Cat Sullivan needed to pick out an outfit for her Thanksgiving travels.
After hearing Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy implore travelers to dress with respect at the airport, she went to her stash of fanciest clothes for an act of “malicious compliance.”
Should it be the satiny white gown, the Barbie-pink power suit or the feathery green cocktail number?
Hope we’re all dressing up tomorrow #fyp #foryou #traveloutfit #thanksgiving #airportoutfit
That’s how Sullivan, a Los Angeles-based TV producer and internet comedian, ended up running through a concoursein sneakers and a long dress with an Old Hollywood feel.
“I never bail on a bit,” she wrote on another videoshowing her in the same dress as she made a freezing walk from the plane at Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming.
Sullivan said in an interview that her experiences illustrate “how insane this directive is.”
“The dress was incredibly impractical; I think it was like 30 degrees when I landed,” she said. “It was definitely not the right thing to be wearing.”
In a news conference before the holiday, Duffy suggested travelers wear at least a decent shirt and a pair of jeans. He was building on an earlier campaign to return to the “Golden Age of Travel.”
“I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave all a little better,” he said. “Let’s try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport.”
Many travelers on social media responded by saying: Nah, we’re good.
“I will be wearing my slippers,” one woman wrote on TikTok, wondering why the government was concerned about her airport loungewear.
please why is the government concerned about our loungewear at the airport ? #travel #thanksgiving
Many pointed out the delays, fees, barebones amenities and minimal service they would be experiencing on their trips — hardly the conditions for luxury threads.
“I should wear my nicest suit so I can sit in someone else’s Biscoff crumbs,” comedian Michelle Wolf said on Instagram, offering a list of air travel indignities.
“We’re not dressing for the air travel we want, we’re dressing for the air travel we have,” she said.
Airport pajamas have been the subject of debate for years, long before the issue became a government talking point.
Certain commentators have praisedDuffy’s recent push. A New York Post opinion piececomplained about sloppy travelers: “They’re wearing stained Garfield pajama pants and dragging their pillows and blankets through Terminal 2.”
Some people posted their own photosof Duffy-approved outfits at the airport.
Civility is Big Pajama’s worst enemy! https://t.co/eqjK5z4720
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) December 2, 2025
In a video online, lifestyle creator and life coach Sammy Knight jokedshe was “actually going to be exclusively wearing pajamas to the airport now.” (In reality, she said, she tends to wear something like sweatpants, leggings or jeans and a sweatshirt.)
“You already spent so much money on the tickets and the whole process of traveling,” Knight, who lives in Rhode Island, said in an interview. “It’s never bothered me to see someone comfortable before. I think it’s absurd.”
Some characterized their choices as an act of political resistance. The hashtag #pajamaresistance made an appearance.
“Triggering Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy,” says the text on a TikTokby Democratic activist Johnny Palmadessa, 24, of Philadelphia.
He showed off his red plaid pajama pants at the airport in Portland, Maine, in a post set to audio of Duffy’s Thanksgiving travel wardrobe request.
Just wearing my pajamas at the airport… #DonaldTrump #Airport #Transportation
Palmadessa said he usually wears such pants when he flies, and was doing so when he first heard about the dress-up campaign.
In an interview, he said that Duffy and President Donald Trump should be more concerned about lowering costs for families so they could afford nicer outfits.
“The priorities of this administration are so not straight,” he said.
Robyn Iacona, an administrative assistant from Louisiana, said in an email that she chose jogger-style pajama pants, a T-shirt and compression socks for a return flight from Dublin on Friday.
“Civility starts with being a good human and leading by example,” she wrote. “And not with whether or not one wears pajama pants and slippers on a long haul flight.”
Benét J. Wilson, a longtime aviation journalist, knew she wanted to respond to the “Golden Age of Travel” push when she flew Monday, but wasn’t sure if she should dress up, in a black velvet dress, or down, in pajamas. She flipped a coin.
“Pajamas won,” she said. She started flying at 6:30 a.m., and by the afternoon was awaiting her third flight of the day after several delays. The government, she said, has “bigger fish to fry” than what people are wearing.
“Good thing I decided to wear pajamas and slippers,” she wrote in a social media post about the travel hiccups, tagging Duffy. “This may be my new travel uniform.”
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