McMahon, who had been in the running for commerce secretary, headed up the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first administration and was a major donor and early supporter of the Republican president-elect when he first ran for the White House almost a decade ago.
The co-founder and former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise, she resigned from the SBA in 2019 to lead the pro-Trump spending group America First Action. She also chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-friendly think tank.
Her ties with Trump go back to her years in the professional wrestling industry – she said she first met him as chief executive at WWE.
At the culmination of a staged feud, Trump once body-slammed her husband, legendary wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.
Trump tapped her to co-lead a transition team formed to help vet personnel and draft policy ahead of the Nov 5 election.
McMahon had been in the mix to head the Commerce Department, but Trump on Tuesday instead chose her transition team co-leader – Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard Lutnick – for that post.
Now she will lead an agency Trump said on the campaign trail that he would abolish, although he likely lacks authority to do it without congressional approval.
