Yikes: Sean Duffy’s Road Trip Funded By Companies He Regulates ($100K-$1M?)

There’s nothing to see here, folks, just Boeing possibly giving a million bucks to someone encouraging people to drive around the country, who also happens to be the regulator overseeing the certification of new aircraft.

The economics & pitch deck of Sean Duffy’s road trip

Several days ago, I covered how United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched the “Great American Road Trip” series, whereby he and his family went on a road trip over the course of parts of seven months.

This is intended to be in celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday, and the concept behind this was “to love America is to see America.” Duffy also made this political, suggesting that “for decades our kids have been told they should be ashamed of our country & founders,” and he suggests the road trip is intended to “push back on those Marxist narratives.”

Some people are criticizing Duffy for taking the time for this road trip while in office. Personally, I don’t necessarily have an issue with that, since it’s not like he was filming this nonstop. However, what I do have an issue with is how this is being funded. Duffy is proudly exclaiming that no taxpayer dollars were used for this, and that it was funded through donations.

Well, those donations are largely coming from companies that Duffy is responsible for regulating, ranging from Boeing, to Toyota, to United Airlines.

So, what exactly was the pitch here, and how much are these companies paying? Politico’s Daniel Lippman has some interesting insights:

• There’s the pitch deck for sponsors, with four different partner levels — $1 million, $500K, $250K, or $100K — and each tier comes with different levels of recognition and networking opportunities (it’s not clear if those were the prices that ended up being paid)
• Then there’s the strategy overview, which hints at an initially broader vision for the series, including that it would have 10 episodes, and would have a major streaming partner; this also reveals the target audience, which includes “married moms (ages 28–54) with children,” “empty Nesters (aged 50-70), married with grown children and/or grandchildren,” and “patriotic Singles & Couples (ages 25–45) who are travel enthusiasts”

It’s all a fascinating read, so I’d highly recommend taking a look at those two documents, if you’re interested.

It’s also worth pointing out that the person running the non-profit that’s behind this show was previously a lobbyist for the US Travel Association, and before that, worked in government relations at General Motors.

Does anyone NOT see a conflict of interest here?

I know stuff is highly politically polarized. For some people, Trump can do no right, while for other people, Trump can do no wrong.

But let’s step back for a moment, and remove the individuals. If you’d like, pretend it was actually previous Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg doing this. Does anyone not think there’s a major conflict of interest when the person responsible for regulating the travel and transportation industry is seeking to fund a show that he’s the star of by accepting donations from the companies he’s supposed to oversee?

Literally what’s being pitched in exchange for a million bucks is “up to 6 VIP invitations to receptions, roundtables, or networking events.” Nice, spend enough money, and you get to “network” with the regulators!

The most concerning example here is Boeing:

• Why is Boeing sponsoring a series about a road trip?
• Boeing doesn’t even sell products directly to consumers

So it makes you wonder, does Boeing want to be one of the biggest sponsors because it thinks it’s good publicity, or because its entire business trajectory is based around getting aircraft certified by regulators, including the 777-9 and 737 MAX 10?

Seriously, does anyone not take issue with that? All of the sponsors in the transportation industry bother me, but Boeing as one of the primary sponsors, especially when the cozy relationship between the government and Boeing contributed to two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes several years back, really rubs me the wrong way.

Bottom line

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is proudly exclaiming how his “Great American Road Trip” isn’t funded by taxpayers. Instead, it’s funded largely by the companies he’s supposed to regulate, including Boeing. Yes, that Boeing, the one that had the two fatal 737 MAX crashes, which were largely blamed on there being too cozy of a relationship between regulators and the aircraft manufacturer.

Nothing to see here, folks…