Here’s Who Funded Trump Secretary’s Family Reality TV Show

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s glamorous road trip across the U.S. was paid for by corporate titans.

The former Fox News host claimed that over the course of seven months, he filmed an upcoming reality television show with his wife and their nine children, called The Great American Roadtrip. His wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, referred to their time on the road as “really wholesome, good family stuff.” 

But Duffy—a multimillionaire with a taxpayer-funded salary—did not pay for the extravagant trip himself. Instead, the money came from a supposedly independent nonprofit, a 501(c)4 called Great American Road Trip Inc. 

In a statement to The New Republic, Duffy’s office described GART as an “independent” entity. 

GART was established around August 2025 by Tori Barnes, reported Forbes Thursday. Barnes, according to her LinkedIn profile, spent nearly two decades working as a lobbyist for General Motors before moving to the U.S. Travel Association.

A Department of Transportation memo dated March 6 described GART as a “multi-platform storytelling initiative” that was launched by Duffy and the Transportation Department as part of a “series of initiatives in partnership with Freedom250 to further contribute to this historic year.” Freedom250 is the Trump administration’s effort commemorating the U.S.’s 250th birthday.

Behind the nonprofit’s funding is a medley of industry giants, including aircraft manufacturer Boeing, carmaker Toyota, and gas giant Shell, all proudly displayed on the nonprofit’s website. Other funders were Google, the cruise company Royal Caribbean Group, United Airlines, Chase Travel, and the U.S. Travel Association, among other companies that rely on the regulatory systems of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Politico reported Tuesday that sponsorships ranged in price from $100,000 to $1 million.

The reality-TV series was launched in partnership with Fox News, and is set to be released on YouTube in the lead-up to America’s 250th birthday. Not all 50 states will get airtime. Duffy’s multimonth trip hit just eight states: Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Montana, Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C.

In a promotional interview on Fox News last week, Duffy confessed that the trek was his idea.

“I wanted to lean in to America’s 250th birthday,” Duffy said, reminding the panel that he and  Campos-Duffy met on a road trip for MTV’s Real World spinoff, Road Rules: All Stars in 1998. 

“And so over the course of seven months we just kind of found these moments where I might be able to do some work, take the kids with me, do a road trip—and our motto is to love America is to see America,” Duffy continued, “and there’s so much to see in this beautiful country.”

Campos-Duffy later clarified that the straight-to-streaming family vacation emerged out of a prompt from Donald Trump, who urged his Cabinet to find ways to celebrate America ahead of the 250th anniversary.

The adventure has since received enormous backlash, which Duffy has attributed to the “the radical, miserable left.”

In an extensive statement shared with TNR, DOT spokesperson Nathaniel Sizemore affirmed that “no taxpayer dollars were spent on Secretary Duffy’s family,” and that “the Secretary and his family do not receive any salary or production royalties” from the show.

“Further, celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary is part of Secretary Duffy’s official duties, and The Great American Road Trip is one aspect in support of those responsibilities,” Sizemore wrote.

Sizemore’s note also specified that Duffy’s trip occurred over 24 days between September and May, a span of nine months—not seven, as the secretary himself claimed.

The four-page note also included pre-written verbiage about whether the nonprofit’s donors presented a “conflict of interest.”

“There is a formal agreement between USDOT and the non-profit that expressly states the non-profit will not receive ‘any favorable consideration for any future federal financial assistance,’ action, contract, or other financial award,” Sizemore wrote, adding that Duffy’s participation in the project was “approved by USDOT ethics attorneys.”

This story has been updated.

President Trump’s attempt to sue The Wall Street Journal for defamation has hit a snag.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled Wednesday that Trump can’t seek discovery based on actual malice from the publication in his lawsuit, calling it “improper” and saying the court couldn’t allow Trump to use the legal process “to help him properly plead his claims.”

“Thus, allowing President Trump to conduct discovery on actual malice, where his initial attempt at pleading a defamation claim fell short, is exactly the type of ‘expensive yet groundless litigation’ the Eleventh Circuit has cautioned against,” Gayles wrote in his ruling.

Trump sued the Journal in July 2025, claiming that the newspaper’s reporting that Trump submitted a letter and explicit drawing to a birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein was defamatory, denying the report’s accuracy. In April, Gayles dismissed the lawsuit, saying that Trump didn’t make a plausible allegation that the newspaper acted with “actual malice,” but allowed Trump the ability to file an amended complaint, which he did.

But now, Trump can’t use the discovery process to gather evidence that the Journal defamed him, although Gayles did leave the door open for him to file another amended complaint. It doesn’t seem likely that he’d succeed a third time, as the House Oversight Committee included the birthday book, complete with the drawing from Trump, in a September release of Epstein materials from his estate.

Earlier this week, Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed the Journal’s reporters over leaks from the Department of Defense related to the Iran war, which its publisher, Dow Jones, said “represent an attack on constitutionally protected news gathering.” The president’s continued attacks on the Journal, as well as any other news outlet that criticizes him, not only violate the freedom of the press but are meritless.

The MAGA movement is splitting at the seams.

