Sean Duffy Tells His Daughters They Can't Go to Harvard Because the College 'Corrupts Young Girls Minds' 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told his 18-year-old daughter, Paloma, that she cannot attend Harvard University because academics there have "professionalized figuring out how they can take good young girls and corrupt their minds.”

The conversation aired during the Wednesday, August 19, debut of the family's taxpayer-funded reality series, The Great American Road Trip, on YouTube.

The exchange occurred during a family trip to Boston, Mass., when they stopped to tour the campus. When Paloma indicated she would want to attend Harvard if accepted, Sean, a former MTV reality show contestant, explicitly rejected the idea, stating, "Me and Mom can say no.”

Sean stated that sending her there contradicts their family's Catholic values. He alleged that "the Harvards of the world" fail to offer a well-rounded ideological picture.

His wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, supported his stance on camera, claiming Harvard "hates us," questioning why they would give tuition money to an institution that opposes their values.

Paloma defended her desire to attend, arguing that having grown up in an "extremely conservative family" and attended a conservative high school, she would benefit from a more liberal environment and gain a broader, more balanced education.

The clip quickly sparked significant online discussion and political criticism.

“The most amusing thing about this is his shock that his daughter would want to go to Harvard. All those years of being a right-wing moron didn't work in brainwashing his kid. And he realizes this in real time as the cameras roll,” said popular anti-Trump activist Alex Cole.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized the reality series as "brutally out of touch," noting that regular families face pressing economic struggles while a Cabinet member promotes a taxpayer-funded road-trip series.

Critics on social media pointed out that keeping a child away from elite institutions out of fear of ideological corruption indicates a lack of confidence in one's parenting. Others noted the contradiction of his statements given the high-profile Catholics who have historically graduated from Harvard.

Sean attended Saint Mary's University of Minnesota for his undergraduate education and William Mitchell College of Law for his law degree. His wife attended Arizona State University for her undergraduate studies and the University of California, San Diego for graduate school.

The Trump administration has carried out a multi-pronged legislative, financial, and legal campaign against Harvard University, which Harvard has characterized as an "escalating campaign of retaliation."

The administration targeted billions of dollars in federal research money, impacting projects ranging from artificial intelligence to cancer research.

In April 2025, the administration froze more than $2.2 billion in federal grant and contract money. Over 950 expected awards from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense were terminated.

Harvard sued over the cancellations. A federal judge later ordered the administration to reverse the cuts, ruling that the White House had placed unconstitutional conditions on the money and used antisemitism as a "smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault.”

Harvard used $250 million of its own operating reserves to keep affected research projects alive.

The Justice Department also filed a major civil rights lawsuit against Harvard in March, accusing the school of fostering a hostile campus environment and turning a blind eye to antisemitism.

On August 13, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit, ruling that the government failed to show institutional noncompliance with Title VI.

Just days after the dismissal, Justice Department whistleblower disclosures revealed that the administration's investigations into Harvard and fellow Ivy League schools, Brown and Columbia, had "predetermined outcomes.”

Internal documents showed officials targeted Harvard to make it the "first example" before evidence was even gathered.