State Department Public Diplomacy Chief Took $11,900 Private Jet Trip Funded by Stripe Co-Founder

Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, accepted a private jet trip worth about $11,900 from Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe and a member of Meta's board, according to her preliminary financial disclosure obtained by The Washington Post. She was sworn in on October 10, 2025, as the 11th Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, and the trip took place in November 2025, roughly one month into her tenure.

The journey covered Cairo, Tbilisi and Heraklion, where the group visited museums, churches and historical sites. Economist and George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen was also among the travelers. Collison's spokesperson said the trip is one Collison organizes every year with a handful of friends, and that he has organized similar annual trips for eight years.

Rogers described Collison as a "pre-existing friend predating my government service" and said the travel was for "purposes of tourism." The State Department said the trip was planned before her Senate confirmation, that she disclosed it to ethics officials, and that she has not participated in any government matter involving Stripe. Collison's spokesperson said no business meetings took place and that Stripe has no business before the State Department. None of these statements has been independently verified by an ethics authority.

A State Department attorney reviewed the disclosure, but the Office of Government Ethics, the independent federal agency responsible for executive-branch ethics standards, had not certified the filing when The Washington Post published its report. Ethics experts who reviewed the filing could not determine from the available information whether the trip violated federal law. Under current rules, gifts from genuine personal friends qualify for an exemption, while gifts connected to an employee's official role do not.