The Murky Ethics of Sean Duffy’s New Reality Show

May 13, 2026 · The Atlantic

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy owes his celebrity—and his marriage—to a stint on the 1990s reality show The Real World. Now Duffy and his wife, the Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, are promoting another reality show: The Great American Road Trip, a cross-country journey to landmarks across the United States with the couple’s nine kids in tow. Produced by the same studio behind The Real World, it has been framed by the Department of Transportation as a celebration of the country’s 250th birthday, and is set to launch ahead of July 4.

In other ways, though, it’s ill-timed. This plea for Americans to hit the road arrives at a moment when about two-thirds of the country blames the president for rising gas prices, and when many are concerned about the high cost of living. (The war in Iran is pushing up the cost of fuel; according to Rolling Stone’s back-of-the-napkin math, taking Duffy’s route across the country would require about $1,300 in gas money.) Duffy was filmed intermittently over the course of seven months, during which time he was the public face of transportation crises involving debilitating staffing shortages and fatal airplane crashes. The series, which will stream for free on YouTube, is positioned as feel-good, family-focused programming. So far, though, it has mostly generated controversy.

Part of the concern has to do with the ethical ambiguities surrounding the project. Duffy has said that no taxpayer money funded the show. Instead, it was paid for by the Great American Road Trip Inc., a nonprofit created last year by Tori Barnes, who has recently lobbied for the transportation industry. The organization’s site lists as “sponsors” several companies that are regulated by DOT, including Toyota, Shell, and Boeing. The nonprofit’s pitch deck, obtained by Politico, explicitly offered potential sponsors perks in exchange for different donation tiers. “Platinum” donors that gave $1,000,000, for example, were promised “up to 6 VIP invitations to receptions, roundtables, or networking events” as well as logo placements in “produced video features.” You can’t miss the giant Toyota logo that fills the screen at one point in the trailer. (Toyota and Boeing did not respond to a request for comment, and Shell declined to comment.)

Duffy has said that his family did not receive a salary during production. A spokesperson for DOT told me that there were 24 “filming days on the road” from September to May (meaning that the secretary was filming during two government shutdowns and the airport crises they created). The spokesperson also sent me a memorandum of agreement between the nonprofit and the department, which was signed in December, after filming had begun, and which DOT claimed was drafted by “career ethics officials.” The memorandum laid out that the “donor” wouldn’t receive “any favorable consideration for any future federal assistance” in exchange for its gift.

The problem is that the “donor” in this case is the nonprofit—but the agreement makes no mention of the sponsoring companies and their role in the show. Those companies, not the Great American Road Trip Inc., could stand to gain from funding this project. When businesses do things that might benefit their regulator, it raises questions about whether they’re getting anything in return. On Monday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a D.C.-based watchdog group, publicly urged the Office of the Inspector General to investigate the show over possible violations of federal gift and travel rules. An ethical-conduct handbook bars executive-branch employees from accepting gifts from anyone “seeking official action from, doing business with, or conducting activities regulated by the employee’s agency.”

DOT has made clear that the production fell within the bounds of Duffy’s duties as secretary. “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,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. (He added that “on these brief stops, the Secretary also often conducted additional visits like touring air traffic control towers and assessing port infrastructure,” and that flights to those “official engagements” were paid for by the department.) But the funding for this show raises questions about how “official” Duffy’s work actually was. “If this was, as the secretary described it, work that is important for the American public as we commemorate our 250th anniversary, then why didn’t they just pay for it using taxpayer funds?” CREW’s president, Donald Sherman, asked when we spoke earlier today.

In April, my colleague Michael Scherer reported that the secretary has “maintained an unusual relationship with representatives of the companies he regulates,” an allegation that Duffy’s team denied. This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration has blurred the line between public and private funding. The White House’s new ballroom is being paid for (at least in part) by a cadre of private companies, and President Trump announced in October that an anonymous private donor had given his administration $130 million to pay the military during the shutdown in the fall.

