Senate confirms Nicholas Kent, Trump's pick to oversee higher ed
Education Secretary Linda McMahon had previously told USA TODAY that Kent is a "natural leader" whose experience and concern for students "make him the ideal selection for under secretary of education."
He had won the support of several prominent university trade groups who are opposed to Trump's attacks on universities, but said they supported Kent's nomination. His confirmation comes as the Trump administration seeks to reshape higher education and has launched numerous investigations into high profile universities.
Kent had already been working at the agency on the administration's initiatives like K-12 school choice. But prior to working in the government, Kent had a long history working for or close to for-profit colleges.
From 2008 to the end of 2015, Kent worked for Education Affiliates, a for-profit college company. When he left, he was a vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs. In 2015, the Department of Justice announced the company had agreed to a $13 million settlement to settle accusations it had gamed the federal financial aid system. The company told USA TODAY Kent was not involved in the settlement or the allegations of fraud.
Critics, including student advocacy groups and teacher unions, had called on the Senate education committee to put Kent through a public hearing to answer questions about his time working for the company. And one of the original whistleblowers tied to that case, Dorothy Thomas, expressed concern about someone from the company's leadership holding the under secretary position.
Kent had also worked for Career Education Colleges and Universities, a for-profit college trade group. He developed a reputation for deep policy knowledge while speaking against regulations geared toward the for-profit college industry. That group's CEO, Jason Altmire, said Kent was not driven by partisan politics and would bring an unbiased view to the under secretary position.
He then went to work for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration as a deputy secretary of education. Youngkin, in a prepared statement, said Kent improved how Virginia manages colleges and made them more accountable to students and families through increased transparency. Chair of the Virginia Senate's education committee, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi, told USA TODAY Kent had tried to destabilize accreditation in the state and he was aligned with efforts to dismantle consumer protections.
In a departing message to the commonwealth, Kent said he was proud of reducing costs while pushing for free speech and accountability at Virginia's colleges. Chris Quintana is an investigative reporter at USA TODAY. He can be reached at cquintana@usatoday.com or via Signal at 202-308-9021. He is on X at @CQuintanaDC
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Donald Trump slammed by late night host as he mocks strange White House conference
US President Donald Trump confused reporters when he clambered onto the roof of the White House and rambled unintelligibly during a conference Late-night TV host Stephen Colbert hit out at convicted felon Donald Trump after the US President's unexpected White House roof press conference. Trump was seen clambering onto the White House roof through an open window on Tuesday morning for an "inspection" before the construction of the building's ballroom begins next month. The US president was filmed walking around the rooftop while yelling unintelligibly to the reporters down below. Not one to miss a dig at the former reality star, Stephen Colbert discussed the strange moment on the recent episode of The Late Show, which will air its last episode in May. He highlighted the strangeness of the situation by pointing out that a reporter had to ask him: "Why are you on the roof?" Stephen said to the audience: "At one point, the president tried to communicate through hand signals of some kind." It comes after Donald Trump's mental state 'clear to see' as lawmakers urged to 'act now'. "I don't know what this is," Stephen joked as he copied how Trump gesticulates. "I think he's saying, 'Look, the Capitol dome is a D cup. Look at that'." Stephen continued: "Then he did some very normal unmiked roof shouting," before showing the footage of the president's unintelligible ramblings. A reporter was heard yelling: "What does that mean?" A bewildered Stephen echoed the reporter's thought and said: "Yeah. What does that mean?" as the camera panned to a higher angle above him. "What does any of this mean? How are you the guy in charge? "Why do we have to pretend? Why do we have to pretend it's normal when an old man wanders around a roof and shouts at us?" During the impromptu roof conference, a reporter asked: "What are you building?" Trump answered: "It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side." "What are you trying to build?" another reporter shouted. "Missiles," Trump responded. "Nuclear missiles," he repeated while making the gesture of a rocket launching. However, it ended up looking like a Nazi salute. Meanwhile, CBS recently announced their decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with the show not returning after May 2026. Trump, who is known to lash out at celebrities, was delighted at the news and took to his social media to share his excitement over The Late Show's cancellation. "I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!" he wrote. "Greg Gutfield is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show." In a segment on Stephen's show, the host read out Trump's tweet while doing an impression of the President's voice. The audience booed the tweet before Stephen confidently said: "How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?" before turning to a different camera and adding: "Go f**k yourself!"
