to our country once they find themselves in power.

McMahon is an atrocious pick for education secretary, regardless of whether or not she was actually embroiled in those endless scandals linked to her husband and the WWE. She will not serve this country well, but she will serve King Trump well, and that’s all he’s looking for in his second administration.