Dave Davies

This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies.

In filling out his cabinet, President Trump has tapped some colorful characters, sometimes TV hosts and talking heads whose views appeal to him.

His pick for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, has television experience of a different kind, talking smack in pro wrestling rings, often with her husband, wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, known for his showmanship and allegations of sexual abuse.

Our guest writer Zach Helfand has written a profile of Linda McMahon in The New Yorker.

She is no clown, he finds.

She proved to be a savvy businesswoman as CEO of the family wrestling empire.

And when Trump tapped her to head the small business administration in his first term, Helfand writes she was a steady and effective leader.

Many describe her as capable, kind, and empathetic.

She came to her new role with little experience in education policy, but an unwavering commitment to Trump's goal of eliminating the department altogether.

While only Congress can formally abolish the cabinet-level agency, Helfand writes that McMahon is systematically dismantling the department, cutting some 50 percent of its employees, and transferring its functions elsewhere, with dramatic impacts on education research, student loan management, and programs for students with disabilities.

He also finds that her experience with professional wrestling and her volatile husband was good preparation for her turn to MAGA politics.

Zach Helfand became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 2025.

Previously, he was an editor of the magazine's Talk of the Town feature, a member of its fact-checking department, and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

His new story is The Executor, How Professional Wrestling Prepared Linda McMahon for Trump's Cabinet.

Zach Helfand, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thanks for having me.

Professional wrestling is more than just battles in the ring with pile driving and swinging chairs.

And this is something that you describe well.

I mean it's also stories, right, with characters and a plot with dialogue in the ring and videos that are shown on the big screens in the arenas of live or recorded confrontations involving the characters.