Transportation Secretary’s Reality Show Hits Skids After Ethics Complaint Over Corporate Bankrolling of Family ‘Road Trip’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new family road-trip reality show, imagined as a celebration in honor of America’s 250th birthday, is being bankrolled by the very corporations Mr. Duffy’s department is tasked with regulating, according to a formal complaint filed by a watchdog group.The financial arrangement raises ethical red flags because as head of the Department of Transportation, Mr. Duffy oversees the regulation, safety auditing, and potential penalties imposed against aviation and automotive giants, including major industry players like United Airlines, Boeing, and Toyota, which are supporting the project.A “pitch deck” used to raise money for the show’s producer, the nonprofit entity, The Great American Road Trip Inc., revealed sponsorship tiers ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, Politico was first to report. In exchange for their financial backing, corporate sponsors were offered “VIP invitations to receptions, roundtables, or networking events.”The controversy prompted the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to file a formal complaint urging the Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the matter.“You have everyday Americans who are struggling with the price of gas, struggling with the costs of everyday items, and you have the cabinet secretary announcing that he is going on a trip with his entire family, which appears to have been funded by the industries that his department is overseeing,” CREW President Donald Sherman said in a statement.“The second Trump administration has not earned an ounce of trust when it comes to putting the public’s needs before the desires of corporations that are funding administration pet projects. The public deserves clarity on exactly how the funding for Secretary Duffy’s travel worked and assurance that the companies involved, including a foreign automaker, will not receive preferential treatment from the agency,” he said.Mr. Sherman highlighted the ethical Catch-22 of the arrangement: “If he’s saying that this is a work project or that he did work on the project, then taxpayer funds should be paying for it. And if it’s a vacation or some kind of personal trip, then certainly industry should not be paying for it,” he said.Pushing back against the mounting criticism, Mr. Duffy took to social media to defend the project and attack his detractors. “The radical, miserable left has noticed our awesome Great American Road Trip trailer… and they hate it,” Mr. Duffy wrote on X. “They’re upset because they don’t want you to celebrate America! And they definitely don’t want you to teach your kids civics & patriotism.”Mr. Duffy insisted that “career ethics and budget officials at the Department of Transportation reviewed and approved both my participation and individual travel in accordance with federal rules.” He emphasized that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family” and “neither myself nor my family received a salary or production royalties.”The unscripted YouTube series was framed as a civic experience in time for America’s 250th birthday. A recent four-minute trailer features the secretary, his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and their nine children visiting landmarks and mingling with prominent figures like Kid Rock and President Trump. “The motto is: to love America is to see America,” Mr. Duffy says in the video.Ms. Campos-Duffy, who met the secretary after the two Gen X reality show stars met in 1998 while appearing on an MTV spin-off series of their respective shows called “Road Rules: All Stars,” fiercely defended her husband during a recent radio appearance. “I don’t think anybody can accuse my husband of not having done his job well. In fact, people have been remarkably happy with it,” she said. “And my husband is not a corrupt man. He’s had many years in politics and nobody has ever accused my husband of that. And he certainly would not take favor with anybody because they contributed to an ‘America 250’ project, which is about celebrating America.”Still, critics argue the optics are disastrous. The spouse of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Chasten Glezmen Buttigieg, sharply condemned the project. “The same Duffys who threw endless fits on national television when Pete was working from our son’s ICU bedside are now bragging about their multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip while gas and grocery prices soar for American families because of Trump’s war of choice,” Mr. Glezmen Buttigieg posted on X, adding, “How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?”

Transportation Secretary’s Reality Show Hits Skids After Ethics Complaint Over Corporate Bankrolling of Family ‘Road Trip’

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