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By Alice Gibbs
Senior Reporter
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The Pentagon spent millions of dollars on luxury food items, consumer electronics and other discretionary purchases in the final month of the last fiscal year, according to a new analysis by government spending watchdog Open the Books.
The report found that the Department of Defense, headed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, spent $93.4 billion on grants and contracts in September 2025, the largest single‑month total ever recorded by any federal agency.
Open the Books said the spending included millions of dollars on seafood, steak and technology purchases, which the group criticized as misplaced priorities amid heightened global security tensions.
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Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email for comment.
Why It Matters
As secretary of defense, Hegseth has publicly emphasized refocusing the department on core defense priorities and military readiness. But the data from Open the Books reveals that the Pentagon’s end‑of‑year spending reflected something quite different.
According to the analysis, the Defense Department spent $2 million on Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million on lobster tail in September 2025 alone. The same month also saw $15.1 million spent on rib-eye steak, alongside purchases of salmon and other food items.
What To Know
Open the Books reported that $50.1 billion of the September total was spent in the final five working days of the fiscal year, a pace it described as unmatched in federal spending history.
The figures reflect grants and contracts awarded to outside entities, not salaries or routine personnel costs. While the numbers are shocking, September spending spikes have occurred under multiple administrations, regardless of which party controlled the White House.
But much of the spending has been questioned for its lavish nature. In September, Hegseth spent nearly $100,000 on a Steinway & Sons grand piano to outfit the home of the Air Force chief of staff. A further $5.3 million was spent on Apple devices, including brand-new iPads, according to the report.
More funds were allocated to interior design, including $225.6 million for furniture, including $12,540 for fruit-basket stands and more than $60,000 for high-end furniture maker Herman Miller recliners. The report noted that the agency spent more money on furniture in 2025 than it has since 2014.
Perhaps most notable, though, was the food spending, which came in at more than $20 million. This included $15.1 million on rib-eye steak, $1 million of salmon, 272 orders of doughnuts for $139,224, $124,000 for ice-cream machines and $26,000 for sushi preparation tables.
The spending surge is thought to have been a result of the Pentagon’s "use‑it‑or‑lose‑it" budget deadline, a long‑standing feature of the federal budget process that requires most government agencies to use their annual discretionary funding by the end of the fiscal year on September 30, or return any unspent money to the U.S. Treasury.
Previous research into the "use-it-or-lose-it" system has found that this structure often creates strong incentives for agencies to accelerate spending as the fiscal year draws to a close, even when the timing may not align with long‑term planning needs.
What People Are Saying
Open The Books said in its report: "Trump has called for the DoD budget to increase from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2027, which would make a balanced budget even more infeasible. Before committing to such a drastic funding boost, Congress should consider allowing the DoD to roll over portions of its budget to the following year instead of wasting money on seafood and pianos every September."
What Happens Next
Open the Books is calling on Congress to reconsider the one‑year deadline that governs most federal spending, arguing it encourages wasteful purchasing at the end of each fiscal year. The Pentagon has not publicly commented on the spending.
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