On Friday, May 8, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's Secretary of Transportation returned to his Fox News stomping grounds to announce a return to his reality TV roots with a five-part YouTube series. Duffy, who was a self-described party boy on MTV's Real World: Boston back in the 1990s, owes his name value to his time on reality TV.
Following his first stint in the Real World franchise, Duffy returned to compete on MTV Road Rules, later meeting his wife, Fox & Friends Weekend co-anchor Rachel Campos-Duffy—herself a notorious hard partier from Real World: San Francisco—on an installment of the program.
The pair first hooked up on Road Rules: All Stars. After getting married, the duo returned to take another bite of the reality TV apple by competing on Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons.
Apparently the Duffys can't resist a road trip someone else pays for, as the Trump administration's Transportation Secretary announced he, Campos-Duffy, and their nine kids were starring in The Great American Road Trip, produced by the same studio behind The Real World.
Duffy's announcement also revealed he spent seven months filming the family road trip while aviation accidents were spiking.
The show is a cross-country journey featuring the Duffys visiting United States landmarks.
Duffy's announcement quickly drew backlash, including from Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, husband of Duffy's predecessor, who echoed the same criticism many expressed.
Glezman Buttigieg reposted the Fox & Friends announcement with the caption:
"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."
"How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?"
A war of words ensued online in the following days.
In an appearance on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, May 17, host Dana Bash asked Democratic President Joe Biden's Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, about the Duffy's foray back into reality television on the taxpayer's dime.
Bash asked:
"[Duffy is] making videos about you. He said that the, quote, 'radical, miserable left hates his road trip because they don’t want people to celebrate America.' Your response?"
Buttigieg replied:
"I love road trips. I love America. I actually took a taxpayer-funded road trip lasting about seven months."
"It was in Afghanistan."
"This is something very different. This is not about patriotism."
Buttigieg added:
"And it is an embarrassment to have him going around saying that a road trip, quote, 'fits any budget,’ at a time when more and more Americans cannot afford a road trip because of the explosion in diesel prices and gas prices caused directly by the Iran war and by the Trump administration."
You can see a clip of the segment here:
People agreed with Buttigieg.
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When pitching the project, Duffy suggested donations from $100,000 up to $1 million would be accepted in order to make The Great American Road Trip—financed by the nonprofit Great American Road Trip Inc.
That's a far cry from the budget most Americans will ever have for a road trip.
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