Listen to Trump’s education secretary, 76, repeatedly make extraordinary ‘boomer gaffe’ while hailing new technology
President Donald Trump’s education secretary Linda McMahon is being relentlessly mocked online after she she referred to AI as ‘A1’ – like the popular steak sauce.
McMahon, 76, repeatedly made the gaffe while speaking at the ASU+GSV education summit in San Diego earlier this week while talking about the use of AI in the classroom.
‘I heard this morning… there’s a school system that’s gonna start making sure that first graders, or even pre-K, have A1 teaching every year starting that far down in the grades,’ the former WWE first lady said.
She added: ‘And that’s a wonderful thing. Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything. Wasn’t all that long ago that it was, “We’re gonna have internet in our schools. Woo!”
‘Now, OK, let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful? How can it be helpful in one-on-one instruction? How can it be helpful in absorbing more information for those fast learners? It can be more one-on-one directed. Those are the kinds of things and innovations that I wanna see continue to develop.’
A1 Sauce quickly jumped on the viral moment, issuing a post on Friday that read: ‘You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.’
Education secretary Linda McMahon, 76, referred to AI as ‘A1’ – like the popular steak sauce
A1 Sauce quickly jumped on the viral moment, issuing a post on Friday alongside a bottle of the sauce that said: ‘For education purposes only’
The brand’s post included an image of an A.1. bottle with the label, ‘For education purposes only.’
Social media user have been commenting on the hilarious moment on X, with user Zach Stout writing: ‘At first I thought she might just be talking about having top notch teachers. I was clearly mistaken…’
X user Diane Callahan said: ‘She wasn’t qualified in the first place.’
A third anonymous X user said: ‘An accident is saying it once. You don’t know what you’re talking about if saying repeatedly.’
A fourth added: ‘She will do great closing the department of education.’
McMahon, the wife of WWE former boss Vince McMahon, was tapped by president Trump to shut down the Department of Education.
Trump has said that in appointing the former WWE CEO, his hope is that she will ‘put herself out of a job’ by helping the president dismantle the agency.
McMahon has already cut the department’s workforce by half.
The department is also terminating leases on buildings in cities including New York, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland, officials said.
Department officials said it would continue to deliver on its key functions such as the distribution of federal aid to schools, student loan management and oversight of Pell Grants.
McMahon said when she got to the department, she wanted to reduce bloat to be able to send more money to local education authorities.
‘So many of the programs are really excellent, so we need to make sure the money goes to the states,’ McMahon said on Fox News.
Trump campaigned on a promise to close the department, saying it had been overtaken by ‘radicals, zealots and Marxists.’
At McMahon’s confirmation hearing, she acknowledged only Congress has the power to abolish the agency but said it might be due for cuts and a reorganization.
McMahon, the wife of WWE former boss Vince McMahon, was tapped by president Trump to shut down the Department of Education
McMahon has already cut the department’s workforce by half. She is seen with president Trump
McMahon told lawmakers at her hearing that her aim is not to defund core programs, but to make them more efficient.
Even before the layoffs, the Education Department was among the smallest Cabinet-level agencies. Its workforce included 3,100 people in Washington and an additional 1,100 at regional offices across the country, according to a department website.
The department’s workers had faced increasing pressure to quit their jobs since Trump took office, first through a deferred resignation program and then through a $25,000 buyout offer that expired March 3.
