President Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon, has been confirmed to her position in a party-line vote in the Senate after saying she would help the president close down parts of the sprawling department she will now lead. During her confirmation process, Democrats seemed bewildered that she would want to take a job that the president himself is trying to eliminate. 

Ms. McMahon won 51 votes in the Senate late Monday, all of which came from Republicans. Among the Democrats, 45 voted no. 

The president has been saying for months that he wants to shutter the Education Department and return all money and policymaking power back to the 50 states, an agenda with which Ms. McMahon agrees. Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in February that he wanted his new education secretary to “put herself out of a job.”

At her confirmation hearing last month, Ms. McMahon stopped short of saying she wants to abolish the department entirely, though she did say that she would move to close the bureaucracy in partnership with Congress. The president “has given a clear directive that he would like to look in totality at the Department of Education and believes that the bureaucracy of it should be closed,” Ms. McMahon told senators. 

Democrats were quick to raise alarm bells about her nomination, and it was clear from the beginning that few — if any — members of the minority party would even consider voting for her. 

“A vote for Ms. McMahon is a vote for draconian cuts to education, and rising property taxes for middle class and suburban American families,” Senator Schumer declared on the floor before the vote. “That’s why I am so proud that every Democrat will vote ‘no’ to stand up for our schools, for our kids, for our teachers, for public education, and to prevent property taxes from going up further.”

“Donald Trump is clear. He wants to eliminate the department and push never-before-seen cuts to public schools. Ms. McMahon will make that happen,” the Democratic leader said. 

At her confirmation hearing, Democratic senators pressed Ms. McMahon on what exactly she wanted to do to ensure the basic functions of the department kept working, even if the “bureaucracy” was gone. 

“The whole hearing right now feels kind of surreal to me,” Senator Hassan said, expressing sheer disbelief that Ms. McMahon will actively try to diminish her own influence once she gets into the cabinet. “It’s almost like we’re being subjected to a very elegant gaslighting. … You talked about the need to enforce protections for Jewish students on college campuses, but the very department where the enforcement would take place is the Department of Education, and he wants to eliminate it, and you say you’ll work with him.”