Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke fancies himself a bureaucratic cowboy. He sports a ridiculously large golden belt buckle. He wears a Stetson hat that looks too large — even for his enormous head. And he charters helicopters to make it in time for horseback riding lessons with Vice President Mike Pence.

More rodeo clown than administrative ranch hand, Zinke’s own branding has now made him a political liability. Politico reports that taxpayers paid $6,250 for the helicopter ride that made that morning on horseback possible. Just last summer, Zinke dropped more than $14,000 to buzz around the skies of the capital by helicopter.