Could We See Linda McMahon Running For President In 2024?
Lavie Margolin, author of "TrumpMania", made his return appearance on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, where he and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman discussed Linda McMahon's future standing after it was revealed that she was linked to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration under President Donald Trump and remains a Trump ally heading the America First Super PAC, and Margolin gave his thoughts on whether or not McMahon will continue to remain involved in politics in the post-Trump presidency.
"It's something that I've been thinking about. I think as long as she's willing to continue to open her wallet, she'll be an important figure in politics, at least from a donor perspective," Margolin said. "You could have as many PACs as you want. If you give her her own PAC and she doesn't do that well, she's gonna give you 5, 10, 15, 20 million dollars. You're very happy as a politician, but what does she want? Political aspirations have been her thing for quite a while, but she has a couple other elements to her that helped her define herself outside of wrestling.
"One of them was small business and supporting, at least outwardly, small business owners, and she actually did from all accounts really with the SBA. She promised to visit all of their offices. She did that. I actually found an article today where she was thanked by the current SBA administrator sort of for setting up a plan that's working really well. The other thing was Women's Empowerment and Leadership, and interestingly, that is a torch that Stephanie carries very much so, especially on LinkedIn.
"She's liking everything about Women's Leadership and Empowerment, and they have initiatives at WWE that focus on women's leadership and growth. Mom and daughter seem to be aligned in that area as well, but for Linda, both of those things might have been a thing to sort of get deeper into politics. Would she run herself again? That's an interesting question. When you have a confidence to run twice already, you're more well-known now nationally, but what do people think of you? Well, that's the question."
Hausman noted that the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been looked at to be a top GOP Presidential candidate as a means to attract more female voters. Hausman asked Margolin what the likelihood is of McMahon pursuing a run on the 2024 GOP ticket.
"She has been very good at being savvy in terms avoiding controversy," Margolin noted. "During the early days of the administration, when she was interviewed by a local paper and she was visiting with SBA in town, she said, 'Oh she's been traveling so much. She hasn't followed the news.' So whatever controversial thing he was doing, she just said she wasn't following it, and she stayed in Trump's good graces showing that you can be politically smart up to that point your without funding this rally. Up to that point, she was able to avoid doing bad things that we know about, and she's one of the two people, like Nikki Haley, that left in Trump's good graces before taking another role. Although, the next role was in support of him anyway."
A 2020 Election Special Edition of Lavie's "TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the Making of America's 45th President" was recently released and is now available for purchase on Amazon. Margolin's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.