Evita Duffy-Alfonso says America’s “Golden Age of Travel” nearly left her stranded at the gate.

The daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy erupted online Thursday after what she described as an “absurdly invasive” pat-down by Transportation Security Administration agents — a search she says she was subjected to after declining to walk through a body scanner because she is pregnant.

“I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down,” Duffy-Alfonso wrote on X. “I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner.”

The TSA uses millimeter wave advanced imaging technology, which the agency says emits non-ionizing radio-frequency energy similar to everyday electronics like cell phones and Wi-Fi routers. The scanners, TSA officials say, meet national health and safety standards and have no known adverse health effects.

Still, Duffy-Alfonso wasn’t convinced — and she wasn’t quiet about it.

She accused TSA agents of being “passive-aggressive” and pressuring her and another pregnant woman to walk through the scanner because it was “safe,” adding that after the pat-down she “barely made” her flight.

The TSA confirmed it is aware of the complaint.

“TSA takes complaints about airport security screening procedures seriously and investigates complaints thoroughly to ensure the correct procedures are applied,” a spokesperson told The Independent, noting that passengers generally have the right to opt out of body scanners in favor of a physical screening.

Duffy-Alfonso’s frustration quickly escalated into a broader political screed.

“All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job,” she wrote, mocking the idea of enrolling in CLEAR — a private biometric identification service — just to “enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country.”

CLEAR allows travelers to opt in to facial biometric identification to speed up identity verification before TSA screening.

For Duffy-Alfonso, that wasn’t a convenience — it was dystopia.

She invoked George Orwell, likening modern air travel to 1984-era surveillance. “Is this freedom?” she asked. “Travel, brought to you by George Orwell—and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure?”

She concluded bluntly: “The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone.”

The phrase “Golden Age of Travel” is one the Transportation Department itself began using in November as part of a campaign to restore “courtesy and class” to air travel — a push that included discouraging passengers from wearing pajamas and slippers through the airport.

Online, critics were quick to note the irony.

One user suggested she raise the issue with her father.

“Ma’am…you know the Transportation Secretary pretty well. Perhaps you should run this by him,” the user wrote.

Duffy-Alfonso shot back that her father has no authority over TSA, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, led by Kristi Noem.

“If he did have TSA,” she added, “he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it.”

Others were less sympathetic, suggesting she should simply arrive earlier at the airport.

“If you know you aren’t going through the scanner,” one user wrote, “plan your time accordingly.”

Duffy-Alfonso responded that she arrived an hour and 10 minutes before her flight — less than the two hours typically recommended for domestic travel.

What began as a missed-flight scare quickly turned into a culture war skirmish over surveillance, pregnancy, privilege, and power — all unfolding in the most American of battlegrounds.

The TSA line.