Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) delivered sharp criticism of President Donald Trump‘s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, as the latter released a reality TV show called “The Great American Road Trip” to commemorate the U.S.’s 250th Independence Day.
Total Disgrace
“Sean Duffy is a total disgrace!” Newsom’s Press Office posted on X on Saturday, quoting a post by New York Magazine, which shared the news of Duffy’s reality TV show that was approved by Trump and was filmed over the past seven months.
“Multiple air accidents happened on his watch — and instead of doing his job, he's been busy filming a reality TV show on the taxpayer's dime,” the post said. Notably, there have been multiple flight incidents since Duffy took office, including a fatal incident at New York’s LaGuardia airport when an Air Canada Express jet hit an on-ground support vehicle.
Sean Duffy Defends Show
Following the release of the trailer and the subsequent criticism, Duffy took to X, defending the show. “Production costs were paid for by the Great American Road Trip Inc., not taxpayers. Zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family,” Duffy said.
He also said that neither he nor his family received salaries for the show and that it would be free to watch on YouTube for the public. Duffy also shared that the series was shot in one-to two-day windows, like the weekends/spring break.
“Career ethics and budget officials at the Department of Transportation reviewed and approved both my participation and individual travel in accordance with federal rules,” he said, also defending his role as the Transport Secretary, during which the Department of Transportation began air traffic control modernization and accelerated air traffic controller hiring.
Gavin Newsom Vs Sean Duffy Amid The Iran War
Newsom’s office had earlier slammed Duffy for urging Americans to take road trips as gas prices surged across the U.S. According to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA), the national average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was at $4.522, a slight decline. Californians continue to grapple with the highest gas prices at over $6.154/gallon, the data suggests.
Oil prices, too, surged as the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude broke the $100 mark, trading at $100.2/barrel at the time of writing this article. Brent surged 4.50% to $105.8/barrel at press time. Meanwhile, the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) declined 0.37% to $133.10 during the after-hours trading on Friday.
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