Sean Duffy, a former reality television star and Fox News host, has leveraged his role as Secretary of Transportation to advance a religious and cultural agenda, transforming a typically low-profile department into a platform for his conservative Christian views.
Critics argue that Duffy has turned mundane transportation matters into opportunities to appeal to his political base. “In Trump 2.0, every place is a place to wage holy war,” said Peter Montgomery, research director at the civil liberties group People for the American Way.
Once known for his time on MTV’s “The Real World,” Duffy is now a devout Catholic with nine children who frequently encourages young men to marry and start large families. Legal experts contend that his activities as secretary represent a significant violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, but Duffy has remained persistent in his mission.
Soon after his appointment, Duffy attempted to link transportation funding to areas with high birth and marriage rates. The policy was widely criticized as unworkable and failed to attract significant media attention, illustrating the difficulty of launching culture war initiatives from the Department of Transportation.
After months of reversing Biden-era procurement requirements and environmental projects, Duffy identified a more effective channel for his agenda: the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York. The USMMA is the only federal service academy overseen by the Department of Transportation rather than the Department of Defense. It has faced calls for its closure as the U.S. merchant marine industry has declined, and its reputation was damaged by sexual assault scandals that threatened its accreditation in 2016. A 2017 congressional hearing noted the academy had the highest rate of sexual assaults among the five service academies.
This relative obscurity made the USMMA a suitable venue for Duffy’s initiatives. In early April, he visited the campus and recorded an official DOT video for Good Friday, in which he discussed “Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins” with a group of male midshipmen in the academy’s chapel.
During this visit, Duffy seized on a controversy surrounding “Christ on the Water,” a large 1944 painting by Hunter Alexander Wood. The artwork depicts Jesus watching over survivors in a lifeboat and originally hung in an administrative building, Wiley Hall, where midshipmen facing disciplinary hearings were made to sit before it.
In early 2023, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), led by founder Mikey Weinstein, received complaints from over a dozen alumni, staff, and midshipmen about the painting’s prominent placement in a public, non-chapel space. Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate and former White House legal counsel, argued that the painting’s location “implies that the Academy officially endorses Christianity over other faiths” and denigrated non-Christian members of the community.
In response to the complaint, the academy’s superintendent, Vice Admiral Joanna M. Nunan, had the painting covered and made plans for its relocation. The decision sparked outrage among conservative lawmakers. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Nunan of being “overtly hostile to religion,” and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) unsuccessfully attempted to add language to a defense bill making it illegal for military personnel to communicate with the MRFF.
In September 2023, the restored painting was rehung in the academy’s chapel. However, Duffy revived the issue during his April visit, telling an audience, “Could we bring Jesus up from the basement?” The remark was met with cheers, and he pledged to restore the painting to its original location in Wiley Hall. Weeks later, Duffy announced via his official government accounts that he had commissioned a replica of the painting to hang in his DOT office.
The move drew praise from conservatives. “Your statement…was more than rhetorical. I trust it will be seen as an imperative,” Cruz wrote in a letter to Duffy. Montgomery noted that championing the painting allowed Duffy “to trash the Biden administration as woke…and it generated a whole lot of fawning coverage.”
Duffy continued to use the academy as a platform for his views. In a June commencement speech, he advised graduates to “always work out,” get married, have children, and “never underestimate the power of prayer.” He stated, “There are two kinds of people in life: those who believe in God and those who think they’re God.”
Caroline Mala Corbin, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law, called the speech “an astonishing violation of the Establishment Clause.” She explained that the First Amendment is designed to protect religious minorities from coercion by a state-sanctioned religion.
During a contentious July hearing, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) questioned Duffy about his pledge to move the painting. “You don’t think the Establishment Clause prohibits favoring a single religion over all others?” Huffman asked. Duffy responded, “I would just note that we have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, said Duffy’s actions are part of a “standard playbook among MAGA influencers to throw a little God into the mix if you want to make the base happy.”
Duffy has also used his office to impose English-only requirements on truckers and ban rainbow crosswalks. In September, he released an official DOT video of himself praying with “Christian men dedicated to country” in the USMMA football team’s locker room before a game.
This prompted a sharp rebuke from Weinstein, who wrote that academy members who are “neither Christians nor male…are furious.” Duffy later issued an official DOT press release and a YouTube video titled “Jesus Has Risen at the Merchant Marine Academy!” to celebrate the painting’s “restoration.”
Civil liberties organizations have condemned Duffy’s use of federal resources. “The Department of Transportation’s duty is to serve the public—not to proselytize,” said Rachel Laser, CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Weinstein compared Duffy’s actions to “a stray dog urinating on a neighborhood tree to mark its territory,” adding that the secretary was branding the academy as “conquered Christian nationalist territory.”
Legal experts warn that the promotion of Christian nationalism within the military is a serious concern. “Military officers are trained to resist unconstitutional orders,” explained Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University. “If you can have the troops believing they are fighting the cause of God and Christianity, you can get them to do things they might not do otherwise.”
Legal challenges, however, face significant hurdles, as recent Supreme Court rulings have made it more difficult to bring lawsuits over Establishment Clause violations. Weinstein noted that finding a midshipman willing to serve as a plaintiff is extremely difficult due to the personal and professional risks involved. In the interim, he has urged parents to avoid what he now calls the “unconstitutional, fundamentalist Christian nationalist filth-saturated institution that the US Merchant Marine Academy has tragically devolved into.” The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
