The U.S. secretary of education is having issues with basic math.
Linda McMahon
testified on Trump’s 2026 budget before the Senate on Tuesday. While discussing spending on federal grants programs for disadvantaged students—TRIO and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP—she made a massive math error.
“We spend $1.58 billion a year on TRIO?” Republican Senator John Kennedy asked McMahon.
“Yes,” she replied.
“That’s one thousand five hundred and eighty million dollars a year? Is my math right?” Kennedy said, spelling out $1.58 billion.
“I think that’s right, sir.”
“So that’s over a trillion dollars that we’ve spent on this program.... We give this money, as I appreciate it, to colleges and universities to encourage poor kids to go to college,” Kennedy said to no objection from McMahon, before going on to insinuate that the colleges were stealing this grant money from the government for their own purposes.
Democratic Senator John Reed jumped in to check the math, as both Kennedy and the education secretary were way off.
“I’m not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about a trillion dollars? I believe $1.5 billion times 10 is $15 billion, and that’s a little bit off from a trillion dollars,” Reed stated, referring to Kennedy and McMahon’s claim.
“I think the budget cuts $1.2 billion,” McMahon responded.
“Well that would be $12 billion, not a trillion dollars,” said Reed, calmly holding McMahon and Kennedy’s hands through what amounted to a third-grade math lesson.
“OK,” McMahon said stiffly.