US Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks alongside other Trump administration officials on May 5, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Billionaire Trump Cabinet Secretary Spends $43,000 on New Furniture While Gutting Education Department
"It is unjustifiable to buy new furniture while students lose access to education services you are illegally dismantling and suffer from painful funding cuts."
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's billionaire education secretary, faced backlash on Wednesday over her plans to spend more than $43,000 of taxpayer money on new furniture for her government office as she works to illegally dismantle the department she leads, harming students across the country.
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) wrote in a letter to McMahon that "it is unjustifiable to buy new furniture while students lose access to education services you are illegally dismantling and suffer from painful funding cuts that were not authorized by Congress."
A senior official at the Education Department, whose staff has been gutted during Trump's second term, told The New York Times that the roughly $43,000 in costs "included a new desk, conference table, chairs and other items." The department informed lawmakers that existing furniture can't be "aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space"—a privately owned building that housed the US Agency for International Development before the Trump administration shut it down.
Murray and Baldwin wrote in their letter to McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive whose net worth is estimated to be around $3 billion, that "you have asked students, families, and teachers across the country to endure extraordinarily painful cuts in the name of 'fiscal responsibility,' and you have pushed out nearly half of the staff at the department in a chaotic, illegal campaign to fire employees tasked with protecting students with disabilities in the classroom and going after predatory student lenders."
"This year, you have asked Congress to slash funding for important K-12 programs and to cut funding for higher education programs by nearly $5 billion—including by destroying programs like TRIO and Federal Work Study," the senators added. "But it is clear that you do not think that you should have to abide by the same rules you want to apply to others."
The senators noted that as McMahon moves to spend taxpayer dollars on new furniture for her office, other department employees are working in spaces that have been deemed "unsafe and in disrepair, with water leaking from ceilings, mold in kitchens, extreme temperatures from a failing HVAC system, insect traps filled with dead bugs, and live insects in lactation rooms and work areas."
"The American people are sick of the corruption, sick of the waste, and sick of the hypocrisy coming out of all corners of this administration," Murray and Baldwin wrote. "They deserve a full accounting of how and why their tax dollars are being used to buy new office furniture for a secretary whose stated mission is to put themselves out of a job."
McMahon's office makeover plans were revealed days after reports indicated that she planned to remove the Federal Student Aid office from the Department of Education—without congressional approval—and create a new independent agency to manage roughly $1.6 trillion in debt owed by more than 40 million borrowers. The planned move marks the latest step in McMahon's push to effectively abolish the Education Department, fulfilling a Trump campaign promise.
Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, said in response that "changing the name on the agency letterhead will do nothing to lower costs for working-class families squeezed by rising student loan bills and surging college tuition."
"More than 3 million student loan borrowers defaulted on a loan last year, and more than 3 million more are on track to do the same this year," said Pierce. "Due to the Trump administration’s reckless actions, millions have seen their credit scores ruined. As a result, a generation of Americans will be locked out of the mortgage market, denied a typical car loan, and pay far more for a credit card because Linda McMahon cannot be bothered to fix the broken student loan system."
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Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's billionaire education secretary, faced backlash on Wednesday over her plans to spend more than $43,000 of taxpayer money on new furniture for her government office as she works to illegally dismantle the department she leads, harming students across the country.
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) wrote in a letter to McMahon that "it is unjustifiable to buy new furniture while students lose access to education services you are illegally dismantling and suffer from painful funding cuts that were not authorized by Congress."
A senior official at the Education Department, whose staff has been gutted during Trump's second term, told The New York Times that the roughly $43,000 in costs "included a new desk, conference table, chairs and other items." The department informed lawmakers that existing furniture can't be "aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space"—a privately owned building that housed the US Agency for International Development before the Trump administration shut it down.
Murray and Baldwin wrote in their letter to McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive whose net worth is estimated to be around $3 billion, that "you have asked students, families, and teachers across the country to endure extraordinarily painful cuts in the name of 'fiscal responsibility,' and you have pushed out nearly half of the staff at the department in a chaotic, illegal campaign to fire employees tasked with protecting students with disabilities in the classroom and going after predatory student lenders."
"This year, you have asked Congress to slash funding for important K-12 programs and to cut funding for higher education programs by nearly $5 billion—including by destroying programs like TRIO and Federal Work Study," the senators added. "But it is clear that you do not think that you should have to abide by the same rules you want to apply to others."
