The View co-hosts roast ‘tone deaf’ Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for filming new reality road trip series as travel costs soar
The View co-hosts roast ‘tone deaf’ Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for filming new reality road trip series as travel costs soar
Carsen HoladayMon, May 11, 2026 at 9:14 PM UTC
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The View co-hosts have condemned Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new road trip reality TV venture amid ongoing travel chaos for Americans.
Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, announced Friday on Fox News that they are launching a YouTube series with their nine children called The Great American Road Tripto promote tourism in honor of the country’s 250th birthday — marking a reunion for Duffy and the producers who helped make the Real World series that made him famous.
While discussing the new show on The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg pointed out that TSA agents have been working without pay during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Spirit Airlines shuttered suddenly and gas prices are rising due to the war in Iran.
“But Sean was doing another reality show,” Goldberg quipped. “Tax payers pay his salary. Is this really what he should be doing?”
Panelist Ana Navarro said: “This entire government is a reality show.”
The co-hosts of 'The View' roasted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for his new reality series (ABC)
“The conflict of interest here is glaring,” she said. “I don’t know how many Americans, how many average Americans, will be able to go on a road trip when I’m paying $5.99 for a gallon of gas. It just seems that the tone deafness has no limits.”
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Duffy said on social media that all production costs for the show are covered by a nonprofit group called The Great American Road Trip Inc. instead of taxpayers. He said he and his family did not receive salaries or production royalties from the show.
The show was sponsored by Boeing, Toyota, Shell, Royal Caribbean and United Airlines, which has sparked criticism from The View panelists and others due to the fact that some of those companies are groups that Duffy’s department oversees.
Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, similarly blasted the Duffys for being “out-of-touch” while many Americans are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, announced their new reality road trip series last week (Reuters)
“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,” Chasten wrote on X.
“How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?”
Campos-Duffy wrote in response on X: “All production costs were paid for by the non-profit, The Great American Road Trip, Inc. No one in my family - including my husband - were paid to do this. We did it for FREE to celebrate America 250 & encourage other Americans to get off couches & screens and spend time together seeing our country. It was filmed in small one and two day stops over the course of seven months.”
Duffy’s office did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