The Great American Road Trip is a reminder that in this administration, entertainment and governance go hand in hand. The ex-Apprentice star Trump has set the example here as the showman in chief, repeatedly elevating people who share his background in television; the health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even has a new video podcast, which does appear to be paid for by the American people. With his background in reality TV, Duffy is in some ways a natural showman. But this new venture is attracting the wrong kind of attention.

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Today’s News

President Trump arrived in Beijing for a two-day summit that begins tomorrow with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He is joined by more than a dozen top business executives, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Jensen Huang, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Senate rejected Democrats’ latest effort to end the war in Iran, the first such vote since Trump’s 60-day deadline to seek congressional authorization for the conflict expired. Three Republicans supported the measure to halt the war, but the legislation failed 49–50 after one Democratic senator voted against it.
South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh, who had been found guilty of killing his wife and younger son, ruling that jury interference by a court clerk compromised the fairness of the 2023 trial. Prosecutors said they plan to retry Murdaugh, who will remain in prison because of separate financial-crime convictions.

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Illustration by Ana Miminoshvili

The Mystery of the Golden Coffin

By Ariel Sabar

In November 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to the United Arab Emirates to inaugurate a new museum—and a new relationship between East and West. The Louvre Abu Dhabi was to become the Arab world’s first “universal” museum, filled with art from around the globe that spanned thousands of years of history. The Emiratis were paying the French $1 billion for the rights to the Louvre name, guidance on what art to buy, and loans of masterworks by Da Vinci, Matisse, and Van Gogh. The kings of Morocco and Bahrain joined Emirati royals at the celebrations, which included a spectacle of costumed dancers and pyrotechnics worthy of an Olympics opening ceremony. In his speech, Macron pitched the museum as an antidote to global conflict and the legacies of imperialism. Instead of taking the greatest works of art from the lands it conquered—as Napoleon’s armies had—France was now bringing its treasures east.

“Beauty,” Macron declared, “will save the world.”

Two days after the museum opened, one of its beautiful objects began drawing attention from scholars, but not in the way that Macron might have hoped.

Read the full article.

‘Everyone knows money was found in a couch’: Ipid, Saps criticised over Phala Phala saga

May 14, 2026 · Citizen

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) and the South African Police Service (Saps) faced intense scrutiny in Parliament on Wednesday, 13 May 2026, over their handling of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s controversial Phala Phala scandal.

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Officials from both institutions appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police to brief MPs on investigative findings related to the high-profile case, which stems from the theft of $580 000 (about R9.6 million) from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo on 9 February 2020.

Ipid launched its investigation following a complaint lodged in July 2022.

This was after former State Security Agency (SSA) head Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges against Ramaphosa and Presidential Protection Service (PPS) head Wally Rhoode, alleging wrongdoing linked to the handling of the theft.

The police watchdog’s probe examined a wide range of allegations, including whether the crime was deliberately not reported, whether an unlawful undercover investigation was conducted, and whether state resources were improperly used.

Investigators also explored claims of kidnapping, assault, torture and bribery allegedly linked to efforts to conceal the incident.

Ipid report findings on Phala Phala

Presenting the findings, Ipid’s head of investigations, Thuso Keefelakae, told MPs the probe was finalised in October 2023, with the report being declassified in April 2026.

He said the investigation found that Rhoode failed to report the crime to the then-national police commissioner Khehla Sithole and did not open a case docket for housebreaking and theft.

Evidence also pointed to Rhoode’s involvement in the kidnapping and interrogation of former farm employee Froliana Joseph and her brother, Ndilinasho David Joseph.

Rhoode’s trip to Namibia in June 2020 in search of the siblings formed part of the probe, although Ipid said it could not reach adverse findings on that aspect.

The report further indicated that Sergeant Hlulani Rekhoto had been instructed by Rhoode to track down additional suspects in Cape Town.

A kidnapping case opened by the alleged victims in August 2022 was later withdrawn, while claims of bribery could not be substantiated, according to Keefelakae.

