Trump's Navy chief racked up big $2.3 million travel bill over 8 months despite global pandemic

Former Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite didn't let the novel coronavirus pandemic slow down his travels in the last year of the Trump White House.

USA Today reports that Braithwaite racked up a $2.3 million travel bill in his last eight months on the job despite the fact that many other Trump officials canceled their travel plans.

In total, Braithwaite logged 21 flights in eight months that included trips to far-away destinations such as India, Bahrain, and Singapore. No other Trump-appointed military official logged in as many trips at such a hefty expense over that period of time, the paper notes.

Braithwaite defended his travels in an email to USA Today.

""I am extremely proud of the record of accomplishments of Our Sailors and Marines during my tenure as Secretary, especially following such a tumultuous chapter in the Navy's recent history of crisis following crisis as compared to our other services," he wrote. "I submit it's impossible to lead men and women deployed around the world from behind a desk in Washington."