Money Grab/Charge for access to the president
Boeing, Toyota and other regulated companies sponsor Duffy’s family road-trip show
— Boeing, Toyota and other regulated companies sponsor Duffy's family road-trip show.
In May 2026 the Transportation Department confirmed that a nonprofit run by a registered travel-industry lobbyist paid for a five-part video series in which Secretary Sean Duffy, his wife and nine children tour the country.
What happened
Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, spent months in 2025 and 2026 filming a five-part series with his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy and their nine children. They drive across the country for the nation’s 250th birthday. Announced on Fox News in May 2026, it is called The Great American Road Trip.
The costs were paid by a nonprofit of the same name, run by Tori Barnes, a registered lobbyist for the U.S. Travel Association and Hilton. It is organized as a 501(c)(4) so that it need not disclose donors. Its website thanks 17 corporate sponsors, among them Boeing, Toyota, Shell, United Airlines, Royal Caribbean, Google and the American Bus Association. The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing and Toyota gave $1 million each.
A pitch deck promised sponsors logo placement in the videos, “strategically placed speaking roles” and VIP invitations to receptions with the Secretary. Packages were priced from $100,000 to $1 million. The Transportation Department said it accepted the production as a gift and that no taxpayer money went to the family.
Who benefited
Duffy and his family received a filmed vacation, and the sponsors bought time with a cabinet secretary. Boeing’s safety regulator is Duffy’s FAA, which in late 2025 lifted the cap on 737 MAX production and restored Boeing’s authority to certify its own planes.
Who wanted something
Every sponsor has business before the department. The airlines wanted consumer rules dropped, and they were; the department issued no airline fines in 2025 for the first time since records began. Toyota’s regulator sets fuel-economy and recall rules. The bus association, the cement company and the cruise line all have DOT money or rules in play.
Who lost out
Passengers whose compensation and seating rules stalled lost out, along with drivers covered by the standards NHTSA rolled back. So did anyone who flies on the planes Boeing now inspects itself. The rule that a cabinet officer’s household should not be funded by the companies he oversees lost out too.
Why it matters
A member of the cabinet let the industries he regulates pay for his family’s television show and sold them speaking parts. This is the kind of arrangement the gift rules exist to prevent. It was done in the open, with a price list.
Sources Politico (pitch deck obtained by Politico) (primary)Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (primary)The American Prospect / Revolving Door ProjectThe Wall Street Journal (via Yakima Herald)