Health and Human Services Secretary RFK, Jr. and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got together at DC’s National Airport to complain about airport food. Just a couple of weeks ago Duffy wanted airlines to stop serving cookies and pretzels and now he’s moved on to airports.
RFK Jr. and Secretary Sean Duffy want to overhaul airport food because millions of travelers are being fed junk every day.
“There’s 3 million Americans a day who go through airports and it’s not a healthy experience for them.”
“Over the past 30 years, I have flown probably an… pic.twitter.com/AyQmzJYhjj
— MAHA Action (@MAHA_Action) December 8, 2025
And then they had a pull up competition.
Pull-up competition between Secretaries Kennedy and Duffy. pic.twitter.com/V2QpqDgvLo
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 8, 2025
If you believe Olivia Nuzzi, RFK, Jr.’s pull ups here are probably Pharma-fueled. Sean Duffy’s daughter went ahead and smokes her dad’s performance.
NOW: Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy just had his daughter Paloma hit pull-ups at Reagan International Airport
"You're swinging, only dad can swing!"
This is incredible exercise awareness from the Trump administration! pic.twitter.com/3Siqin4KN7
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 8, 2025
I’d point out that Kennedy’s own health practices when traveling are questionable, at best. Flying American Airlines from Portland to Dallas he famously walked down the first class aisle to the lavatory and back barefoot.
DISGUSTING!! What sort of person walks BAREFOOT down a plane aisle — in first class, no less. Even worse, it was on his way to the toilet!
RFK Jr is a really strange dude. pic.twitter.com/tQXdYUtGfz
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) November 13, 2023
He’s also been known to add methylene blue to his drink on American. That’s used as a stain for medical diagnostic procedures, coloring tissues or fluids to make them more visible during lymph node mapping or leak detection.
What is RFK Jr. putting in his drink…?? pic.twitter.com/R9ZXmwmfVC
— American AF (@iAnonPatriot) February 5, 2025
At lower doses, some studies suggest medical benefits – for treating neurodegenerative disorders, psychiatric conditions, and as an “anti-aging” protocol – but those are largely ‘pre-clinical’ to put it… generously. In higher doses, methylene blue can be neurotoxic and may interfere with mitochondrial function. And homeboy is pumping the gas.
The most common side effect of methylene blue is that you’ll pee blue. It can also turn skin blue, and cause headaches and dizziness. When combined with serotonergic medications, such as an SSRI, it can cause excess serotonin which can be life-threatening.
Normally I don’t love politicians scolding the choices people make. Here the problem isn’t the critique, it’s that they don’t understand why airport food is bad in the first place. And since airports are generally government-owned in the U.S. (in contrast to much of the world!) it’s reasonable for government leaders to critique their performance.
An airport restaurant is likely to be bad because:
- Restaurants have to bring everything in through security they can’t do just in time delivery of food. There are limits on when things can be brought in, they can’t generally bring supplies down the concourse at peak travel times. Government is a major constraint here.
- They can’t work with the best vendors There are often rules about which companies can bring food through security. Broaden vendor selection and make it easier to source quality ingredients.
- Space is limited so you can’t do much storage. In fact Tortas Frontera at Chicago O’Hare has a separate prep kitchen that customers can’t see, with ingredients run from that kitchen out to concourse locations. But it’s not easy to store food, and fresh items aren’t ideal unless they have sufficient daily turnover.
- Electric cook tops The airport may not permit gas ovens, so everything has to get re-created using electric.
- Knives chained to the wall Security constrains your chefs, their knives frequently have to be tethered to a wall to prevent being taken (and inventoried every day).
- Employees are hard to get they need to pass security checks, and that takes time, so hiring on the spot is difficult. You often get worse employees that can pass a background check but have few less cumbersome options that don’t involve commuting to the airport. You aren’t going to attract the best chefs.
- Lowest common denominator cooking Passengers usually choose a restaurant because it is there, they do not go to the airport because of the restaurant (Tortas Frontera is an exception which does influence some passengers’ choice of connection). People need to be served quickly, and tastes vary. The space has to be used to serve as many people as possible as quickly as possible, you even see brands that do not serve breakfast out of the airport offering breakfast items (Asian restaurants serving eggs or breakfast tacos). Rents are high so you need high volume as well.
- Despite high cost and hassle you can’t charge more many airports have street pricing rules that cap how much more items can cost in the airport (perhaps exceeding off-airport pricing by no more than 10%).
At the end of the day HMSHost, OTG, and (until a week ago) Delaware North deliver a garbage product to a lot of people. It keeps people fed but there’s little to look forward to. Making concessions great again would start with understanding the constraints they deliver under, as well as the need for quick service to a wide range of customers, while delivering what passengers actually want to eat.
Better yet, move away from the model of giant airports-as-malls that you force passengers to walk through. Return to a model where air travel is about getting somewhere quickly. Limit the need to eat at the airport! Make it possible for people to bring their own food (liquid rules, like peanut butter being a liquid). And make it easier to offer low-cost, non-stop service between smaller aircraft. Electric short takeoff and landing aircraft can’t come quickly enough, and regulators should work to accelerate rather than delay.
Anything RFK Jr. says about health is worth as much as his professional expertise in the field.
Nothing.
