(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call through AP Images)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s Defense Department allegedly blew via $22 million on lobsters and ribeye steak as a part of a wild September 2025 end-of-year spree.
According to an evaluation by nonprofit watchdog Open the BooksHegseth’s DoD spent $93.4 billion on grants and contracts in Sept. 2025 alone — almost 50 % of which was expended in the final 5 enterprise days of the month.
Open the Books, run by the American Transparency charity based in 2011, collects and publishes authorities spending knowledge, together with expenditures all the way down to the lobster tail.
According to the evaluation by Open the Books, in September, the Pentagon spent $2 million on Alaskan king crab, $6.9 million on lobster tail, $15.1 million on ribeye steak, and $1 million on salmon. Dessert included 272 orders of donuts for $139,224 and ice cream machines for $124,000.
While the Pentagon doesn’t technically must spend all its congressionally allotted funds, “use-it-or-lose-it” insurance policies usually push it to take action. Any leftover funds might be faraway from the price range the next 12 months. So, extravagant sprees are usually not uncommon on the finish of a fiscal 12 months.
For instance, the group famous in its report, “Furniture is near the top of the military’s wish list at the end of every fiscal year. Since 2008, the DoD has spent an average of $257.6 million on furniture every September — a 564% increase above the norm. In months besides September, furniture costs the military only $38.8 million on average.”
Speaking to Open the Books, the CEO of Govlyan AI firm that assists authorities contractors, in contrast Sept. 30 to “Amazon Prime Day” for the federal authorities.
Extravagant spending sprees are additionally commonplace for Hegseth’s DoD. The report famous that the division additionally spent greater than $7.4 million on lobster all through 4 months in 2025: March, May, June, and October.
Back in Feb. 2025, Hegseth instructed Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo that he welcomed Elon Musk‘s former Department of Government Efficiency to assist minimize “wasteful spending” contained in the DoD. He mentioned he anticipated to uncover “hundreds of billions” in mentioned wasteful spending.
“We need to know when we spend dollars, we need to know where they’re going and why that simple accounting, and that has not existed at the Defense Department,” Hegseth mentioned. “We’re going to fix that.”
The publish Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department Blew $22M On Steak and Lobster in a Single Month, Watchdog Claims first appeared on Mediaite.
