Linda McMahon wants to spend $43,000 to spruce up her office furniture even though she wants to close the department

Education Secretary Linda McMahon intends to spend $43,000 to spruce up her government office — while she seeks to shutter her department, according to a new report.Staffers for McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive, have told Congress that her office furniture is dilapidated and “cannot be configurationally or aesthetically integrated into the agency’s new office space,” The New York Times reported, citing department records.In total, $43,278.64 will be shelled out for chairs, a conference table, a desk and other pieces.“Believe it or not, just like in the private sector, new federal offices need places to sit, write and meet,” Savannah Newhouse, the Education Department press secretary, told the Times. She added that the department, which recently relocated to a smaller building amid sweeping layoffs, is “saving taxpayers millions of dollars.”Secretary of Education Linda McMahon plans to spend $43,000 on furniture for her office, according to a new report. It comes as she and President Donald Trump continue to end the department (Getty Images)McMahon isn’t the first Trump administration Cabinet official to face scrutiny over spending on office revamps. In 2018, then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson canceled an order for a $31,000 dining set after facing backlash. The same year, then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke raised eyebrows for shelling out $139,000 to upgrade doors in his office.McMahon, a billionaire and major Trump donor, has made it her mission to shutter the Education Department, founded in 1979.“The American people elected President Trump with a clear mandate: to sunset a 46-year-old, $3 trillion failed federal education bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., and return authority to where it belongs, to parents, teachers and local leaders,” she told lawmakers in May.Since Trump’s inauguration, MacMahon has effectively hollowed out much of the department, which provides federal education funding, administers financial aid for college students and upholds education-related civil rights laws.About 43 percent of the department’s staff has been laid off or departed, and many of its functions have been delegated to other departments. Since Trump’s inauguration, MacMahon has effectively hollowed out much of the Education Department (AFP/Getty)However, neither MacMahon or Trump can officially shut down the department. Doing so would require Congressional legislation, and the GOP-controlled Congress has not voted in favor of the move.“Ultimately, Congress has to vote if we do close the Department of Education, and if I, in fact, am able to fire myself,” MacMahon told Fox News last week. “Hopefully, they will vote [for it], because I believe the outcome will be better for students, and that is the goal. That is certainly the president's goal.”In a YouGov survey last year, 58 percent of respondents said they opposed dismantling the Education Department, while 29 percent said they favored it.The department’s budget for fiscal year 2026 stood at about $80 billion — less than one-tenth of what the Defense Department was allocated.