Rubio’s $1.2M Military Jet Perk Revealed

Detailed summary

The department classified 15 of Rubio’s trips as “solely personal.” ADVERTISEMENT Those personal flights cost about $770,600. Seven trips combining personal and official travel…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has racked up a $1.2 million taxpayer-funded flight bill for trips to the college town where his son plays football, according to a report.

Rubio traveled to Gainesville, Florida, aboard government aircraft at least 23 times since taking office last year, including visits for at least 10 Gators football games, the State Department confirmed to the Washington Post.

His son Anthony plays as a walk-on running back for the Gators, and Rubio has flown in for at least five games this fall.

Those personal flights cost about $770,600. Seven trips combining personal and official travel added $443,900, according to the Post’s calculations using Defense Department hourly rates. The newspaper excluded his most recent trip because the department did not answer questions about it.

He primarily traveled aboard Gulfstream C-37A and C-37B jets, which the Defense Department billed other federal agencies about $9,100 an hour to use. On three trips, he took a larger Boeing C-32A, costing about $18,600 an hour.

The secretary has defended the trips, telling the Post that “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, like the defense secretary and the directors of the FBI and CIA, is prohibited from flying on commercial airlines for security reasons. He must use government aircraft, even for personal travel, but is required to reimburse the government only the equivalent of an economy-class fare—a fraction of the actual cost.

Rubio and the State Department declined to disclose how much he has reimbursed.

The Post estimated that commercial round-trip tickets between Washington and Gainesville on game days averaged $820. At that rate, his reimbursements would have totaled about $18,000.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Beast. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.