Telegraph
19 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Indiana's answer to Alligator Alcatraz? The Speedway Slammer
The Trump administration will send up to 1,000 migrants to an expanded prison in Indiana dubbed the Speedway Slammer. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the prison, which appears to have been named after the state's motorsport industry, said the facility will 'house some of the worst criminal aliens arrested by ICE'. The detention facility is the latest creatively-named project from the Trump administration set to open as part of Donald Trump's efforts to carry out the largest mass deportation in US history. Last month, Florida unveiled Alligator Alcatraz, a newly built 3,000 capacity prison constructed on the swampy site of an abandoned airstrip deep in Florida's Everglades. Announcing the expansion of Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana, Kristi Noem, the US Department of Homeland Security Secretary, said: COMING SOON to Indiana: The Speedway Slammer. Today, we're announcing a new partnership with the state of Indiana to expand detention bed space by 1,000 beds. Thanks to @GovBraun for his partnership to help remove the worst of the worst out of our country. If you are in… — Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) August 6, 2025 The Miami Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison located at the former Grissom Air Force Base about 70 miles north of Indianapolis. It has a capacity of up to 3,100 people. Annie Goeller, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Correction, previously said part of the facility had not been filled because of a staffing shortages. 'We are proud to work with president Trump and secretary Noem as they remove the worst of the worst with this innovative partnership,' said Indiana Governor Mike Braun. 'Indiana is taking a comprehensive and collaborative approach to combating illegal immigration and will continue to lead the way among states.' In a press release, the DHS said the agreement was an outcome of Mr Trump's 'one big beautiful bill', which set out funding for 80,000 new beds for ICE. The department's X account also shared an AI generated image of an open-wheel race car with 'ICE' emblazoned on its side and rear wing. The Hoosier State has already supported the Trump administration's efforts to expand ICE capacity. Last month Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, announced Camp Atterbury, a military base around 40 miles from Indianapolis, would be used to temporarily hold migrants for DHS, according to previous reports. Since the Alligator Alcatraz opened last month, hundreds of people have been rounded up and sent to the makeshift encampment. Deportation flights have taken off directly from the facility.
Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: 'I won't humiliate myself': Brazil's president sees no point in tariff talks with Trump
BRASILIA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - As U.S. tariffs on Brazilian goods jumped to 50% on Wednesday, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters in an interview that he saw no room for direct talks now with U.S. President Donald Trump that would likely be a "humiliation." Brazil is not about to announce reciprocal tariffs, he said. Nor will his government give up on cabinet-level talks. But Lula himself is in no rush to ring the White House. "The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won't hesitate to call him," Lula said in an interview from his presidential residence in Brasilia. "But today my intuition says he doesn't want to talk. And I won't humiliate myself." Despite Brazil's exports facing one of the highest tariffs imposed by Trump, the new U.S. trade barriers look unlikely to derail Latin America's largest economy, giving Lula more room to stand his ground against Trump than most Western leaders. Lula described U.S.-Brazil relations at a 200-year nadir after Trump tied the new tariff to his demands for an end to the prosecution of right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is standing trial for plotting to overturn the 2022 election. The president said Brazil's Supreme Court, which is hearing the case against Bolsonaro, "does not care what Trump says and it should not," adding that Bolsonaro should face another trial for provoking Trump's intervention, calling the right-wing former president a "traitor to the homeland." "We had already pardoned the U.S. intervention in the 1964 coup," said Lula, who got his political start as a union leader protesting against the military government that followed a U.S.-backed ouster of a democratically elected president. "But this now is not a small intervention. It's the president of the United States thinking he can dictate rules for a sovereign country like Brazil. It's unacceptable." The Brazilian president said he had no personal issues with Trump, adding that they could meet at the United Nations next month or U.N. climate talks in November. But he noted Trump's track record of dressing down White House guests such as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. "What Trump did with Zelenskiy was humiliation. That's not normal. What Trump did with Ramaphosa was humiliation," Lula said. "One president can't be humiliating another. I respect everyone and I demand respect." Lula said his ministers were struggling to open talks with U.S. peers, so his government was focused on domestic measures to cushion the economic blow of U.S. tariffs, while maintaining "fiscal responsibility." He also said he was planning to call leaders from the BRICS group of developing nations, starting with India and China, to discuss the possibility of a joint response to U.S. tariffs. Lula also described plans to create a new national policy for Brazil's strategic mineral resources, treating them as a matter of "national sovereignty" to break with a history of mining exports that added little value in Brazil.
