Eye-watering amount of money US Defense Department spent on lobster and crab in one month

When it comes to defense spending, most of us would expect the budget to go on things necessary to keep the country safe, such as aircraft or munitions - but the latest data revealed by a watchdog has painted a very different picture of where the money goes.

The new analysis, which was published by government watchdog Open the Books, found that in September, just as the 2025 fiscal year drew to a close, a whopping $9million had been spent on lobster and crab legs within that month alone.

It wasn’t merely an isolated incident either, as the department also spent more than $7.4 million on lobster tail across the months of March, May, June and October.

Yet just when you thought maybe a seafood penchant was the end of it, it turns out that Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth has signed off on a handful of other luxuries too, including approximately $15.1 million on ribeye steak in September, $124,000 for new ice cream machines, and $139,224 on doughnut orders.

While the splurges may seem excessive or unrelated the the country’s security, one possible explanation could be down to the way federal funding works.

Each fiscal year a government department is assigned a budget, and if any of the budget remains at the end of the year, it calls into question whether they originally needed the allotted funds, or could find their funding cut for the following year.

This is why some departments try to ease the burden of money left over, by ensuring that there is no substantial surplus left over.

However, while food is arguably a justifiable commodity, some of the purchases signed off by Hesgeth are undeniably lavish, such as splurging on a $100,000 Steinway & Sons grand piano to outfit the home of the Air Force chief of staff.

There was also a heavy tech burden too, with $5.3 million spent on Apple devices, including brand-new iPads, according to the report.

The Pentagon also dedicated a huge chunk of it’s budget to kitting out the world famous DoD headquarters, by splashing out on $225.6 million for furniture, including $12,540 for fruit basket stands and more than $60,000 for recliners from high-end furniture maker Herman Miller, who are globally renowned for making ergonomic products.

Yet before anyone mistakenly presumes this is out of the ordinary, it should be noted that the the military has been spending enormous amounts of money on furniture for decades, with an average bill of around $257.6 million on furniture every September since 2008.

Hesgeth isn’t the only person to have spent such high sums either, as former President Barack Obama routinely spent between $300-$400 million on furniture in September during his years in office.

The same couldn’t be said for former President Joe Biden however, who saw the spend decrease massively during his tenure in the White House, but this was largely due to the two years many employees spent working from home where possible, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pentagon's most expensive spending spree during September was on grants and contracts, with the Department of Defense dedicating $90 billion to spending on grants and contracts.

To put this into perspective, in the last five days of September alone, the DoD spent $50.1 billion on this, that’s more than the annual defence budget of Israel.

“Under Secretary Hegseth, the Pentagon has consistently said its mission is to refocus on warfighting and lethality,” Open the Books CEO John Hart said in the analysis.

“Last year, we highlighted the problem of wasteful use-it-or-lose-it year-end spending. We noted that this reform is fully within the secretary’s control and is a historic opportunity to make good on that promise.”

Since the report was released politicians have been sharing their thoughts on the findings, with many Democrats blasting the spending choices and vowing to get to the bottom of it.

Democratic Congressman Chuck Schumer called Hegseth a ‘grifter’ on social media.

“Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS. But instead of lowering Americans’ healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs, and a Steinway & Sons grand piano,” he wrote. “A true grifter in every sense of the word.”

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat, also raised concerns about the findings and said she planned to launch an investigation.

“In addition to billions of taxpayer dollars being burned in this war in Iran, reports are showing that Sec. Pete Hegseth blew $93 billion in federal DOD funding at the end of last year,” she wrote on social media before listing his various expenditures. “You better believe we’ll be investigating.”

UNILAD has approached the Department of Defense for comment.