President Donald Trump gestures as he attends UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., June 15, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
On Wednesday, a statement by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy prompted a prominent retired military prosecutor to reveal his unvarnished thoughts about what he called the “vulgar” “MAGA cult.”
This criticism flared after Duffy spoke at the National Mall as part of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations, from which a slew of musical performers had quit over the hyper-partisan nature of the event. After the likes of Martina McBride, Flo Rida, the Commodores, and several other acts dropped out, a military brass band replaced them. Following the band’s performance, Duffy took to the stage accompanied by his family and declared the band was “way better than those libtards that cancelled on us.”
Duffy’s statement has drawn broad condemnation, including from retired Air Force colonel and Guantanamo Bay military prosecutor Moe Davis, who posted, “Secretary Duffy’s youngest daughter Valentina has Downs Syndrome, yet he’s perfectly comfortable standing there and throwing out ‘libtard,’ a MAGA word used to degrade people, at a public event on the National Mall because that’s how debased, immoral, and vulgar the MAGA cult is.”
Davis wasn’t the only one disturbed by the remark, as social media lit up with responses slamming Duffy’s words. As CNN senior political reporter Aaron Blake put it, “In one sentence, Duffy both complains about the musical acts who canceled and completely legitimizes their stated reason for doing so.”
Conservative commentators, however, felt differently. The far-right outlet the Blaze, for example, reposted a clip of Duffy’s statement along with a laughing emoji, while a slew of pro-President Donald Trump bot accounts reshared the footage with positive statements. For his part, Duffy posted another clip of his family onstage during the event, asserting, “FIND LOVE, GET MARRIED, HAVE KIDS.”
Many viewers were not swayed by his appeals to family. Duffy “just called democrats ‘libtards’ in front of his Down Syndrom daughter,” noted one. "’Christian’ Republicans are all Godless frauds.”
This isn’t the first time Duffy’s actions have prompted criticism. As Moe David noted, Duffy “spent a lot of his official time on the public payroll driving around the country filming a documentary that was funded by many of the corporations he’s supposed to regulate.”
This is in reference to a recent road trip documentary series the Transportation Secretary filmed with his wife. The couple first entered the public eye as reality television stars in the 1990s, appearing on separate shows before meeting during the filming of Road Rules: All Stars in 1998. When it was revealed earlier this year that the couple had been filming a series during Duffy’s tenure in office, allegations were raised of conflict of interest due to the fact that he was in charge of regulating the very companies funding the show.