The senators noted that as McMahon moves to spend taxpayer dollars on new furniture for her office, other department employees are working in spaces that have been deemed "unsafe and in disrepair, with water leaking from ceilings, mold in kitchens, extreme temperatures from a failing HVAC system, insect traps filled with dead bugs, and live insects in lactation rooms and work areas."
"The American people are sick of the corruption, sick of the waste, and sick of the hypocrisy coming out of all corners of this administration," Murray and Baldwin wrote. "They deserve a full accounting of how and why their tax dollars are being used to buy new office furniture for a secretary whose stated mission is to put themselves out of a job."
McMahon's office makeover plans were revealed days after reports indicated that she planned to remove the Federal Student Aid office from the Department of Education—without congressional approval—and create a new independent agency to manage roughly $1.6 trillion in debt owed by more than 40 million borrowers. The planned move marks the latest step in McMahon's push to effectively abolish the Education Department, fulfilling a Trump campaign promise.
Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, said in response that "changing the name on the agency letterhead will do nothing to lower costs for working-class families squeezed by rising student loan bills and surging college tuition."
"More than 3 million student loan borrowers defaulted on a loan last year, and more than 3 million more are on track to do the same this year," said Pierce. "Due to the Trump administration’s reckless actions, millions have seen their credit scores ruined. As a result, a generation of Americans will be locked out of the mortgage market, denied a typical car loan, and pay far more for a credit card because Linda McMahon cannot be bothered to fix the broken student loan system."
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump's billionaire education secretary, faced backlash on Wednesday over her plans to spend more than $43,000 of taxpayer money on new furniture for her government office as she works to illegally dismantle the department she leads, harming students across the country.
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) wrote in a letter to McMahon that "it is unjustifiable to buy new furniture while students lose access to education services you are illegally dismantling and suffer from painful funding cuts that were not authorized by Congress."
A senior official at the Education Department, whose staff has been gutted during Trump's second term, told The New York Times that the roughly $43,000 in costs "included a new desk, conference table, chairs and other items." The department informed lawmakers that existing furniture can't be "aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space"—a privately owned building that housed the US Agency for International Development before the Trump administration shut it down.
Murray and Baldwin wrote in their letter to McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive whose net worth is estimated to be around $3 billion, that "you have asked students, families, and teachers across the country to endure extraordinarily painful cuts in the name of 'fiscal responsibility,' and you have pushed out nearly half of the staff at the department in a chaotic, illegal campaign to fire employees tasked with protecting students with disabilities in the classroom and going after predatory student lenders."
"This year, you have asked Congress to slash funding for important K-12 programs and to cut funding for higher education programs by nearly $5 billion—including by destroying programs like TRIO and Federal Work Study," the senators added. "But it is clear that you do not think that you should have to abide by the same rules you want to apply to others."
The senators noted that as McMahon moves to spend taxpayer dollars on new furniture for her office, other department employees are working in spaces that have been deemed "unsafe and in disrepair, with water leaking from ceilings, mold in kitchens, extreme temperatures from a failing HVAC system, insect traps filled with dead bugs, and live insects in lactation rooms and work areas."
"The American people are sick of the corruption, sick of the waste, and sick of the hypocrisy coming out of all corners of this administration," Murray and Baldwin wrote. "They deserve a full accounting of how and why their tax dollars are being used to buy new office furniture for a secretary whose stated mission is to put themselves out of a job."
McMahon's office makeover plans were revealed days after reports indicated that she planned to remove the Federal Student Aid office from the Department of Education—without congressional approval—and create a new independent agency to manage roughly $1.6 trillion in debt owed by more than 40 million borrowers. The planned move marks the latest step in McMahon's push to effectively abolish the Education Department, fulfilling a Trump campaign promise.
Mike Pierce, executive director of the advocacy group Protect Borrowers, said in response that "changing the name on the agency letterhead will do nothing to lower costs for working-class families squeezed by rising student loan bills and surging college tuition."
"More than 3 million student loan borrowers defaulted on a loan last year, and more than 3 million more are on track to do the same this year," said Pierce. "Due to the Trump administration’s reckless actions, millions have seen their credit scores ruined. As a result, a generation of Americans will be locked out of the mortgage market, denied a typical car loan, and pay far more for a credit card because Linda McMahon cannot be bothered to fix the broken student loan system."