Sean Duffy faces backlash for new family reality show: ‘unfocused and out of touch’ | Trump administration
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy packed his family into a minivan and took him on a seven-month healthy walk across the country, which was filmed for an upcoming reality TV show. said Fox News on Friday.
This statement drew immediate backlash as “tone deaf” from critics who pointed to several crises that have recently hit the country’s transportation sector.
Between February and April, a partial government shutdown resulting from a protracted dispute over Department of Homeland Security funding led to TSA agents resigning en masse over lack of pay. Some airport passengers faced long waiting times due to resulting staff shortages.
Then in April, an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at New York City’s LaGuardia airport, resulting in the deaths of two pilots. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under federal investigation.
Meanwhile, the recent headlines have been the rise in gas and jet fuel prices, while the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to disrupt the oil industry. This increase in cost, among other factors, contributed to the collapse of budget carrier Spirit Airlines.
“I wanted to celebrate America’s 250th birthday,” Duffy said after a preview of The Great American Road Trip on Fox News.
“For seven months, we found these moments where I could do some work. I could take the kids with me… Our motto was ‘To love America is to see America.'”
He encouraged the public to take similar road trips, suggesting it was an alternative for children accustomed to scrolling through social media.
The husband of Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary under Joe Biden, recruited Duffy for the social media segment.
“The same Duffys who throw endless fits on national television while Pete works in our son’s ICU are now bragging about their multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip while gas and grocery prices for American families soar because of Trump’s favored war,” Chasten Buttigieg wrote. wrote in an X post.
“How much more unfocused, unserious, and uninterested can you get?”
Duffy’s wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, said production costs were covered by the non-profit organization The Great American Road Trip Inc. He refuted this claim on social media, saying that it was paid by . “It was shot over seven months, with minor pauses of one and two days”. wrote.
The trip also raised ethical concerns over sponsors, including Boeing. The aviation company has been subject to several investigations regarding the safety of its aircraft.
