This time, it’s Fox Business cohost and former Wisconsin Congressman, Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation. He’s also the husband of Fox & Friends Weekend cohost Rachel Campos-Duffy.
We can chalk up Duffy as yet another completely unqualified cabinet pick by Donald Trump. Besides his reality TV show and Fox News experience, CNN describes his nearly nine years as a Congressman from Wisconsin as follows:
Duffy, who served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and on the House Committee on Financial Services during his time in Congress, has little to no experience in the transportation field.
Trump pretended he picked Duffy for his expertise:
Trump said Duffy would use his experience and relationships built over the years in Congress “to maintain and rebuild our Nation’s Infrastructure, and fulfill our Mission of ushering in The Golden Age of Travel, focusing on Safety, Efficiency, and Innovation. Importantly, he will greatly elevate the Travel Experience for all Americans!”
Nothing in Duffy’s background suggests he’s capable of doing any of that, much less excelling at it.
More from CNN:
The new leader of the department will face a number of safety-related issues regarding aviation, including plane manufacturer Boeing’s string of quality control and manufacturing issues. There are also airline labor union strike threats and climate-focused initiatives like electric vehicles and charging stations that are likely to be on his desk in the coming years.
But we know the real reason Trump picked Duffy is because he’s yet another toady and TV personality Trump likes watching on his favorite network. It has nothing to do with helping Americans or improving their lives.
There is one person Duffy will likely help a lot: billionaire Elon Musk and his already-overstuffed wallet.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would oversee projects that involve companies run by Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who has been tapped by the president-elect to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s companies have billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government across a number of agencies, including the Department of Transportation.
Brian picked out some Duffy lowlights that we wrote about on NewsHounds: That time he “quipped” that instead of a vasectomy, “just lop the whole thing off and become trans.” Also, that time he suggested that First Lady Jill Biden wanted third or fourth graders to be allowed to read Penthouse or Hustler or Playboy in school.
Media Matters’ Matt Gertz discussed the revolving door between Fox and a second Trump administration on WNYC's On the Media show:
BROOKE GLADSTONE (HOST): You have observed that the more often you go on Fox News, the more likely you are to clinch one of these top jobs in the Trump administration. One Fox frequent flyer was Congressman Matt Gaetz, just nominated attorney general.
GERTZ: We have counted at least 347 weekday Fox appearances that Gaetz did from August 2017 through Election Day of 2024. He's actually not the most frequent Fox guest to be taking a jump to the administration though. His Florida colleague, Rep. Michael Walz, who is Trump's pick for national security adviser, actually made at least 569 weekday Fox appearances, 176 since January 2023, which is the most of any member of Congress in that period.
You can listen to the whole discussion below, via Media Matters. It was recorded on November 15, 2024. That was before Trump picked Duffy for a cabinet spot. But that only further validates the point.
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(Duffy photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
