California Gov. Gavin Newsom is vacationing in Montana despite his state's ban on state-funded travel to the Treasure State.
Montana is among 22 states to which California, citing policies it deems discriminatory to LGBTQ people, has banned state-funded and state-sponsored travel.
Newsom’s office told Business Insider that state funds were not used for the governor's trip, during which California's chief executive planned to spend time with family. He plans to return to his office Monday.
"The travel ban applies to expending state funds," Newsom Communications Director Erin Mellon told Insider. "The governor's travel is not being paid for by the state. Connecting the two is irresponsible and falsely implies there is something untoward."
CalMatters reported that it asked Anthony York, Newsom’s senior adviser for communications, if the state was paying for security while the governor remained in Montana.
"We don’t comment or provide details on the governor’s security," York told CalMatters.
The Insider reported that Newsom, a Democrat, departed for Montana on Friday but did not initially announce where he was traveling.
The parents of Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, have a property in Montana, the outlet said.
Newsom's office said in a June 24 press release that Montana likely would ban abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
News of the trip also followed a Fourth of July weekend in which Newsom made headlines by running an ad in Florida to attack Republicans leaders such as Gov. Ron DeSantis, and invite people to move to California for more "freedom."
"At a time when Californians are still living under a two years and counting state of emergency, our gas taxes were raised (again) July 1 to the highest levels in the nation … Gavin Newsom is running campaign ads in better-run states and refusing to tell the taxpayers where he is or when he will return to his overtaxed, under-served constituents," Harmeet Dhillon, California’s Republican National Committee spokesperson told CalMatters in a statement.
"We’d love to know the gas prices and the COVID emergency status where the Governor is. Most Californians can’t afford to take their normal holidays this year, thanks to Gavin Newsom and his party’s lack of leadership of our state."
Newsom previously has been criticized for his travel.
He failed to attend a U.N. climate conference in Scotland last fall and disappeared from public view for nearly two weeks, with little word on where he was or what he had been doing.
Speculation about Newsom began growing after he dropped out of view after his highly publicized COVID-19 booster shot on Oct. 27.
After resurfacing, Newsom said that he abruptly dropped plans to attend the climate conference so that he could spend Halloween with his children.
In February 2021, Newsom was accused of eating inside a restaurant in a county where indoor dining was not allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Newsom previously had been caught breaking his own indoor dining ban in November 2020, when he celebrated a birthday for a longtime aide at an upscale restaurant in Napa, California.
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