Trump Staffer Sean Duffy's Racy Reality TV Past Is Coming Back To Haunt Him

Amid growing concerns over airline safety, President Trump's pick for Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Before his political career, Duffy was a cast member on MTV's "The Real World: Boston" in 1997 (via New York Times). Now, a resurfaced clip from the show is going viral, and it's a far cry from the buttoned-up image expected of a cabinet nominee. The footage shows a young Duffy performing an awkward strip tease for the cast. He can be seen dancing in his underwear, pressing himself against a window, and tugging at the curtains. It's truly reality TV at its most cringe-worthy.

This isn't the first time Duffy's reality TV past has come back to haunt him. During his 2010 congressional campaign, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate criticized him as "a candidate who is probably best known for getting drunk and having sex on television." Despite the criticism, Duffy won his election and served in Congress until 2019. He later became a Fox Business host before being tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Transportation. However, with mounting concerns over airline safety, Duffy's past antics are the least of his worries.

Sean Duffy was low on the list of Donald Trump's most scandalous cabinet picks. Unfortunately for him, disaster struck just hours after he was sworn in as Transportation Secretary (via CNN). On January 29, 2025, a devastating collision occurred between a commercial airplane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. The tragedy claimed 67 lives and ended a 16-year run with no fatal commercial airline crashes in the United States (via CNN). It has exposed deep-rooted issues in the aviation industry, including shortages of air traffic controllers and increasingly congested airspace in Washington, D.C.

In his first major test, Duffy addressed the crisis head-on. "Everyone who flies in American skies expects to arrive safely at their destination. That didn't happen last night, and [...] we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public," he said in a statement. A few days later, on February 2, 2025, he appeared on "Fox News Sunday" to reassure Americans while shifting blame to the previous administration (via Fox News). "We have the safest skies in the world. Traveling by air is the safest mode of transportation," he insisted before criticizing the Biden administration's DEI hiring policies. "You can't focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion when hiring air traffic controllers. You focus on the best and brightest," he told host Shannon Bream (who has overcome her fair share of tragedies).

With investigations now underway, Duffy faces mounting pressure to prove that air travel is as safe as he claims. Whether he can restore confidence or if his policies will expose deeper issues remains to be seen.