I’m not even really sure what to say about this? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction…
Trump wants to “Make Travel Family Friendly Again”
On Monday, December 8, 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference at Washington National Airport (DCA). The idea was to announce $1 billion in funding to support initiatives to “Make Travel Family Friendly Again.” As it’s described:
The goal of the campaign is to address a common refrain from the public – it can be challenging to travel as a family. From needing more dedicated spaces for young children and exercise equipment, to finding places for mothers to nurse their children, to staying fit on the go, or struggling to find more healthy food options, the Trump Administration is committed to making every stage of the travel journey more seamless.
To improve the experiences of families in airport terminals, $1 billion in funding will be used to incentivize more family friendly resources in airport terminals, including:
- Creating more children’s play areas or exercise areas
- Adding mothers’ rooms or nursing pods
- Reconfiguring security checkpoints to create family screening lanes
- Building sensory rooms for children with special needs
- Other creative terminal projects that focus on enhancing the family travel journey
Plans were also announced to collaborate with airports and private sector partners to improve access to nutritional food options at airports. Here’s how Secretary Duffy described this:
“Bringing about a Golden Age in travel has to involve making the family travel experience happier and healthier. Today’s announcement demonstrates the Trump Administration’s commitment to enacting a Family First agenda and improving the lives of the American people.”
Secretary Kennedy also had a variety of comments, including:
“There’s three million Americans a day who go through airports and it’s not a healthy experience for them.”
“Over the past 30 years, I have flown probably an average 250 days a year, and I can tell you that this is where healthy diets go to die.”
“The food that’s available in the airport… a lot of it tastes very good, but it’s not very good for you.”
“It’s deep fried food, it’s sugar bombs, it’s ultra processed foods, and all of them are going to leave you sicker than before you ate them.”
Secretary Duffy and Secretary Kennedy also did pull-ups in the terminal, as one does…
Also at the press conference was health influencer Paul Saladino, who proposed installing mini-gyms at airports, saying “these would be a massive step in the right direction, and it’s such a huge thing that we could do for Americans,” and that “anyone I’ve talked to about the idea has just been — they smile, they get excited.”
This just strikes me as a bizarre and misplaced priority
Remember in May 2025, how Secretary Duffy announced plans to overhaul and modernize our air traffic control system? Whatever happened to that? Because if you ask me, that’s the single thing that could be done to “Make Travel Family Friendly Again,” so that people aren’t stuck on planes and at airports longer than they need to be, due to our outdated air traffic control infrastructure.
Look, I recently gave Duffy credit for him encouraging travelers to be polite and show manners. There’s not much substance to that, but I do like the general vibe of “treat others with respect.”
But I’m sorry, pushing for health food at airports? This is just getting comical. There’s no denying we have a general health crisis in this country, but that’s not because of what people are eating at airports. Like, I don’t think airport food is any less healthy than the food you’ll just find out there in general at concessions. Most places are selling food that isn’t healthy, because that’s what people want.
I’ll take it a step further — airports actually have a fair number of grab & go salads and sandwiches that can be healthy, but the issue is that those aren’t the first things that most people grab.
If anything, the biggest issue with healthy food at airports is how expensive it often is. A couple of years ago I wrote about how we purchased a small 2.5 ounce bag of beef jerky at Miami Airport (at least a high protein and filling snack), and it cost over $20.
Airports are a place where many people get stressed, and that’s especially true for families. I can assure you that most parents of little kids just want their kids to eat anything so that they don’t get cranky and “hangry.” It’s not really the place to try to argue with them over eating a salad, in my opinion.
Bottom line
The Trump administration wants to make airports better for families, and that supposedly includes finding ways to offer more healthy food at airports. If you ask me, the issue isn’t the lack of healthy options at airports. The issue is that this isn’t what most people want, and even for those who do, it’s often quite expensive.
Can we get back to that air traffic control modernization idea, please, because I think that’s what would make the biggest difference for families?
What do you make of this push for health foods at airports?