Two of the faction’s biggest names—ex-Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and podcaster Benny Johnson—traded blows online Wednesday, airing one another’s rumored dirty laundry after Johnson attacked Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie.

Johnson had torn into Massie, a longtime critic of the president, over recent allegations that the Kentucky Republican paid hush-money to a former girlfriend, Cynthia West. West claimed that Massie offered to pay her up to $5,000 to drop a wrongful termination complaint against one of his allies, Representative Victoria Spartz. Massie is up for reelection in November, with his local primary scheduled to take place next week. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Johnson dove into the accusation, deriding Massie as a “pig” who has been “squealing” about Donald Trump. Johnson also compared Massie’s fresh scandal to that of Eric Swalwell, whose campaign for California governor imploded last month after he was accused of sexual misconduct and rape by multiple women.

The unforgiving coverage—and inappropriate comparison—did not sit right with Greene. Responding to a clip of Johnson’s show, Greene said: “This is a clinic on how to call out the lies of social media influencers that get paid to spew propaganda.”

Greene added that Johnson had not given her the “courtesy” of asking “if any of these lies were true,” and that she had previously thought of Johnson as a friend.

Johnson hit back at Greene, apparently unmoved by the appeal to their former alliance.

“I know everyone has become very fragile and overly-emotional lately so let me explain this calmly and slowly: I cover trending news topics on my show,” Johnson wrote. “I’m entitled to my opinions on these matters. I serve my audience. That’s my job. And unlike you, I won’t run away from my job when things get tough.”

Greene went back to settle the score.

“You are a LYING scumbag @bennyjohnson and just to be clear we are definitely not friends,” she wrote. “All you cover and elevate are trending LIES. And get paid to do it. Literally the most repulsive level of MAGA.”

The former Georgia lawmaker then suggested that she had heard various rumors about Johnson’s misconduct, including “allegations about young men at conservative conferences,” allegations that he was “paid by Russia and Israel,” and allegations that Johnson “rips off people’s content and articles” and pretends that they’re his own.

“More drama and crash outs. Got it,” replied Johnson, referring to the aforementioned charges as “evidence free slander.”

A federal judge sharply rebuked the Justice Department Wednesday, calling out a subpoena to a Rhode Island children’s hospital for having “under oath, misrepresented salient facts.”

Judge Mary McElroy of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island said that Rhode ‌Island Hospital didn’t have to comply with the government’s subpoena for the medical records of minors treated for gender dysphoria with drugs such as puberty blockers, among other documents. Previously, a judge in Texas had ordered the subpoena at the government’s request.

“DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case. It has misrepresented and withheld information to both this Court and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas,” McElroy said in her ruling, and accused the government of forum shopping, or choosing a friendly district court to get a favorable ruling.

“It did so in an obvious effort to shield its recent investigative tactics—previously rejected by every other court to review them—from this Court’s review, in favor of a distant forum that DOJ deems friendly to its political positions,” McElroy’s ruling said.

The Trump administration is targeting transgender and gender-affirming care around the country, and has tried to subpoena other medical providers to get the same information, with mixed results. As a result, the DOJ has moved some of its legal efforts to Texas. In this case, another judge intervened to shoot it down, but what will happen next time?

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner crashed and burned Thursday when trying to defend the Trump’s administration’s massive budget cuts to his department.

Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Turner repeatedly rehashed his issues with former President Joe Biden’s administration, which he claimed accomplished less with a larger budget—rather than provide any evidence of his own work. Lawmakers were fed up.

“What is your record? You’ve had this job for well over a year! I just want to know did you get the number down? Do we have 700,000 homeless still, or is it one million, or one million point five?” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand asked.

Gillibrand demanded the results of the federal government’s Point-in-Time Count, a yearly report on how many people in the United States are experiencing homelessness. The report is typically released every December. As of mid-May, the Point-in-Time Count for 2025 has not been released.

“I just don’t want to hear what you don’t like about the Biden administration! You’re in charge, you have a vision, let’s see it, let’s see the results!” Gillibrand said.

“I thank God that I’m in charge so we can do stuff different, because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed,” the former professional football player said. Turner added: “You said I have been here a little bit over a year, but you all had, during the Biden administration, four years—”

“Stop talking about Biden!” Gillibrand interrupted. “Talk about your record!”

Turner proceeded to blame the delayed report on things that had nothing to do with Biden at all, including the 43-day government shutdown that “helps us to not be able to work,” and the “constant litigation” his department was facing.

Gillibrand pressed him to explain how the litigation slowed down his department’s work. Turner replied: “Irregardless of all of that, during the Biden administration, record funding—”

“Oh my God! If you talk about—it’s like, it’s like two children saying I didn’t do it, my brother did it!” Gillibrand said, clearly frustrated.

Washington Senator Patty Murray also pointed out that complaining about Biden had become Turner’s “go-to answer” for every single question. She pressed Turner to explain how he planned to help more people experiencing homelessness by gutting $10 billion from the department’s budget.

Turner replied: “Here’s what I’ll say, in the previous years before we got here, housing affordability was not at an all time high.”