Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spent more than $1.2 million in government money on personal travel since joining President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Rubio’s son, Anthony, plays football at the University of Florida. Rubio has regularly flown in on taxpayer-funded government aircraft to watch his son’s games.
Rubio has traveled to Gainesville, Florida, on government aircraft at least 23 times since taking office, the Post reported. The State Department characterized 15 of these trips as strictly personal in a response to the Post’s analysis of flight records.
Rubio is barred from flying commercially because of his role leading the State Department. When he travels on government aircraft for personal reasons, he is required to reimburse the government for the cost of an economy-class ticket. The reimbursements only cover a small portion of the flight costs.
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“I have and will continue to try and make it to as many events that are important to me personally and to my family as possible,” Rubio said in a statement to the Post.
Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson wrote on X that Rubio “is entirely unapologetic and will continue to attend as many of his family’s events as his jobs allow — that includes his son’s football games for his final year of college football.”
“Even the Washington Post admits that Secretary Rubio is required to travel by government plane and his trips comply with all federal rules,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales wrote in a statement to The Washington Sun. “This is a non-story—and running this now is yet another reason why the public’s trust in the mainstream media is at all-time lows. Secretary Rubio is doing a fantastic job as Secretary of State—and is clearly a great dad too.”
Ethics experts criticized Rubio’s use of taxpayer money for personal flights.
“Regardless of whether the rules permit this, Secretary Rubio is abusing government resources for personal purposes,” Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as the ethics czar during the Obama administration, said in a statement to The Sun. “American taxpayers should never be expected to subsidize the extravagant lifestyles of Trump’s cabinet members.”
“Nobody faults a parent for wanting to see their kid play,” said Davina Hurt, the director of government ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. “I think the question is, who pays for it and whether the public gets to see the bill.”
Hurt called for greater transparency and discretion from government officials.
“Senior officials owe taxpayers restraint, sound judgment and clear accounting on when their taxpayer dollars are being used, and I think there are sacrifices that must be considered in this day and time when people are struggling to put food on the table, gas in their cars, and to keep a roof over their head,” she said.
Across both his administrations, Trump’s Cabinet members have attracted scrutiny for their use of government assets. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price spent more than $1 million in taxpayer money on private flights, leading to his resignation in Sept. 2017. FBI Director Kash Patel used a taxpayer-funded plane to travel to the Winter Olympics in Milan and a wrestling match in Pennsylvania, where his girlfriend was singing the national anthem. In May, Sen. Chuck Grassley launched an inquiry into Patel’s use of FBI aircraft.
Rubio spent taxpayer money as Americans struggled to keep up with a rising cost of living. The economy was a top issue for voters going into the midterms this year, according to several preelection polls. A Fox News poll conducted less than a month before Election Day showed government corruption was the top concern for voters.
“We want to be at every game. We want to be at every event,” Hurt said. “If you compare that to the everyday people on Main Street, they too want to be at every event. But some of these folks are needing to work one or two jobs to pay the bills, and they are not able to do that.”
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