The Hatch Act is why we have an independent civil service. So naturally, Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon hates it.
In brief, the Hatch Act, enacted in 1939, prohibits employees of federal, DC, and some federally funded state, and local government workers from directly participating in partisan politics. This ensures government programs are administered fairly and without partisanship. It guarantees that regardless of who is in power, the scales of government do not tip to one side.
But ethics (and abiding by the law even when you are a star), unfortunately, is a foreign concept to the Trump administration. Consider, for example, Attorney General Pam Bondi using the Department of Justice to display partisan messaging, or having been accused of violating various ethics laws. And now we submit for your consideration the Education Secretary and perennial Senate candidate, whose only qualification for high office is her bank account balance, Linda McMahon.
In true McMahon fashion, instead of working to make the lives of students and teachers better, she made what looks like a political campaign stop in her birth state of North Carolina. On Monday, March 9th, the Secretary appeared at an event with Senate candidate and former RNC chair Michael Whatley, who helped elevate a convicted child sex predator to chair of the state party. They were joined by Rep. Virginia Foxx, best known for her opposition to legislation that would have offered anti-hate crime protections to LGBTQ people.
In a post about the event, McMahon attacked North Carolina governor Josh Stein for opting out of the Education Freedom Tax Credit, which redirects funds from public schools to private, religious, or home schools.
While it is normal for cabinet secretaries to make public appearances to push policy initiatives for the administration they work for, McMahon going out of her way to include a member up for re-election in November, along with a Senate candidate for a contested seat, feels more like a campaign stop than direct messaging for policy. The Hatch Act covers Cabinet Secretaries too; blurring the lines between the head of a civil service agency and an electoral official violates federal law. A 2011 Official of Special Counsel report excoriated members of the Bush administration for using taxpayer dollars to campaign during the 2006 midterms. Thus, McMahon joins many of her Trump administration colleagues in their utter contempt for basic ethics procedures:
- Public Citizen accused Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner of violating the Hatch Act when they attacked congressional Democrats on the SBA and HUD websites.
- Public Citizen accused FDA Commissioner Marty Makary of violating the Hatch Act for publicly blaming Democrats for the 2025 government shutdown in a post on the FDA website
- Lawyers at Defending American Democracy led a coalition of attorney groups in accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of ordering Department of Justice lawyers to violate the primary ethics rules that bind the legal profession, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Allegedly, Bondi threatened employees with discipline and possible termination if they did not engage in behaviors that lawyers are specifically prohibited from doing.
- During his confirmation hearing, Senate Democrats scrutinized then-nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s conflicts of interest, primarily a lucrative financial arrangement with law firm Wisner Baum, a law firm that claimed that Merck failed to warm consumers over the risks of the HPV vaccine. As of 2025, he had earned $2.5 million in referral fees from cases against Merck.
- Democratic senators accused crypto aficionado and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shut down investigations into crypto companies and dealers as well as eliminating a team that was specifically digging into crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes. It turns out that Blanche owned “at least” $159,000 worth of crypto-related assets.
Rather than actually trying to make the country a better place for students, McMahon continues to do what she does best: Serve as a loyal soldier for the Republican party. While she can’t quite win a political race, she can use her power and influence to help her party. She continues to show us why she is unqualified to lead the Department of Education in its mission – even if that means potentially violating the law. She, Trump, and Russ Vought are doing everything they can to make life worse for students.