Three years ago, the right lost its mind over Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg allegedly flying “private” on the taxpayer’s dime, and for once bringing along his husband to honor veterans in his official capacity as a cabinet member’s spouse, among other charges.
The latest ethical lapse from the Trump administration puts that transportation contretemps to shame.
Related
Sean Duffy, the current secretary of transportation and former castmate on The Real World: Boston, launched his new reality show last week, several months late and much more than a dollar short of its goal to inspire Americans to travel the USA this summer celebrating the country’s semiquincentennial.
The show turns out to be six-episodes long and ad-packed with product placements for the very same sponsors that are paying for it — namely, companies that Duffy is supposed to be regulating.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Maybe worst of all, however — at least in the eyes of Duffy’s reality TV boss, the president — the show is a ratings bomb.
A week after its premiere, the basic-cable-styled family road trip has racked up just 17,000Kviews for its first episode on YouTube, dwindling to 4,500 views for its finale.
Don’t look for a second-season pick-up.
The same could be said of Duffy.
The show tanked despite an on-camera blessing in the first episode from the other reality show veteran in the White House, President Donald Trump, who will likely add the ratings for The Great American Road Trip to his calculations for a post-midterms cast change in the final two years of his administration.
If Duffy makes it long enough in his cabinet role after the ratings and ethical debacle, hearings could emerge in a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives next year, questioning the secretary over the propriety of the transportation department accepting a “gift” paid for by subjects of oversight by the department, including Toyota and Boeing, and starring the secretary himself.
Three years ago, Republicans had much less to work with when they accused Duffy’s predecessor of flying “private” on government planes in his role as a government official.
Biden administration critics hounded Secretary Pete Buttigieg for years over accusations of “unethical” traveling as secretary, manufacturing outrage on the right over instances when he wasn’t flying on a commercial plane.
One memorable hearing in September 2023 had Republican Rep. Eric Burlison (MO) trying to get Buttigieg to confess to the alleged ethical lapses, and failed like Duffy’s new reality show.
“Secretary Buttigieg, since taking the role you’ve traveled quite a bit, including private flights,” Burlison told Buttigieg in a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “How often do you use private flights?”
“So I’m assuming by ‘private flights’ you mean the use of government aircraft assigned to my agency,” Buttigieg said, before adding, “I knew this might come up, so I brought some numbers.”
“Since getting this job, I have taken six hundred – these are estimates, give or take a couple – but I’ve taken 638 flights…”
“Were any of those commercial?” Burleson interrupted.
“607 of them were commercial,” Buttigieg responded, or 95% of the total flights. “Ten of them were on military aircraft such as Air Force One, and 21 of them were on FAA aircraft, representing about 3% of the flights.”
“Just, once again, the way I usually travel is in economy class aboard an airliner like everybody else,” Buttigieg responded. “When we do it differently, it’s often because it will save taxpayer money.”
Duffy might invoke the same argument, claiming an ad for transportation companies paid for by those same corporations is somehow a win-win for the American taxpayer.
It’s more likely, though, that he won’t have the opportunity.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.