Pete Hegseth's Luxury Shopping Spree On The Government's Dime Has Everyone Calling Him Out

By now, plenty of rumors have surfaced that will haunt Pete Hegseth for the rest of his career. The latest controversial thing to come out about Hegseth, though, is no rumor. Apparently, the secretary of defense spent quite a bit of money during his first year in the role, and no — it wasn't his personal money. Unsurprisingly, this news has people up in arms.

The Department of Defense spent $93 billion in just the month of September 2025 alone, according to the public spending watchdog Open the Books. This seems like a staggering sum, though most of us don't know what kind of money this department typically spends. Consequently, it's worth noting that the Pentagon hasn't forked over that much in a month in nearly two decades. It's also worth noting that September is the last month of the fiscal year, meaning that this spending spree was likely an attempt to use every cent of the budget that Congress gave them to ensure they don't receive less money in years to come.

Yet, it seems that Hegseth made some bizarre choices with taxpayer money. The purchases were all over the map, including everything from food to furniture. There's nothing wrong with allocating a small bit of the budget to these categories, of course, but the immensity of the price tag compared to the frivolity of the purchases is nothing short of shocking. For instance, folks in the Pentagon reportedly love lobster tail. They love it so much, in fact, that they spent $6.9 million on it in September, and the wild spending doesn't end there.

Surprisingly, that massive lobster tail budget was only a fraction of what the Pentagon spent on shellfish in September 2025. They also shelled out — no pun intended – $2 million for Alaskan king crab. They ordered doughnuts 272 times to the tune of $139,224, spent $124,000 on ice cream machines, and blew a whopping $15.1 million on steak. Pete Hegseth spent $5.3 million on Apple products, and purchased a $98,329 grand piano meant for the home of the Air Force chief of staff. Additionally, $225 million went to furniture, and $60,000 of that was spent on recliners.

This is clearly excessive. Yet, it's made all the more egregious considering that, by the end of 2025, the total gross national debt was $38.4 trillion, with a $2.2 trillion increase in 2025.

Predictably, when this budget breakdown hit X, formerly known as Twitter, netizens eagerly shared their thoughts. "Tens of millions on ribeyes and lobster but we can't 'afford' pediatric cancer research," one person wrote on X. "Trump is cutting funding for SNAP but Hegseth just spent 6.9M on lobster and 2M on crab legs in ONE MONTH!" another pointed out. "Poor kids can't have soda, but Pete Hegseth can spend $93 BILLION on Donuts & ribeyes. Where TF is DOGE?" another sarcastically asked. Suffice it to say, people won't be forgetting about this one any time soon — especially while in line at the grocery store, hoping against hope to keep that bill under $100.