Video clips that made the rounds online in early August 2025 claimed to show circus music interrupting U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon during a conservative conference.
An X user who shared one of the clips on Aug. 6, 2025, claimed McMahon was "heckled as a 'corrupt billionaire'" at the event and that a hacked audio feed "played circus music in the background."
Similar video clips also circulated on TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
The claim was true. A video shared by C-SPAN (archived) on Aug. 6, 2025, authentically captured what could accurately be described as circus music playing in the background while McMahon spoke with Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at the Young America's Foundation's annual Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C.
The circus music began playing as McMahon, who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, answered Walker's question about what had changed in Trump's second term. The music could be heard around the
In the lead-up to the circus music playing, McMahon said:
That's really interesting because when President Trump came into the first term, even though he had run a gigantic business worldwide, it was really a family business. And so it was very interesting, you know, much like I had run a family business that then became a public company, so it had very different requirements running a public company. And so it took him a while to get the White House organized, to understand how that worked. He had his family in the White House. I know that Jared and Ivanka were incredibly helpful to him. But he had to do some staff changes pretty quickly as people understood what his working style was and he understood them.
At that point, the circus music began playing in the background as McMahon continued speaking about Trump's presidency. Specifically, the music resembled an orchestral piece called "Entrance of the Clowns."
While the music played, McMahon said, in part:
But this time, he knew the story. He knew how to make things work, how to make things run. He had the people coming in that he really wanted to work with him.
The music was audible until the 26:17 mark in the video. McMahon didn't appear to acknowledge the music at any point while she spoke.
Another audio clip of a voice calling McMahon a "corrupt billionaire" interrupted her earlier in the video at the 15:30 mark, a moment she acknowledged by saying, "Oh."
Walker then joked that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was responsible for the interruption.
"Apparently, the CCP didn't like that. They're cutting into our technology," Walker said.
"We're getting a little feedback in here," McMahon replied while laughing.
"A few of the liberal senators, in connection with the CCP, thought they could try and cut into that," Walker added.
Snopes reached out to the Young America's Foundation for comment on the incidents and will update this story if we receive a response.
Prior to her time in the Trump administration, McMahon and her husband, Vince, were best known for building the wrestling empire that would become World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Linda, who served as CEO until 2009, later made two runs for U.S. Senate and lost both times, The Associated Press reported
McMahon's previous background in education included a year on the Connecticut Board of Education in 2009 and service as a longtime trustee at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, according to the AP.
For further reading, Snopes previously fact-checked McMahon's claim that 70% of eighth-grade students cannot read at grade-level proficiency.