Linda McMahon

Some Lesser Known Facts About Linda McMahon

• Linda was born and raised in a conservative Baptist family but later she converted to Roman Catholicism. She was an only child of her parents and grew up as a “tomboy” playing basketball and baseball.

• Linda met Vince McMahon for the first time when she was 13 years old. They dated throughout high school.

• Linda used to cook meatball sandwiches to feed the fans at sporting events organized by her husband, Vince McMahon, during the early days. As the company grew, Linda helped Vince with administration and used her knowledge of intellectual property law to assist in trademark protection for the company.

• Linda wanted to be a teacher in her early days.

• In 1980, Linda co-founded Titan Sports, Inc. She became president in 1993 and CEO in 1997.

• Linda did a lot of work during her time in WWF such as overseeing the company’s product merchandise, swaying children towards the company, and handling TV deals. She was also the primary negotiator for the World Wrestling Federation’s 2000 TV deal with Viacom.

  

• In 2000, Linda launched ‘GET REAL’, a campaign to deliver positive messages about education and literacy to young adults through public service announcements, posters, and bookmarks featuring WWE stars.

• In November 2004, Linda was appointed as a member of the board of trustees of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

• Linda is a philanthropist and in 2006, she along with her husband founded the Vince & Linda McMahon Family Foundation. It supports education, military veterans, and healthcare initiatives.

• Linda’s connection with Trump began when Donald Trump attended the 2007 Wrestle Mania Event. The McMahons donated $5 million to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in addition to the payment for the appearance.

• On January 29, 2007, Linda was named “Wonder Woman” by the Multichannel News magazine for her outstanding contributions to the cable and telecommunications industries.

• Under the leadership of Linda, WWE received the USO of Metropolitan Washington’s first-ever “Legacy of Hope” award for its extensive support of U.S. troops and the USO’s Operation Care Package program.

• On September 16, 2009, Linda McMahon resigned from her position as CEO of WWE and left WWE. However, she still remains a minority owner of WWE.

• In 2009, McMahon left World Wrestling Entertainment to run for a seat in the United States Senate from Connecticut as a Republican candidate but lost to Democrat candidate Richard Blumenthal in the 2010 general election.

• In the 2009 elections, Linda announced she would spend up to $50 million of her own money to finance her campaign and refused outside donations, the third most ever spent on a senatorial campaign.

• In January 2009, Linda was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Jodi Rell. The State Senate approved her nomination with a vote of 34–1 and the House by 96–45.

• In 2010, Linda served on the Close Up Foundation board, a nonprofit offering youth field trips to Washington, D.C.

• Linda announced her candidacy in Southington, Connecticut, on September 20, 2011. In the general election, she lost to Democratic U.S. Representative Chris Murphy, marking her second consecutive defeat.

• On April 13, 2012, Sacred Heart University officially dedicated and opened the Linda E. McMahon Commons Building on its main campus in Fairfield, Connecticut.

• Linda provided $6 million to help Donald Trump’s candidacy after he secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

  

• On December 7, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate McMahon to be the administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA). Her nomination was approved by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on February 1 with an 18–1 vote and confirmed by the full Senate on February 14 by a vote of 81–19. She was officially sworn in as administrator of the SBA on the same day.

• In 2019, Linda stepped down as the administrator of the Small Business Administration to assume new responsibilities within President Trump’s reelection campaign.

• Linda chaired the America First Action super PAC, which backed Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

• Linda cheered the America First Act, which raised around $83 million in funding for Trump’s campaign in 2020.

• Linda served as chair of the board for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank created by Trump aides in 2021 to promote his priorities.