Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao flew on Federal Aviation Administration planes rather than commercial flights on seven occasions between January and August 2017, newly released records show — including one flight to and around Europe that cost taxpayers an estimated $68,892 for her and five staffers.

All told, Chao’s flights on the FAA planes cost an estimated $93,977.84, the records show.

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She appears to have halted the practice just as one of her fellow Cabinet members, then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, was facing increasing scrutiny over his use of private and military flights. Price resigned in September 2017 after POLITICO raised questions about the flight expenses, which totaled about $1.2 million.

The newly released records do not indicate that anyone has raised red flags over Chao’s use of the FAA aircraft — two Cessna Citations and one Gulfstream IV business jet — which come with rules requiring government officials to justify the flights as cost-effective. But the disclosures come amid continuing questions surrounding the travel costs of senior Trump administration officials, most recently an investigation of Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long’s use of official cars.

The FAA released the documents Tuesday. They provide a rare glimpse into the details about Chao’s travel, considering that the secretary does not release any public schedule of her official business.

A DOT spokeswoman said all of Chao’s travel was approved by the agency’s ethics officer, and that she only used the FAA’s planes in instances where it was cheaper or for extenuating circumstances, such as when security required its use. Chao’s spokeswoman also noted that Chao “routinely flies commercial” and has taken 100 commercial flights since February 2017.

Chao was not the only high-ranking government official to make use of one of the FAA’s planes during the time the documents cover, from January 2017 to April 2018. Former FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, an appointee of President Barack Obama, used the planes on four separate occasions for round trips, including from the District of Columbia to Cincinnati to tour a GE Aviation facility. FEMA officials and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigators were also frequent users.

According to the documents, the most expensive of Chao’s FAA flights began on June 18, 2017, when she rode on the agency’s Gulfstream from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport to France to attend the Paris Air Show, an important aviation industry event. There, she gave remarks at the U.S. booth and met with representatives of government and industry, according to cost justification documents.

Accompanying her on that flight, according to a passenger manifest, were Jon Furman, a DOT special assistant to Chao; Todd Inman, DOT’s director of operations; Laura Genero, Chao’s senior adviser for strategic communications; Marianne McInerney, DOT’s director of public affairs; and an unnamed department employee.

From there, Chao and her fellow passengers flew to the Italian island of Sardinia to attend the G-7 summit, then to Ireland’s Shannon Airport to refuel en route back to Washington on June 23, 2017.

According to the cost-justification materials for the flight, Chao flew on the FAA’s jet rather than a commercial plane for security reasons. Those included the need to “store weapons” on board the plane and to ensure DOT maintained “effective communications” with Chao throughout.

Trips on the FAA’s three-plane fleet are subject to cost-justification regulations, though exceptions exist for security concerns or instances when commercial flights aren’t a viable option. Much of the time the FAA’s fleet is used for critical transportation, such as NTSB accident investigations.

Chao and staff also flew an FAA Cessna round-trip between Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Beaumont, Texas, on March 2 and March 3, 2017, at an estimated cost of $5,721. In Texas, she was the keynote speaker at an event to christen a ship called the “Liberty Passion,” as part of DOT’s Maritime Security Program.

The documents said use of the FAA plane was necessary because no commercial flights would have allowed her to attend the ceremonies while keeping a series of previously scheduled meetings in Washington the day before.

Chao also used the FAA’s Gulfstream to ferry a delegation of several members of Congress to Canada to tour that nation’s privatized air traffic control system and related items.

The trip, from March 30, 2017 to March 31, 2017, came as House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) was preparing to move a bill that would have broken up the FAA and given air traffic control operations to a new nonprofit body. During the debate on the measure, which drew President Donald Trump’s support for a while, proponents often held up Canada’s system as an example of a well-functioning nongovernmental air traffic control operation.

Along with Chao and Shuster, the flight to Ottawa included Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and four DOT employees or congressional staff. The cost-justification documents say security reasons necessitated the use of an FAA aircraft rather than a commercial aircraft.

The Canada trip cost an estimated $8,646, the documents say. The government rate for 11 people to fly round trip on commercial flights from Reagan National to Ottawa would total $8,756 to $17,512 — not including certain fees — according to a General Services Administration website.

The Washington Post reported some details of Chao’s seven flights shortly after Price resigned, although it did not have information on the costs.

The last of Chao’s flights on the FAA planes — on Aug. 29, 2017 — was a same-day round trip between Washington and South Bend, Ind., to visit the South Bend International Airport and attend a ribbon cutting for a toll road project.

Because of the timing of the event, DOT asserted that it would have been more expensive to fly commercial because the eight passengers on board would have had to stay a night at a hotel in addition to the airfare.

The estimated cost to use the FAA’s plane was $2,981.

Kathryn A. Wolfe and Brianna Gurciullo contributed to this report.

Donald Trump sees next week’s main session of the United Nations General Assembly as a chance to condemn Iran for spreading what he’s called “chaos and terror” through the Middle East.

But many key U.S. allies will likely use the global forum to present Trump himself as a threat to world peace.

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The result could be an unusually combative gathering at an annual forum meant to promote harmony among world leaders.

“It’s not going to be a pleasant conversation,” predicted Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the conservative American Foreign Policy Council.

Trump’s expected barbs against Iran in New York also come with political risk — and potential rewards: Talking tough on Tehran will please the president’s Republican base, as well as Israel and some Arab states. But the broader reaction could expose how isolated Trump is on the world stage, especially after he unilaterally quit the Iran nuclear deal this spring.

