Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reportedly traveled to the Invictus Games last year with his husband, Chatsen, on a chartered military jet.
Last April, Buttigieg left Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and flew to Rotterdam in the Netherlands according to a calendar obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT) that was shared with Fox.
“Secretary Buttigieg’s travel woes keep piling up with this newest revelation that he and his husband took a private jet for a European trip,” the executive director of APT, Caitlin Sutherland, told Fox. “Taxpayers, who just had their holiday plans completely upended because of Buttigieg’s travel mismanagement, should be furious.”
Buttigieg’s travel arrangements have been a cause for concern since he took office in February 2021. Since then, Buttigieg has flown nearly 20 times on private jets funded by taxpayer dollars, according to the New York Post. Buttigieg has used a Cessna 560XL overseen by the FAA for trips bound for Florida, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Nevada.
Similar instances of excessive private flying by associates of former president Donald Trump triggered the resignation of then-Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Tom Price for racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars deemed inappropriate. A few years later, Trump’s then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced criticism for taking similar trips accompanied by his wife, though he was not fired.
Reached for comment, the White House National Security Council told Fox Buttigieg’s travel constituted a “standard practice” for “White House organized Cabinet-level presidential delegations.”
The Department of Transportation gave a similarly non-committal answer: “The Secretary was proud to be asked to be part of the Presidential Delegation that the State Department organized for the Invictus Games — an international event supporting wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans.”
The Invictus Game was founded in 2014 by Prince Harry to honor military veterans and wounded soldiers.