@ Gary — Please just ignore all things come from these morons.
yeah it’s a good lecture
“Let them eat Biscoff”
MIA used to have a good local Cuban sit-down restaurant on Concourse D. Alas, it is no more as a fast food chain outbid them. There is nothing but fast food dregs now. I just went through there Saturday and had a horrendously bad $7 empanada. It was baked instead of fried and then left to dwell in a heat cabinet. Even with the restrictions, there are ways to have palatable foods if someone actually desired to try. Of couse, that will never happen.
@Ron Thompson — I recall a decent Cuban restaurant, Ku-Va, around D-20; the Half Moon empanadas aren’t that bad, but, yeah, it’s not ‘fresh’… still, better than the options in Terminal F, which seems to still be as it was since it opened in the 1970s. Yikes.
I disagree- I love airport food where the intersection of time and money means no boundaries. Skyline Chili in CVG at 10am? Perfect! Same for a Cheesesteak and Crab Fries at 7am before flying out on vacation= priceless.
MSP has some great ones too- Farm Fresh and two high end steak places.
And the ‘exclusive’ lounges though? Terrible and over crowded!!! They are now a cattle call where they feed the cattle feed.
Take out all the seats at gates and replace with a WWE smackdown ring so passengers can burn off some energy before boarding. Airline staff can also identify who is likely to cause problems on board. The winners get organ meat and a coconut.
Dear God, Duffy, try to fix the air traffic control problems.
We always seem to end up with losers in the Secretary of Transportation job.
Let’s imagine a world where all food sold at airports and all food served on planes is wonderfully healthy. The effect on the US population in the long (or short)term? Not significantly different from zero. It’s the equivalent of a heavy drinker drinking low alcohol beer one day a year. It’s not eating the cherry on your sundae. People don’t fly enough for this to make a difference. Secy of T, worry about ATC. Secy of HHS, worry about school meal healthiness, food deserts, etc.
I don’t know why you think Tortas Fronteras is that great. I’ve eaten there twice and while it was ok, it wasn’t that extraordinary. I only went there because I read it being touted as the best in a a few places.
At this point, as a former Chicago resident I’d rather find an Italian beef or personal pan deep dish for old times sake. I’m sure RFK Jr wouldn’t approve of those.
Fix the amount of time it takes to clear TSA “security” checkpoints, and better restaurants can be located outside the cordon sanitaire.
Sadly you can have twice the healthy food options, but they will be empty while there’s a long line for chick fil a. I’ll be in that line too. Because splurging during travel days is not the health issue, it is day to day eating and exercise habits.
An obvious PR stunt pairing two of the most useless muppets in the administration in the administration on an actual do-nothing campaign that will probably yield zero results.
A drug addict and a reality TV persona running health and transportation. Only in America is this a reality.
We’ll let kids die of measles, but don’t eat a burger at the airport? Right, RFK, Jr.
@Mantis — Since when are there Chick-fil-a in Asia? (Remember, you said you moved there…) *just looked it up* HOLY MOLY… they’re opening a location in Singapore on December 11, 2025, at Bugis+ (supposedly, there’s going to be a a Singapore-specific sauce…) Welp, Mantis, you’re in luck!
Most bigger airports you do have healthy food options. Like a fruit bowl. But most people are going to eat junk food.
@George Romey — You are quite the ‘fruit bowl,’ sir.
Do not take your health advice from a lawyer whose half a brain was eaten by a worm.
It would be nice to be able to get kosher meals in every airport in the USA (like you can in New York), and without having to pay for club membership. Kudos to Delta who listened to my and other people’s suggestions and started serving kosher meals in their clubs including at DCA.
Somali Air. Everything’s free.
@G19JHP — You joke, but in July 2025, the Somali government officially revived Somali Airlines after 34 years of inactivity… they got two a320s on-order… oof.
@1990:
Hey, thanks for the food reminder in Singapore. No, not the Chick-fil-a, but the location in Bugis. Not my cup of tea. But, about a month ago, my wife gave me the name of restaurant she wants us to go to while in Singapore. A Michelin 1 star called: Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle is the only hawker stall in The Michelin Guide Singapore 2025 to receive a star. (Well, the last time we were in Singapore, two years ago, there was a chicken rice spot, Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, in a hawker stall that previously had a 1 star. If my memory serves, a plate of it set me back about S$ 1.50. Tasted great.
So, we will visit this one, whose specialty is: bak chor mee (minced meat noodles), with the noodle component tossed through black vinegar, chilli paste and other ingredients, a recipe created by Tang Joon Teo. My only concern that this dish will set me back about S$ 8.00 ($6.00), which is bordering on highway robbery.
Here is more info on it from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Street_Tai_Hwa_Pork_Noodle
But a shout out to you to remind me. I will be eating this dish around March 20, 2026. Singapore is a true food lover’s paradise. Even though the chicken rice place lost its 1 star, it is still great.
RFK swims in liquid shit.
Why would anyone listen to him.
Duffy is epitomizing everything he is qualified for right now. Ill let that speak for itself.
@Alan Z — I’m always down for hawkers in Singapore. Yum. Sounds like the most affordable Michelin-starred meal you’ll find! (Even at S$8!) I’ll be routing through SIN early next year as well. Maybe also to Thailand and Cambodia, if they can please kindly stop shooting at each other! Good meals all-around.