“It is the most public platform that Trump has to date to say our Iran strategy is not negotiable and that there will be consequences for not complying,” Berman said. “But opposing parties are very likely to use the chance to push back and try to build consensus of their own to preserve the status quo.”

Mindful of the danger, the Trump White House has already dialed back plans to dedicate a session of the U.N. Security Council that Trump himself will chair to the subject of Iran; the meeting will now cover the broader subject of nonproliferation, which could comprise other issues, like North Korea. Officials worried that Trump could appear to be all alone on a Security Council with many members who believe he should not have withdrawn from the nuclear deal.

But Trump’s speech to the General Assembly, set for Sept. 25, will include tough anti-Iran language, an administration official confirmed. And Iran’s behavior is still expected to come up during the U.N. Security Council session Trump will chair, tentatively set for Sept. 26.

Trump and his aides are sure to denounce Tehran over its sponsorship of terrorism and its military interventions beyond its borders — what the White House refers to as “Iran’s malign activities.” They will likely also claim that Iran, despite still clinging to what’s left of the 2015 nuclear deal, has never truly fulfilled its end of the agreement to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief.

“Iran continues to be one of the world’s biggest threats to peace and security and dealing with Iran has been a priority of this administration,” a U.S. official said in a statement to POLITICO. “We will be looking at raising Iran’s destabilizing influence throughout the Middle East region whenever appropriate during this year’s U.N. General Assembly meetings.”

Throughout the U.N. gathering — which began this week with lower-level meetings before the leaders of participating countries speak next week — a slew of side events, forums organized by activists and bilateral meetings between Trump and his counterparts will give all sides a chance to air their views. This Wednesday, Brian Hook, who heads a newly formed State Department group to coordinate Iran policy, will speak about Iran at the conservative Hudson Institute.

Within the U.S. government, there’s been “a renewed push to include anti-Iran talking points in all engagements,” including the General Assembly, a former administration official briefed on the topic told POLITICO.

But European countries, led by France, Britain and Germany, and unofficially backed by Russia and China, don’t intend to let the Trump team hog the microphone. And America’s European allies have been clear that they will not bow to U.S. demands to scrap the nuclear deal.

Last week, European officials announced they are working on a range of measures to stymie the impact of renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran so that Tehran can keep doing business with Europe without fear of U.S. punishment.

A spokeswoman for Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, took a pointed shot at the U.S., noting that the nuclear deal was unanimously approved by the U.N. Security Council.

The nuclear deal “is crucial for the security of the region, for Europe and beyond,” said Maja Kocijančič. “And in this context the European Union is fully committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the [nuclear deal] as long as Iran continues to respect its nuclear-related commitments.”

A senior German diplomat told POLITICO that, for Europe, Iran has become a “question of principle” that has as much to do with preserving international norms as it does with reining in the Iranian nuclear threat. European officials are happy to confront the U.S. over Iran at international gatherings, the diplomat said, because they believe Trump can’t rally many people to his defense.

U.S. officials regard Europe’s efforts to salvage the Iran deal as little more than bluster, and they believe the Europeans will cave eventually. The threat of U.S. sanctions has, after all, already led dozens of European businesses to quit the Iranian market, despite promises that European governments would protect the firms.

The Iranian economy, meanwhile, is struggling. The country’s currency, the rial, has plummeted in value in recent months, and Iranians have staged protests across the country accusing their Islamist government of ineptitude and corruption.

And this is all before U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil sector, which had been lifted under the nuclear deal, are reimposed starting Nov. 4.

Trump quit the nuclear deal in May, saying the Barack Obama-era agreement was too narrow. Trump argued he wanted a better deal that reins in both Iran’s nuclear and nonnuclear activities, including its support of terrorist groups that threaten U.S. allies such as Israel.

The Trump administration has since unveiled a list of 12 demands on Iran that would require a radical reordering of Iran’s foreign policy.

European leaders are sympathetic to many of Trump’s complaints about Iran. They worry about Iranian aid to terrorist groups implicated in attacks across Europe. France is reportedly restricting its diplomats’ travel to Iran, citing a foiled bomb plot aimed at Iranian dissidents on its soil.

These officials also worry about Iran’s military activities in places like Yemen and Syria, both of which are mired in war.

But these same allies believe Trump should have built on the nuclear deal instead of walking away from it. They also don’t buy the Trump administration’s claim that it’s not seeking regime change in Iran. They fear the U.S. is doing what it can to collapse the regime without a long-term strategy, meaning more political chaos and human suffering in an already volatile Middle East.

Another opposing voice who could stir things up is Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is expected to attend the U.N. meeting despite debate in his home country over whether he should go. Rouhani will have multiple opportunities to rebut Trump.

It’s even possible that Trump may ask to meet with Rouhani while the two are in New York. The U.S. president tried to sit down with Iranian officials during last year’s assembly, and he’s said he’s willing to meet the Islamic Republic’s leaders without preconditions.

“What does he have to lose by asking?” said Alex Vatanka, an Iran specialist with the Middle East Institute. Even if the Iranians once again say “No,” Trump “can turn around and say … ‘I gave the Iranians plenty of time to come back to the table.’”

The Iranians declined last year’s request from the Trump administration, which was conveyed through the French. U.S. officials declined to comment on whether Trump was mulling more outreach this year.

Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that Trump should hold out for a meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds the ultimate power in the country under its theocratic system. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could be dispatched to meet with Rouhani instead, Dubowitz suggested.

Trump’s “instinct seems to be, ‘Let’s have another summit,’” he said. “I think the [Iranian] regime has to be somewhat careful if they continue to rebuff Washington — they may end up isolating themselves.”