The Defense Department has been loaning military planes to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. so the Health and Human Services Secretary can jet around the country.
Kennedy, 72, used one of those aircraft, a Gulfstream operated by the Air Force, to fly out to a GOP event in Iowa last month, according to the Washington Post. Its going rate is $9,000 an hour. A commercial flight would have cost $250.
Sources familiar with the secretary’s travel arrangements told the newspaper that he has used this expensive mode of transportation at other times since taking office. Both the White House and HHS attorneys have approved the arrangement.
HHS chief counselor Chris Klomp has at least once raised concerns about whether Kennedy’s use of military aircraft is necessary, sources told the Post. Kennedy is understood to have agreed and not used the Pentagon plane on that occasion.
President Donald Trump, 80, canned Kennedy’s predecessor as Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, during his first term over Price’s use of private jets for short and routine trips. During the president’s second stint at the White House, the president has adopted a far more liberal approach to private aircraft use by senior administration officials, notably FBI Director Kash Patel.
Patel, 46, has made extensive use of private jets to attend sporting events and performances by his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins, a 27-year-old country music singer. The FBI chief is required to use such aircraft, not commercial airlines, for security reasons.
Critics have nevertheless raised alarm over the extent and frequency of Patel’s personal trips, which are understood to have left the bureau short of planes to transport investigative teams after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the Brown University shooting.
In 2007, Republicans criticized then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for supposedly demanding the use of military jets to ferry her from her home in California to Washington, D.C.
She only used a military plane once, according to reports, when other aircraft that could make the trip non-stop were unavailable.
Her office insisted it was needed for security reasons, and President George W. Bush’s White House said the criticism was “unfair.”
The Daily Beast has contacted HHS and the White House for comment on this story.
