The DOT IG is investigating Sean Duffy’s participation in a reality show
The DOT IG is investigating Sean Duffy’s participation in a reality show
- Fri, May 15 2026 at 11:41 AM
Mark,
This week CREW filed a complaint with the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation into Secretary Sean Duffy’s participation in a corporate-sponsored reality show. Now, the IG has confirmed they are reviewing our complaint.
This is a Cabinet secretary who spent parts of several months on a road trip with his family to “celebrate” America’s 250th anniversary and squeezed in time to do “some work” in his taxpayer-funded job.
Despite claims that the road trip was an official endeavor by the DOT, a spokesperson for the agency stated that “[p]roduction costs were paid for by the Great American Road Trip, Inc,” a nonprofit led by a former transportation industry lobbyist and funded by mega corporations—at least three of which (United Airlines, Toyota and Boeing) were previously fined or audited by the agency.
This raises serious concerns about whether Duffy’s official time is being used for public purposes, whether he accepted or solicited gifts from companies with businesses before the DOT, whether this constituted an appropriate use of government travel and whether the secretary was promoting private products.Secretary Duffy’s participation in this project may violate several ethics rules. The federal gift ban states that, except under a limited set of circumstances, no officer or employee of the executive branch can solicit or accept anything of value from an entity involved with their agency.
Because federal officials’ travel must be paid for with taxpayer funds to ensure private interests do not drive government decisions, their travel on agency aircraft generally must be for official purposes.
Let’s be clear: If Duffy is saying that this is a work project or that he did work on the project, then taxpayer funds should be paying for it. If it's a vacation, the industry certainly should not be paying for it.
Our complaint was covered widely, including in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Bloomberg, CNN, the Daily Show and Rolling Stone.
Mark, government officials are also prohibited from using the authority of their position to endorse any product, service, or enterprise. Yet in the promotional trailer, a Toyota vehicle was featured prominently, while Toyota, a foreign automaker regulated by the DOT, reportedly helped fund the project.
This raises the question of whether Toyota was featured so prominently because the company helped sponsor the project, or whether Secretary Duffy truly believes that promoting a foreign automaker is in the best interests of the American public, American car companies and American workers.
As everyday Americans struggle with high gas prices and growing concerns about airline safety, Secretary Duffy spent work time on a trip apparently funded by the very industries his agency oversees.The Trump administration has done nothing to earn the public’s trust when it comes to putting people ahead of corporate donors and industry-backed pet projects.
Government officials are supposed to avoid even the appearance of corruption. Secretary Duffy failed that basic test.
That’s why CREW is calling on the DOT IG to thoroughly investigate Secretary Duffy’s participation in this project and the IG is currently reviewing our complaint.
Comments
Post a Comment