Guess What Pete Hegseth's Department of Defense Is Spending an Absurd Amount of Money On

"In 2025, across more than 1,600 individual transactions-averaging more than four a day-the department formerly known as defense laid out $81.5 million on lobster tails. That's more than the reported net worth of the Emily Blunt-John Krasinski household. More than the entire estate Gene Hackman left behind when he died last winter."

"The organization purports to track the proliferation of "radical DEI" school curricula and "anti-Israel worldviews." But it also routinely takes aim at the exorbitant expenditures of so-called Use-It-or-Lose-It September, the month at the end of the fiscal year when each government department must either plow through the rest of its budget or end up with an unusable surplus."

"Under Hegseth, 2025 saw the Pentagon's most expensive September since the George W. Bush years. Among its more absurd purchases were a $98,329 grand piano for the home of the Air Force chief of staff (an essential tool for military readiness), a $21,750 custom flute."

The Department of Defense spent $81.5 million on lobster tails in 2025, averaging more than four transactions daily across 1,600+ individual purchases. This expenditure exceeds the net worth of celebrity households and professional athlete salaries. Open the Books, a nonprofit organization tracking government spending, obtained these public records. The spending reflects the "Use-It-or-Lose-It September" phenomenon, where government departments must exhaust remaining budgets to avoid losing funds for the next fiscal year. Under Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon's September 2025 spending reached its highest level since the George W. Bush administration, including other questionable purchases like a $98,329 grand piano and a $21,750 custom flute.

Read at Slate Magazine