Trump Taps WWE's Linda McMahon for Cabinet Post

President-elect Donald Trump is looking to wrestle the Small Business Administration (SBA) into shape with his new pick to head the agency: Linda McMahon.

The post is a cabinet-level position.

McMahon is the cofounder and former CEO of WWE, the TV wrestling empire.

McMahon also ran for the U.S. Senate a couple of times in Connecticut but did not win. (She and her daughter, Stephanie McMahon, have also been MCNWonder Women.)

Trump said of his pick: "Linda has a tremendous background and is widely recognized as one of the country’s top female executives advising businesses around the globe. She helped grow WWE from a modest 13-person operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees in offices worldwide. Linda is going to be a phenomenal leader and champion for small businesses and unleash America's entrepreneurial spirit all across the country."

Trump also has a background with WWE.

House Small Business Committee chairman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) praised the pick.

“Linda McMahon is an excellent choice by President-elect Trump to lead the SBA as administrator," Chabot said. "I look forward to working with her and the new administration to roll back burdensome regulations and increase access to capital for America’s 28 million small businesses. Our Committee will work with the new administrator to advance meaningful reforms that will make the SBA more efficient and customer-friendly for small businesses. This work should begin by fixing the ongoing problems in SBA and SBA-administered programs that were exposed through our oversight hearings in the 114th Congress.” 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.