Public Office is the New Influencer Platform

How reality shows, merch, and gym videos crept into government

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went on Fox & Friends recently to promote a summer travel series. That sentence alone would not normally say much about the state of American government — cabinet secretaries often go on television to sell policies, defend the administration, or even to be part of humanizing segments designed to show voters that powerful people are “just like us.”

But Duffy was not simply promoting a Department of Transportation initiative. He was promoting a family reality show.

The sitting transportation secretary, a former MTV Real World cast member, said he had spent parts of the past seven months filming The Great American Road Trip, a YouTube series starring Duffy, his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy, and their nine children traveling the country ahead of America’s 250th birthday. The show will premiere in June.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy

In the trailer, the family visits national landmarks, rides snowmobiles, cruises the Mississippi River, stops by the Liberty Bell, and appears to make visits to the homes of Kid Rock and John Rich in Nashville. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum shows up too, because apparently the Cabinet now has crossover episodes.

During the time the show was filming, the transportation system was under visible strain, including a record-long government shutdown that resulted in staffing shortages, air traffic controllers and TSA agents working without pay, and massive flight disruptions.

A Transportation Department spokesperson told People magazine (and yes, this is the first time I’ve ever used People as an authoritative source) that the series was filmed in short stretches over many months, with production costs covered by Great American Road Trip, Inc. — a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that proudly lists the Department of Transportation, Boeing, Toyota, Shell, United Airlines, and Comcast NBCUniversal as partners. A public pitch deck obtained by Politico’s Daniel Lippman showed sponsorship tiers ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, with benefits including logo placement, social media recognition, VIP invitations, branded activations, product showcases, and, at the top tier, a “Presented by” credit for one road trip stop.

Duffy says he and his family did not receive financial compensation, but there are still clear conflicts of interest. Duffy leads the department that regulates large parts of the transportation system. A transportation secretary starring in a road-trip series funded through a nonprofit sponsored by companies with major transportation interests is exactly the kind of arrangement that makes ethics lawyers reach for the antacids. Even if no law was broken, the appearance of impropriety is hard to miss.

In many ways, Duffy’s reality show is a natural extension of both his and his wife’s existing personal brands — Duffy appeared on MTV’s The Real World: Boston in 1997, while Rachel Campos-Duffy appeared on The Real World: San Francisco in 1994. But as part of the Trump administration, Duffy’s conduct fits a growing trend, and the tone is being set from the top.