Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s “Great American Road Trip” reality show raises more questions about the Trump appointee than it answers about what it is like to be an American.
That is the opinion of Washington Post culture columnist Monica Hesse in a biting review of the six-part reality show, where she suggests there are some curious moments, including possible “dogwhistling” to Jan 6 insurrection supporters.
“Two episodes in it becomes clear that this is not a show about America. It’s a show about the Duffy family, whose patriarch and matriarch (weekend “Fox & Friends” host Rachel Campos-Duffy) were both 1990s cast members of 'The Real World' and who, on multiple occasions, seem like they’re trying to reboot that reality TV career,” she wrote before adding, “Either that, or this is a soft launch of a 2028 presidential run.”
Calling the show “slick, well-packaged, and featuring a dozen compelling personalities,” she continued, Duffy and his wife chose to include footage where they try to talk their daughter Paloma out of attending Harvard.
“When Sean waxes on about patriotic revolutions at the Liberty Bell, are we talking about the Revolutionary War, or are we dogwhistling J6?" Hesse asked. “The Duffys hope to keep Paloma away from Harvard because they want her to remain a 'traditional' girl – but the show is careful to never quite spell out what 'traditional' means to them. It can’t mean stay-at-home wife: Rachel is an accomplished career woman herself. Are we talking about LGBTQ stuff, then? Climate stuff? Birth control?”
Pointing out that other critics ”…have lambasted ‘The Great American Road Trip’ as either embarrassing dad cringe or alarming grift,” she added that she did find it disarming in some ways — but with a backhanded slap at Donald Trump's second term and Duffy's dereliction of duty in it.
“Those weren’t my takeaways, though. Rather, 'The Great American Road Trip' seemed like an example of a nice family taking the kind of nice trips that any of us would probably love to take our nice families on, if gas wasn’t $4.15 a gallon and we had the paid vacation available to get away six different times in one year,” she sniped.