By Trump administration grifting standards, Sean Duffy's Great American Road Trip, a YouTube series dropping this month, is no big deal. The "reality" show features Duffy and his wife (Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy) and a large sampling of their kids (there are nine of them in total) visiting tourist spots across the country. Its supposed purpose is to get Americans to hop in the car with the kids and explore the US of A to celebrate our 250th anniversary.
Duffy and Campos-Duffy, also a former “Real World” and “Road Rules” cast member, said the program was filmed in “short” production windows like weekends and their childrens’ breaks from school, and that their family would not receive a salary or royalties from the show. (Source: Forbes)
And at NO expense to the taxpayers. Or so they say.
I'd wait until we see some sort of an audit - as if! - but I seem to remember Duffy's boss claiming that he, Trump himself, was picking up the tab for the Big Beautiful Ballroom. Then that generous, patriotic Americans (like Jeff Bezos) who don't want a thing out of Trump - or at least their generous patriotic companies which don't want a thing out of Trump - were paying for it. Until we found out that the cost estimates had grown from $200M to $1B, and that the taxpayers would be footing the bill.
But the claim is that a non-profit is underwriting the show:
The Great American Road Trip says it is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that is “fully funding its own efforts to celebrate and share America’s story.” It lists several major sponsors, including Boeing, Toyota, Shell, Royal Caribbean, United Airlines, Google and Enterprise, but it is unclear how much money these companies have contributed and if those funds were used for the reality show.
Well, it's not like Boeing, Toyota, Shell, Royal Caribbean, United Airlines, or Enterprise would want anything out of the Department of Transportation. Or that Google doesn't have any interest in what the Federal government does. So even if their contributions are funding the show, it's not as if these generous, patriotic corporations would expect any tit for tat for their organizations. Geez Louise, some folks are so cynical! If nothing else, the Trump Administration has always acted in an ethical, honest, transparent, and above board manner. (/s)
And what's this about encouraging families to "gas up" and hit the road? I suppose since he's not exactly filling up the old station wagon out of his own pocket, Sean Duffy isn't all that aware about sticker shock at the pump.
Anyway, I watched part of the trailer and I have to say that the idea of a roadtrip does sound like fun.
The Duffy family got to go fun places and do fun things, including a stop at the former firehouse in my neighborhood that was where Real World: Boston, which Duffy appeared in, was filmed. (This is more famously the place where Spenser lived in the 1980's series Spenser for Hire. And it's where I vote. Just not for Trump, Duffy, and their ilk.) Sorry I missed them when they were in my hood.
But I do kinda-sorta envy someone taking a road trip, even if the Duffy family's was done sporadically and doesn't quite fit my definition of a road trip, which doesn't include flying someplace for a weekend and pretending you drove there.
I'd love to go on a road trip. At least in theory. I'd probably get sick of all those hours in the car, the sketchy restrooms, the worn out motels, the boring diner food. And anyway, I don't need to put taking a road trip on my non-existent bucket list, as way back in the way back, I actually did go on one.
Late summer/early autumn of 1972, my college roommate and I - out of school with nothing in particular lined up to do - saw the USA. Not in a Chevrolet, as the ubiquitous ads of our childhood promoted, but in Joyce's Karmann Ghia.
We took the Northern route cross-country, the Southern route back.
On the first day, we drove through NY State during a near-tropical rainstorm. Destination: Niagara Falls, which we took in from both the US and Canadian sides. (On our way back into the country, US Customs tossed our car, removing every item from our carefully packed trunk looking for illicit drugs. Wrong girls! We were way, way, way, too cautious for that nonsense.)
Our next stop was Chicago, where we visited my grandmother and other family members. My cousin Ellen, who's the same age as Joyce and I, was very pregnant with Kate, her first child. Here was Ellen: all grown up, married, and having a baby, while Joyce and I were sporting around the country in a Karmann Ghia.
Chicago was the last time we had a roof over our heads for a while, as we spent most of our nights on the road in state, federal, or KOA campgrounds, with an occasional splurge for a hotel (as when we stopped in Las Vegas).
It was a fabulous, and fabulously memorable, trip.
We stayed in many of our breathtakingly-beautiful national parks. Even the ludicrous faces on Mount Rushmore were in the breathtakingly-beautiful Black Hills.
It was fun playing tourist, taking in the natural beauty of our vast and varied country while also enjoying the roadside attractions (e.g., Wall Drug in SD) and the wonders of the cities. (You try driving a manual shift car in San Francisco. I dare you.)
A full recounting of our road trip will have to wait for another day. So many highlights. Camping in Sequoia National Park when a mother black bear and her cubs decide to explore our campsite and nose around the well of our tent. (We spent the night sleeping inthe car, no small feat in a tiny Karmann Ghia.) The wonders f the San Diego Zoo. The squalor of Tijuana. (We crossed on foot. The one and only time I've set foot in Mexico.)
When we were driving into New Orleans - where we ate Oysters Rockefeller and Pompano en Papillote at Antoine's, another trip splurge - Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans was blasting on the radio. How was that for timing?
So I absolutely understand why folks might want to heed Sean Duffy's call to get on the road.
It's just that, giving everything that's going on, the timing's a bit off.
And so is narcissistically using your family to showcase our complex, beautiful, and interesting country. Not to mention doing so at on behalf of the corporations you're supposed to be regulating.
As I said, by Trump standards, the grift is quite tiny.
Still, when it comes to personally benefiting whenever and by whatever means are available, there's just no stopping this gang, is there?
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