Next to all of the take-Americans-for-nitwits scams perpetrated by the Trump administration, the news that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been using taxpayer-funded military jets to fly to college-football games doesn’t amount to that much. Still, as evidence of degraded ethics and an emperor-like feed-me-another-grape sensibility, it holds its own. Rubio has defended his flights by saying that the events are important to his family—his son is a senior running back for the Gators. But he’s really Saturday joy-riding to big-ticket events, and the message he’s sending is This administration doesn’t serve you. You serve it.
Rubio’s son Anthony may be a very nice young man. What he isn’t, arguably, is a college-football player worth flying in to watch—because he barely ever plays. He is a walk-on, a scout-teamer, which means that his primary role is not to play in games but to be a body for his teammates to scrimmage against during practice. It’s a valuable job, from which he’s no doubt learned a lot. But he has made it on to the field for exactly three rushing attempts this season. Yet Rubio, a Florida alum, has flown to at least 10 Gators games. The cost of his personal flights since he became secretary of state, according to reporting by The Washington Post, has been more than $1.2 million.
[Read: Is Marco Rubio the happiest Cabinet member?]
When asked about the trips, Rubio said, “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,” implying that he just wants to encourage his kid. Now, Anthony’s last appearance was for one carry in a 52–3 hammering of the Campbell University Fighting Camels, back in mid-September. He has not set foot on a game-day field since. And still, Rubio flew in for the October 31 marquee matchup with top-ranked Georgia, and for a game on November 7 against Oklahoma. Both were broadcast live on national TV. Apparently, it is personally important to Rubio to use Americans’ tax dollars to wave school colors while watching his kid’s back as he wears a numeral on the sideline.
In fairness, as a Cabinet member, Rubio cannot fly commercially, for security reasons. But also, in not-so-fairness, he’s required to reimburse the government for only an economy-fare ticket when he uses a government-owned jet. An hour on a military C-37A Gulfstream, a plane frequently used by the secretary of state, costs about $9,000. Rubio has sometimes used the larger Air Force C-32A, which costs $18,600 an hour. Last I checked, the price of a round-trip coach ticket between Washington, D.C., and Gainesville is $450 on American Airlines.
With these trips, Rubio is not indulging his son so much as he is indulging his own fandom. He’s a self-admitted football obsessive who has said that his ideal day involves watching games from noon past midnight, and who did the “Gator chomp” when he recently rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange.
[Read: How to fix the mess of college sports]
Rubio is hardly the first or last government official to engage in ethically iffy travel, and he’s got nothing on former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s flying bedroom and bar. What’s more interesting is the degree to which he is doubling down on his spending. A Rubio spokesperson called aspects of the Post report “moronic.” Is it really good policy to dismiss a report about potential financial abuse when voters have identified corruption as a leading concern? A Fox News opinion writer accused the Post reporters of trying to “shame” Rubio and of ruining a feel-good story by “yucking everyone’s yum,” as if, because it’s for the sake of football, sponging off taxpayers is okay. Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media, “Washington Post confirms Secretary Rubio is a great Dad.” None of Rubio’s defenders seems to recognize that this doesn’t look right.
They also fail to acknowledge that great dadding means not flaunting your special status at other people’s expense. It means not sneering at people who have an issue with your $9,000-an-hour flights on their dime, when a bag of Foster Farms chicken wings costs more than $14, and the price of a 2×4 at the home-improvement store can run more than $4.
The great Irish essayist Fintan O’Toole once advised another political party in another country, “Never let the people who think they are making a sacrifice realise that in fact they are the sacrifice.” Marco Rubio played some college football—a little—so he should know this: A team that doesn’t recognize its mistakes is sure to get its ass beat again the next time.
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