Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is using the government shutdown to wage a full-blown messaging campaign, turning airports into his stage, TV cameras into allies, and his media instincts into a showcase of political theater.
Tuesday marked the first day that air traffic controllers missed a full paycheck since the government shutdown began, a milestone Duffy used to spotlight the toll of the funding lapse. At LaGuardia Airport, he stood beside several unpaid controllers and said he wanted the public “to see a few of the men and women who aren’t getting paid today, the men and women who work in our towers to make sure flights are on time and safe.”
The former congressman, reality TV personality, and Fox News host has spent much of October traveling to airports to highlight the shutdown’s impact, appearing at Philadelphia International Airport on Friday, Cleveland Hopkins International on Sunday, and BWI Marshall earlier this month. With cameras rolling and air traffic controllers by his side, Duffy has positioned himself as one of the administration’s most visible faces of the standoff.
For most Americans, air travel is one of the few tangible ways a government shutdown shows up in daily life, and Duffy, unlike many of his Cabinet predecessors, has seized on that visibility. The transportation secretary is typically a low-profile figure, but Duffy has turned his department into a megaphone, linking airport delays and missed paychecks directly to Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill.
“This is really easy, open up the government. Let my staff come back in, let controllers get paid, and let’s do the work,” Duffy said. “Don’t hold our skies hostage.”
Scattered flight delays have rippled across the country for weeks, with Duffy previously calculating that staffing shortages in control towers are responsible for roughly half of them. Over the weekend, tracking site FlightAware recorded more than 5,000 U.S. delays on both Saturday and Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages as a major factor and reported new slowdowns Tuesday in Texas and New Jersey. However, the percentage of flights departing on time at major U.S. airports so far this month remains on par with September levels, according to Bloomberg data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Duffy told reporters that roughly 44 percent of flight delays on Sunday and about 24 percent on Monday were caused by controller staffing shortages, compared with an average of around 5 percent so far this year. He said the strain on staffing is also disrupting FAA training and recruitment. Some funds used for trainee stipends are “about to run out,” he said, warning that new hires could drop out of the pipeline if the shutdown continues.
He told reporters one controller had to tell his nine-year-old daughter she couldn’t join a traveling volleyball team because the family had to save money. “That’s the reality for these folks,” Duffy said. “Almost every controller can’t make it two paychecks.”
Union officials at his side said controllers received no pay on Tuesday and are struggling to cover basic expenses, a strain they warned could compromise focus and safety as the shutdown drags on.
Duffy’s airport tour is just one piece of a broader blitz. Since the shutdown began, he has appeared repeatedly on Fox News and other outlets, including local affiliates and radio programs, to drive home the same themes: unpaid controllers, growing travel disruptions, and Democratic obstruction.
The approach reflects his media roots. Before joining Congress, Duffy rose to national fame as a cast member on MTV’s The Real World: Boston and later served as a commentator and weekend host on Fox News. A one-time prosecutor and six-term Republican congressman from Wisconsin, he’s now translating that on-camera comfort into a daily campaign to make himself one of the administration’s most visible messengers.
For a Cabinet job that is traditionally bureaucratic and far removed from the political spotlight, the transformation has been striking.
“There’s no question that Duffy’s media savviness has allowed him to successfully transform his secretaryship, which historically was apolitical and hardly out on the front lines, into something that is on the front lines of the daily back-and-forth,” said Dennis Lennox, a Republican strategist.
Lennox noted that while Duffy has succeeded in driving the narrative, there are limits to how much leverage he can gain if the shutdown doesn’t escalate.
“So far, there haven’t been large-scale delays or cancellations across multiple airports because of air traffic controllers or TSA workers,” he noted. “We also haven’t seen cancellations or service pauses in routes covered by Essential Air Service subsidies. So unless something changes on those fronts, it’s hard to see what he can actually do to move the needle with a few Democrat senators.”
He pointed to a post Duffy shared Tuesday on X, contrasting unpaid controllers with “Democrats in Congress who are shutting down our government to fight for illegal immigrant healthcare,” and described the messaging as “incredible.”
Chris Pack, a longtime GOP strategist and former NRCC official, said Duffy’s media instincts have turned a bureaucratic role into a political microphone.
“If Chuck Schumer can use his podium to blame Republicans for a shutdown that Democrats have caused, then Secretary Duffy is right to highlight the real-world consequences of their actions,” Pack said. “By connecting the dots between Democrats’ shutdown stunt over their obsession with giving free healthcare to illegal immigrants and the travel delays Americans are now facing, Duffy is showing just how extreme Democrats have become.”
Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Duffy of exploiting the crisis for his own visibility.
“This isn’t about air traffic controllers, it’s about Sean Duffy keeping himself on camera,” said a Democratic transportation aide on Capitol Hill, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Instead of helping negotiate an end to the shutdown, he’s staging press conferences at airports to score political points.”
Duffy’s high-profile airport swing also comes as he seeks to reassert himself following reports of internal wrangling over who will lead NASA. According to news reports, Duffy, who has been doing double duty as the agency’s acting administrator since July, has drawn scrutiny from some aides for going directly to the president with his views on the selection process.
The debate has resurfaced as the push to name a permanent NASA chief has intensified in recent weeks. One contender, billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who was previously nominated for the post before President Trump withdrew his support, has re-emerged as a candidate. Duffy interviewed Isaacman on Oct. 13 as part of that process, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Liz Huston, a White House assistant press secretary, defended Duffy in a statement, calling him “a trusted, valued and loyal member of the President’s team.” She said Duffy is modernizing the nation’s infrastructure and “standing up for air traffic controllers” who aren’t getting paid because of what the White House described as the Democrats’ “radical shutdown.” Huston added that instead of “holding the American people hostage,” Democrats should reopen the government and end the chaos.
A NASA spokesperson also pushed back on reports of internal friction, saying Duffy “is grateful that the President gave him the chance to lead NASA.” The spokesperson added that, at the president’s direction, Duffy has “focused the agency on one clear goal — making sure America gets back to the Moon before China.”
Speaking to the Washington Examiner, the spokesperson also said Duffy had floated the idea that “NASA might benefit from being part of the Cabinet, maybe even within the Department of Transportation,” but emphasized that “he’s never said he wants to keep the job himself.”
“The President asked him to talk with potential candidates for Administrator, and he’s been happy to help by vetting people and giving his honest feedback,” the spokesperson continued. “The bottom line is that Secretary Duffy is here to serve the President, and he will support whomever the President nominates.”
Few Cabinet officials have capitalized on the shutdown’s visibility quite like Duffy, who has turned his department into a platform for both policy and politics.
He was sworn in just four hours before the deadly midair collision near Washington’s Reagan National Airport in January, a crisis that thrust him into the national eye from day one. Since then, he has sought to redefine the department’s reach, unveiling emergency rules last month tightening how commercial driver’s licenses are issued as part of a broader push to modernize federal regulations.
The same instincts driving that overhaul are now on display in his airport tour: a transportation secretary turning one of Washington’s quietest agencies into a national stage.
“We have the safest airspace in the world, not because of the antiquated equipment that we have, but because we have the best air traffic controllers, the best trained, the smartest people in our airspace,” Duffy said Tuesday. “That kind of dedication and expertise deserves a paycheck.”