By Julia Benbrook, CNN
(CNN) — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s new reality show, filmed with his family over the last seven months, has sparked criticism amid high gas prices, in addition to raising ethics questions.
Duffy said that costs for the five-part series titled “The Great American Road Trip,” which will air for free on YouTube ahead of America’s 250th birthday, were paid for by a nonprofit, the Great American Road Trip Inc., and that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family.” He said his family did not receive a salary or production royalties.
The project’s sponsors, according to its website, include Boeing, Shell, Toyota, United Airlines and Royal Caribbean — all companies that intersect with the Department of Transportation.
“As everyday Americans struggle with the price of gas and raise concerns about airline safety, the Secretary announces that he spent work time going on a road trip that appears to have been funded by the very industries his agency oversees,” Donald K. Sherman, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement.
This show brings Duffy and his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, back to their entertainment roots. The pair, who have nine children together, met while filming the MTV reality show “Road Rules: All Stars.”
“To love America is to see America,” Duffy says in the trailer that released Friday.
“It’s one of the most powerful ways to understand the vast, beautiful, complicated place we call home,” he says over video of destinations spanning from sweeping fields to bustling cities.
The Duffy family said they filmed the show one to two days at a time over the course of seven months. Trip activities included running up the Rocky Steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, snowmobiling in Montana, and a stop at “The Real World: Boston” house where Duffy first gained reality television fame.
Duffy and his family embarked on the journey with a kickoff from President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
“Taking a little trip? A little trip all over?” Trump says to the Duffys in the trailer.
Campos-Duffy, a co-host on “Fox and Friends Weekend,” says in the trailer that “‘The Great American Road Trip’ will inspire families to step away from the noise, hit the open road and reconnect with what matters most.”
The trailer’s release has sparked criticism, however, coming at a time when it is less feasible for many Americans to embark on road trips or other travel.
The US-Iran war has raised the price of gas, which hit $4.55 a gallon Friday, worsening affordability issues. More than two months into the war, consumer sentiment has declined, and some Americans have cut back on essentials and spending for trips, as CNN has reported.
Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating for handling the economy recently fell to a career low of 31%, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS last month, reflecting pessimism among Americans over the issue they consistently describe as the most important.
“Secretary Duffy has already taken action to make cars” affordable and to support the president’s “energy dominance agenda,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson said in a statement.
Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary under President Joe Biden, called Duffy’s new series