Marco Rubio reportedly spent more than $1.2m of taxpayer money traveling to son’s University of Florida games

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, spent more than $1.2m of taxpayers’ money on frequent personal trips to watch University of Florida football games, a Washington Post investigation published on Wednesday found.

Ethics watchdogs have questioned the necessity of the secretary of state flying repeatedly between Washington DC and Gainesville to attend those games, where Rubio’s son Anthony has a walk-on role as a running back for the Gators. The Post reported Rubio attended at least 10 games across the last two seasons, including five this fall. Of 23 total trips to Gainesville on military aircraft, the newspaper classified 15 as "personal".

Using published Defense Department rates for the hourly cost of different military aircraft, the Post calculated the flights alone have cost more than $1.2m. The newspaper said that while Rubio is prohibited from flying commercially because of security protocols that also cover the secretary of defense and FBI and CIA directors, his use of government transport "appears to significantly outpace that of his predecessors".

Most recently, on 7 November, Rubio arrived in Gainesville aboard an Air Force C-37 and was seen on the sidelines as Florida lost 23-7 to Oklahoma; Anthony Rubio played no part in that game. The Post described Rubio’s trips as often featuring flights from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to the Homestead Air Reserve Base near Miami, followed by a secondary flight to Gainesville.

Anthony Rubio, a senior and the third of Marco Rubio’s four children, has appeared in only four competitive games in his four years at the university, two of them this season. According to ESPN, his college career totals are 14 carries for a combined total of 75 yards, and a single touchdown.

Officials who use military transport are required to reimburse the government the equivalent of an economy-fare ticket for their travel, a figure the Post said would be far below the real cost of the journeys. Rubio and the state department declined to say how much he has reimbursed the public purse.

Cynthia Brown, senior ethics counsel at the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), told the Post the travel appeared "more of an optics issue than a violation" and added: "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?" She also said: "It is something that I think is really important to shine the light on." Brown noted that while Rubio might not be doing anything that is "technically improper", he is the sole arbiter of how often and how far he travels.

The Post, citing two former government officials, reported Antony Blinken took personal trips on government aircraft "only a couple of times a year". The article also recalled that then-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg was investigated by the department’s internal watchdog for his use of government jets for personal trips after a complaint by Rubio when Rubio was a Republican senator for Florida; Rubio wrote, "American taxpayers deserve assurances that their tax dollars are not wasted by the government’s highest officials." The inspector general ultimately cleared Buttigieg, who took eight trips at a total cost of $59,000, of any wrongdoing.

Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state, wrote on X that comparing Rubio and Buttigieg was "moronic" and added: “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,” and “Pete Buttigieg [was] not a required user of military aircraft.” Johnson said Rubio would continue to utilize government transport and will reimburse the government "for all personal travel" and wrote: "[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." The Guardian has contacted Crew and the state department for comment.