Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and second lady Usha Vance defended the value of larger families on Monday, pushing back against what they see as growing cultural and media hostility toward traditional family life and pro-natalist views.
Duffy, a father of nine, became the subject of a critical New York Times profile on Monday. The piece, “The MTV Reality Star in Trump’s Cabinet Who Wants You to Have More Kids,” portrayed Duffy and his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, as reality-TV-veterans-turned-political-influencers using their large family to promote the Trump administration’s family-first agenda.
“Over three decades, Americans have watched him evolve from a sex-hungry 25-year-old on MTV’s ‘The Real World,’ gyrating with a woman on a pool table, to Secretary Duffy, a devoutly Catholic husband and father at the helm of President Trump’s Transportation Department, pushing young Americans to have families as large as his own,” the profile says.
The article describes Duffy’s efforts to encourage young Americans to have more children, saying they align with the administration’s broader push to combat declining birthrates and revive traditional values.
Duffy fired back on social media Monday, accusing reporter Caroline Kitchener, formerly an abortion correspondent, of ideological bias.
“@CAKitchener is genuinely disturbed that I’m happily married, have nine kids, and—brace yourself—didn’t abort any of them,” Duffy said on X. “Among the hard-hitting questions she harassed my team with: did I consider aborting one of my daughters, what color plaid my siblings and I wore as children, whether I drive a minivan, and bizarre fact-checks on an old reality show. Pulitzer stuff, truly.”
With all the serious issues facing our country, the New York Times decided to dispatch a former abortion correspondent (cosplaying now as a “family” expert) for a hit piece on me and the Trump administration.
NYT reporter @CAKitchener is genuinely disturbed that I’m happily… pic.twitter.com/wrNTMFoK42
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) June 23, 2025
“While they obsess over my beautiful family, I’m working for yours,” Duffy added, citing his department’s focus on modernizing air traffic control, rebuilding infrastructure, and reviving the U.S. Merchant Marine.
Duffy’s daughter, Evita Duffy-Alfonso, also weighed in on X, saying, “The NYT just published a hit piece on my family… But it’s clear she [Kitchener] hates family, given how much the size of ours disturbs her… we’re not a prop, a brand, or some act. We’re a real, loving, faithful, joyful family.”
The article portrayed the Duffy family as a well-manicured symbol of conservative family values, highlighting everything from their pancake breakfasts to their matching Easter outfits to a now-viral phrase from Campos-Duffy: “Making Fertility Great Again.”
On Monday, Vance echoed pro-family sentiments during an interview with Meghan McCain on her podcast. McCain, currently expecting her third child, voiced concerns about having three children, worrying aloud that studies suggest it’s the most stressful number to manage.
Vance, who shares three children with Vice President JD Vance, responded with reassurance and enthusiasm.
“I love having three kids,” she said. “The youngest is so motivated to be like the older two that she’s basically self-sufficient.”
The second lady described the jump from two to three children as surprisingly manageable, even easier than going from one to two. She offered candid advice about raising boys, acknowledging their higher energy levels and slower verbal development compared to girls.
“Yes, running our middle child like a racehorse is definitely a thing,” she joked, adding that she and her husband would often plan life in 15-minute intervals to manage their son’s energy.
She acknowledged the challenges of raising boys, but emphasized that having three children brought unexpected ease and joy.
“Two to three was shockingly the easiest of all,” she said, encouraging McCain and other mothers not to be intimidated.
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The transportation secretary and the second lady’s shared defense of larger families came amid shifting demographic trends and growing concern about declining birthrates.
A Pew Research Center study released last week revealed that U.S. adults in their 20s and 30s plan to have fewer children than a decade ago. In 2012, the average number of children planned by people in this age group was 2.3. By 2023, that number had fallen to just 1.8 — well below the 2.1 children per woman needed for a population to replace itself over time.