Jun 14, 2026; Washington, D.C., UNITED STATES; U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on during UFC Freedom 250 at White House South Lawn. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vacationed on a donor’s yacht in Greece without listing it in his ethics filing, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The trip took place in July 2025 on the Loloma, a 151-foot yacht owned by security consultant Gavin de Becker, per the report. Data tracking the ship show it traveling between Greek islands. The sources put Kennedy’s stay in Greece at roughly a week.
De Becker is a longtime friend who donated to Kennedy’s presidential campaign, which the Journal says also paid his firm for security. In September, the paper reported that Kennedy’s ethics filing showed over $250,000 in gifts from de Becker, among them flights and a place to stay in Washington. The flights to Greece, worth almost $45,000, were on the form. The yacht was not.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) wrote to both men requesting information about the gifts. Wyden is in line to chair the Senate Finance Committee in January. Federal rules forbid officials from taking gifts from anyone with a stake in their work or seeking action from their agency, with an exception for personal friends. The senators contend the exception doesn’t cover de Becker, citing his advocacy on vaccines and ketamine therapy and his business ties to Kennedy.
“Even if you consider him a friend, your relationship is not purely personal,” they wrote to Kennedy.
An HHS spokeswoman, Emily Hilliard, said Kennedy met his disclosure obligations and that ethics officials signed off on his filing. De Becker said in a statement that the families took vacations together long before Kennedy joined the government, that the friendship has nothing to do with Kennedy’s job, and that he wants nothing from the department.
Luxury trips around Greece have become an ongoing headache for the Trump administration. Recently, a group of State Department officials flew to Greece and other destinations in Europe on the dime of an Irish billionaire.
This also comes shortly after Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump's former ambassador to Greece, resigned after being caught trading access to the administration for gifts, favors, and even the payment of her credit card debt.
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