US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has come under scrutiny after reportedly using military aircraft for frequent trips to Florida to watch his son play college football, with an investigation estimating that the flights alone cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million. The findings have prompted questions about how often senior government officials should use publicly funded transport for personal commitments, even when their security arrangements require them to fly on military aircraft.
Washington Post investigation details Rubio’s trips to Florida
An investigation by The Washington Post found that Rubio attended at least 10 University of Florida football games over the past two seasons, including five during the current autumn campaign. His son, Anthony Rubio, is a walk-on running back for the university’s team, the Florida Gators.Of the 23 trips Rubio made to Gainesville aboard military aircraft, 15 were classified as personal journeys, according to the newspaper. Using published Department of Defense hourly operating rates for different military aircraft, the Post estimated that the flights had cost more than $1.2 million.Rubio’s journeys have frequently involved flying from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, followed by a separate flight to Gainesville. On November 7, he arrived in Gainesville aboard an Air Force C-37, an aircraft commonly used to transport senior government officials, and watched the Gators lose 23-7 to Oklahoma. Anthony did not play in that game.The figures have attracted attention partly because Anthony’s playing time has been limited. Now a senior and the third of Rubio’s four children, he has appeared in only four competitive games across his four years at the university, including two this season. ESPN statistics show that he has recorded 14 carries for 75 yards and one touchdown during his college career.
Why Rubio’s travel has raised ethics questions
Rubio is required to use military aircraft because of security protocols governing the secretary of state, alongside other senior officials including the secretary of defense and the directors of the FBI and CIA. Those arrangements are intended to ensure that officials retain access to secure communications and can comply with continuity-of-government requirements while travelling.However, the Washington Post reported that Rubio’s use of government aircraft appeared to exceed that of his predecessors. Antony Blinken, who served as secretary of state under Joe Biden, reportedly made personal journeys aboard government aircraft “only a couple of times a year”, according to two former officials cited by the newspaper.Government officials travelling on military aircraft for personal reasons must reimburse the public purse the equivalent of an economy-class commercial ticket. That payment, however, is substantially lower than the actual operating cost of the aircraft. Neither Rubio nor the State Department disclosed how much he had reimbursed for the journeys, the Post reported.Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Rubio’s travel appeared “more of an optics issue than a violation”, but argued that the frequency of the trips deserved scrutiny.“If this travel becomes something that is undermining the integrity of your service, are you really taking care of taxpayer dollars the way that you’re obligated to as a public official?” Brown told the Post.“It is something that I think is really important to shine the light on,” she added.Brown noted that while Rubio might not be doing anything that is “technically improper”, he remains the person deciding how often and how far he travels.
Rubio defends the trips as State Department pushes back
Rubio defended his travel in a statement to the Washington Post, saying: “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.”The controversy has also revived scrutiny of Rubio’s previous criticism of government officials’ personal use of publicly funded aircraft. In 2023, while serving as a Republican senator for Florida, he called for an investigation into then-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg’s use of government jets for personal travel.Rubio argued at the time: “American taxpayers deserve assurances that their tax dollars are not wasted by the government’s highest officials.” The Department of Transportation’s inspector general subsequently cleared Buttigieg of wrongdoing. The review examined eight trips costing a total of $59,000.Dylan Johnson, an assistant secretary of state, rejected comparisons between the two cases in a post on X on Wednesday, describing them as “moronic”.“The Secretary of State (like POTUS, VP, SecWar, and others) is REQUIRED to use military aircraft to maintain access to secure communications at all times and comply with continuity of government protocols,” Johnson wrote.“Pete Buttigieg [was] not a required user of military aircraft.”Johnson said Rubio would continue to use government transport and would reimburse the government “for all personal travel”.“[He] 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,” Johnson added.
