Public Citizen Calls out Toyota’s Shady Sponsorship of Sean Duffy Reality Show; Launches Five-Figure Ad Buy on Company’s MAGA Problem
New campaign, “Toyota Goes Full MAGA, Veering Right Off the Road,” launches as Toyota faces mounting ethical questions over funding its regulator’s reality TV show
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Public Citizen today announced the launch of a five-figure digital ad buy, “Toyota Goes Full MAGA, Veering Right Off the Road,” calling out Toyota Motor Corp. for its deepening ties to President Trump’s political movement and the company’s sponsorship of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s reality show, The Great American Road Trip.
The trailer for the reality show showcases the Toyota SUV that the Duffy family used over the past seven months for its road trip reality show. It not-so-subtly features a prolonged close-up of the company’s logo.
“Secretary Duffy’s reality show looks like shameless product placement for the companies he is supposed to regulate,” said Adam Zuckerman, senior clean vehicles campaigner with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. “How out of touch can you get? As Americans are facing skyrocketing gas prices thanks to this administration, Secretary Duffy is filming a reality TV show and calling on Americans to take road trips they can no longer afford. That’s in part thanks to Toyota, which instead of leading on solutions like electric vehicles, has worked closely with the Trump administration to kill rules that would make vehicles more efficient and save American families at the pump.”
Not only is the sponsorship of the show reflective of Toyota’s political and partisan opportunism, it may well violate federal ethics laws. Gift and travel restrictions on federal employees explicitly ban gifts from private sources, especially those with business pending before the government. No officer or employee of the executive branch shall solicit or accept anything of value from a person either “seeking official action from, doing business with, or conducting activities regulated by, the individual’s employing entity” or “whose interests may be substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the individual’s official duties.” (5 U.S.C. 7353).
Toyota, as well as several other sponsors of the show, are directly regulated by the Transportation Department in general and Duffy in specific. Earlier reports indicated these companies were paying simply to sponsor the show, but more recent records reveal they may have actually been paying the personal travel expenses of Duffy and his family. I[DS1] f so, that would constitute illegal gifts from Toyota and the other companies to a government official whose fortunes are largely affected by Duffy. Toyota has a history of violating federal laws and regulations.
This scandal builds on Public Citizen’s ongoing criticism of Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda, who in November wore a Make America Great Again hat and Trump-Vance shirt at a NASCAR-themed race in Japan.
The five-figure ad campaign, which features that image and comes just ahead of the company’s June 17 shareholder meeting, will target Toyota consumers and warns that the company’s decision to align itself with Trump officials and MAGA politics is not just reputationally toxic—it may expose the company to significant regulatory risk.
“Toyota shareholders should be asking a very simple question: why is Toyota hitching its brand to a toxic administration and a potential ethics scandal?” said Zuckerman. “[DS2] Now, by sponsoring a reality show featuring the sitting Transportation Secretary who is supposed to regulate Toyota, the company is veering from bad politics into serious ethical concerns.”
Toyota’s alignment with the administration comes as the company continues to lag behind competitors in the transition to electric vehicles and oppose stronger clean car standards.
“Toyota is making the same mistake other politically entangled companies have made: assuming customers and investors will ignore the risk of embracing a polarizing administration,” said Zuckerman. “They will not. Seventy-five percent of polled Republicans and 90% of polled Democrats who own Toyotas said that the company should support stronger emissions standards—standards that Toyota has worked with Trump to dismantle.”
With a history of increasing awareness of Toyota’s anti-EV record, Public Citizen’s ad campaign will run across digital platforms and direct viewers to materials highlighting Toyota’s support of Trump-aligned officials and policies, emphasizing the risks of the company’s sponsorship of Duffy’s corporate-funded reality show.
# # #