A couple weeks ago. Everyone watched Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announce his “Great American Road Trip.” The idea sounds innocent enough. Take the family out. See the country. Show off the scenery.
If only that were the whole story.
The problem wasn’t the destination. It was the gas money. Specifically. The sponsors. Boeing and United Airlines paid for it. Both are regulated by Duffy. The FAA has a checkered past with Boeing. Two 737 MAX crashes. Deadly ones.
You tell me that Boeing handed over $1 million for this because they love marketing? Please. They hand it over to curry favor with the man holding their license. It just sits wrong in the gut.
Defensive Mode
May 19, 2066. The Senate Appropriations Committee room was hot. Duffy was there to defend his department’s budget. And of course the trip came up. Conflict of interest. Ethics. All those boring words that usually mean trouble.
His reaction? Immature. Angry. The same guy preaching about kindness in air travel? Sure. The one in the witness chair was barely contained.
His defense was weak. Whataboutism. Everyone else takes money. He pointed fingers instead of cleaning his own house.
Watch the clip with Patty Murray from Washington. She asked what the sponsors get in return for that million bucks. Simple question. Hard answer. Duffy refused. Instead, he yelled back.
“Welcome to MAGA!” he screamed. Over her. About gas prices. Drill baby drill. He couldn’t answer the question so he screamed about energy policy.
“Are you going to drill? I welcome that!”
His party accounts celebrated. Duffy gets a Dem “cooked.” Really? Yelling is policy now?
Kirsten Gillibrand wasn’t safe either. She asked about the sponsors. Duffy hit back with her campaign finances. $7 million from trial lawyers. He claimed the bar spent half a million to fly her private. She said she’d never flown private.
It was a mess.
The Empty Defense
Here’s the thing. I don’t care that he took a road trip. I can buy that. Promote tourism? Great idea. Show kids the Grand Canyon? Why not?
The money source is the killer.
These aren’t just donors. They are the entities Duffy oversees. Safety is the job. Taking checks from the regulated party while overseeing their safety records? That’s a different tier of problem.
His only move? Point out other politicians’ donors. Nancy Pelosi’s stocks? Yeah, that’s bad. But there’s a precedent there. It’s messy, but it’s the norm.
Taking cash from the giants in your own industry to fund a government-sanctioned vacation? Less precedent. More suspicion.
It’s tone deaf. The Boeing crashes happened recently in memory. The relationship between the FAA and the manufacturer was suspect. Then? Catastrophe. Now? Boeing pays for a propaganda tour.
Coincidence? No one believes it. Boeing wants access. Access buys leniency. It’s the oldest game in the book.
Is it partisan? Not really. Swap parties. Put Hunter Biden on the plane with a consulting contract. Would it fly? No. It wouldn’t matter who was in the Oval Office. The optics are rotten.
The bottom line remains.
Boeing. United. Toyota. They paid for the ride. Duffy drove it. The Senate asked why. He screamed about gas prices instead of answering.
Leaving the conflict entirely intact.