Despite recommendations for disciplinary action by both Ipid and the Public Protector, Rhoode and Rekhoto were cleared in internal Saps proceedings in early 2024, a development that drew concern from MPs.

Hawks outline ongoing and closed cases

Siphosethu Nkosi, deputy national head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), provided an update on parallel investigations and prosecutions.

He confirmed that criminal proceedings relating to the original housebreaking and theft are ongoing, alongside an investigation into possible violations of customs and excise laws linked to the undeclared cash.

However, Nkosi said the money laundering case tied to exchange control regulations had been dropped after the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute.

“On kidnapping, torture and assault, the alleged victims vehemently denied that this happened. They withdrew their submitted statements,” Nkosi said.

Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia dismissed suggestions that the executive had influenced Ipid’s work or the handling of its report.

“Ipid did not seek my advice or intervention, and I had no role in classification or declassification, no exercise of ministerial discretion, and I am not aware of such a discretion because, you know, Ipid is an independent body,” he told MPs.

Watch the full meeting below:

MPs voice frustration

Members of the committee expressed dissatisfaction with both the findings and the processes followed.

DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard questioned the outcome of Saps’ internal disciplinary proceedings, raising concerns about a pattern of conflicting findings.

“That’s a big question I’m asking myself. We have seen this countless times where someone is found to be guilty on one side, but it goes to Saps for an internal investigation, and a hearing finds them not guilty. So, it’s a huge issue,” she said.

African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Kenneth Meshoe emphasised that the failure to open a criminal case in the first place was deeply troubling.

“It could be because of corruption that they don’t register a case because they are covering for somebody,” he told the committee.

Meshoe also asked whether Ipid had challenged the not guilty verdict.

MK party’s David Skosana said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by the outcome of the investigations.

“Today, it has shown beyond reasonable doubt that they are closing ranks.

“They are covering up one of their own. This issue of independence does not exist here,” he remarked.

Skosana further questioned why Ramaphosa himself had not opened a criminal case following the theft.

‘Where is the couch?’

ActionSA MP Dereleen James turned attention to the physical evidence, particularly the couch in which the cash was hidden at Phala Phala.

“This entire matter reeks of cover-up and corruption. Did it take Ipid and Saps two years to investigate?” she asked.

“Everyone knows that money was found in a couch: ‘Waar is die couch?’ (Where is the couch?)

“Was it ever booked in as part of evidence because there are no pictures anywhere; we don’t hear anything about this couch,” James said.

She also questioned whether the crime scene had been properly processed at the time.

EFF MP Muzi Khoza pressed officials for clarity on how Rhoode and Rekhoto were cleared in disciplinary proceedings.

“What specific evidentiary or procedural factor led to their exoneration, because that’s of great concern?” Khoza asked.

Read full story at source

Rush Hour: EC announces third phase of SIR, VD Satheesan to be next Kerala CM & more

May 14, 2026 · Scroll

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Sugar-free products with sugar. ‘Real’ juices with artificial ingredients. Misleading food ads are fuelling a public health crisis in India. Help Scroll expose the systemic failure. Support our investigation.

The Election Commission announced the third phase of the special intensive revision exercise of voter rolls, which will take place in 16 states and three Union Territories. With this, the exercise will have covered voter lists in all states and Union Territories, except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The poll panel said that in these three places, the exercise will be conducted later on account of the ongoing Census and adverse weather.

There are currently 36.7 crore voters in the states and Union Territories covered in the third phase of the exercise. Nearly 59 crore electors have been covered in the first two phases.

During the first two phases, concerns were raised by opposition parties and activists that such a revision process could arbitrarily disenfranchise several voters. Read on.

The Congress picked VD Satheesan as the next chief minister of Kerala, 10 days after the Assembly election results were announced on May 4. The Congress-led United Democratic Front won 102 seats in the 140-member Assembly, defeating the Left Democratic Front after a decade in the opposition.

The race for the chief minister’s post was...