Vintage reality TV enthusiasts the world around shared a moment of horrified recognition Monday when president-elect Donald Trump announced that The Real World: Boston cast member Sean Duffy—who made his mark on the show by comparing the season’s one Black female cast member to Hitler and accusing her of reverse racism—as his latest Cabinet nominee. If confirmed by the Senate, Duffy will lead the Transportation Department. Vroom vroom, beep beep!
Yes, Duffy, like Trump before him, has a storied career in reality television. He appeared on the sixth season of the iconic MTV franchise circa 1997, where the 25-year-old Duffy clashed frequently with castmate Kameelah Phillips, who, in a so-good-it-should-be-scripted touch, is now an OB-GYN who endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
His crowning yowza! moment on the show was a conversation outside a bar, where he claimed that another castmember had told him that Phillips “still had that whole point of view of the Black and white issue: The Blacks are the king and queen of society.”
“She wants to have that racism right now, that same mentality for the Black people against white people now in 1997,” he claimed, before adding, “That’s what Hitler thought.”
(Don’t get this confused with another Trump ally and reality TV contestant, Dancing With the Stars‘ Sean Spicer, who also made a Hitler comment so cringeworthy it could overpower even the most robust Botox.)
For her part, Phillips can be seen talking on the phone in the episode, lamenting her role as racial guru in the house: “I’m tired of being everybody’s teacher, you know what I mean?”
During the season, Duffy also distinguished himself by sleeping through a summit where then-President Bill Clinton spoke without explanation, and for taking a road trip to Maine pick up a log so he could teach children in an after-school program where he and his castmates volunteered about his true passion of logrolling.
Since his stint of stopping being polite and starting to get real, Duffy has had quite a journey: In 1998, he competed on the inaugural season of Road Rules: All Stars, where he met The Real World: San Francisco alum now known as Rachel Campos-Duffy. Does that name sound familiar? If it does, that’s because Campos-Duffy is a Fox & Friends co-host who shares the desk with fellow Trump cabinet nominee Pete Hegseth, who will have to defend himself against allegations of sexual misconduct on the road to confirmation to lead the Department of Defense. Who doesn’t love a cast reunion in the Situation Room? Memories!
Duffy took yet another turn on the MTV reality merry-go-round, appearing in 2002’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons, which is perhaps where his qualifications for Secretary of Transportation begin: He and his partner won a challenge on the show by completing a puzzle with cars. He won another that involved riding horses, which, sure, let’s count that as one in the transpo column too.
Having sopped up the wisdom that he could from the Real World Extended Universe (and a wife, eventually), Duffy then decided it was time to conquer politics. In 2002, he was appointed District Attorney of Wisconsin’s Ashland County, a role he held until 2010, when he won a seat in the House of Representatives, where he served until his resignation in September 2019. He resigned after learning that his ninth child with Campos would be born with a heart defect, and said that he needed more time to care for her. The baby was born a month early, and was also diagnosed with Down syndrome.
Campos-Duffy isn’t the only Fox in the Duffy den: Duffy has co-hosted Fox Business’s The Bottom Line since January 2023.
