Probably not the ideal way to start a new job.
Just two days after officially being sworn in as the 20th Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation on January 28, 2025, Sean Duffy faced his first crisis, responding to the plane crash at Reagan National Airport, where all 60 passengers and four crew aboard a commercial airline were killed after colliding with an Army helicopter, killing its occupants.
Shortly after being sworn in and arriving at the USDOT headquarters, Secretary Duffy’s first act was to sign a memorandum directing staff to start the process of resetting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which will ultimately lower the price of a car for American consumers and eliminate the electric vehicle mandate.
“I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me by President Trump to lead this important department and for the Senate in swiftly confirming my nomination,” said Duffy. “We are already hard at work executing the President's vision to usher in a golden age of transportation by taking immediate action to remove government overreach and lower costs for hardworking Americans. The memorandum signed today specifically reduces the burdensome and overly restrictive fuel standards that have needlessly driven up the cost of a car in order to push a radical Green New Deal agenda. The American people should not be forced to sacrifice choice and affordability when purchasing a new car.”
The memorandum signed by the Secretary directs the Office of the General Counsel, the Office of the Undersecretary for Policy, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to immediately initiate a rulemaking to rescind or replace all existing CAFE standards.
As a result of the regulatory costs, fuel economy standards have diminished the strength of America’s auto industry and denied Americans the full range of affordable vehicles they need.
Duffy has an interesting backstory.
A former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, Duffy’s résumé includes stints as a lumberjack athlete, reality TV star, prosecutor, and Fox News host.
On television in 1997, Duffy appeared on the MTV program “The Real World: Boston,” and one year later, on the set of MTV’s “Road Rules: All Stars,” he met his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, currently a co-host on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Duffy later worked as a special prosecutor and the district attorney of Ashland County in northern Wisconsin and was elected to Congress in 2010. Some of his success at being elected can be attributed to his commercials that gained him national attention. In it, he chopped wood while wearing a red flannel shirt, telling voters that he came from a “long line of lumberjacks” and promised to bring his axe to Washington.
He served in the House for nearly nine years, as a member of the Financial Services Committee and chair of the subcommittee on insurance and housing.
Duffy voluntarily left Congress in 2019 to spend more time with his growing family and joined Fox News, serving as a co-host on “The Bottom Line” as a pro-Trump supporter. Needless to say, Trump recognized his loyalty in adding him to the new transportation position.
Pete Hegseth, another Fox personality, was named as the new US Secretary of Defense.
Time will tell to see what plans Duffy has in store for the trucking industry.