On Monday, a most unusual attack was launched against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Attacks on Hegseth are pretty much par for the course as he's easily the member of President Trump's cabinet most hated by the left and the mainstream media. This one was unusual not only for its superficiality, but also for the ease with which it was debunked and the number of Democrat politicians and media outlets who let their hatred of a man and an administration prevent them from ever questioning the story.
First off, if you've been in the military or federal government, you know what the procurement environment is like in September. It is the last month of the fiscal year. It is the witching hour for current fiscal year appropriations. This is when money is reprogrammed from accounts that can't spend it to those who can. Every cent has to be spent by September 30, or it is lost. Worse than lost, someone up the food chain may cut your budget since you didn't spend everything, thereby proving you were overfunded. Without tight management, it can devolve into a spending bacchanalia. Even with tight management, it would cause Ron Paul to stroke out. For some reason, The New Republic, which has degenerated from an outlet that sane people might read into a Tumblr for TDS sufferers, chose this week to cover Pentagon spending in September and was apparently unaware of the context and unwilling to ask for explanations.
Some of the frivolous September purchases made under Secretary Pete Hegseth’s stewardship include a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of shellfish, including $2 million for Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million worth of lobster tail. (Lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon—the department spent more than $7.4 million total on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October.)
In other pricey food purchases, the government decided to drop $15.1 million for ribeye steak (again, just in September), $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.
The result was sad and hilarious. Sad that so many profoundly stupid people pretend to influence and govern us, and hilarious because laughing at self-unaware imbeciles is always fun.
The mother lode of stupid comes from Paul Begala, one of the Clinton mafiosi and alleged strategist. He was on CNN's "The Source With Kaitlan Collins" Wednesday night, where he claimed that Hegseth, personally, ate the $6.9 million in lobster tail.
NEW: CNN’s Paul Begala seems to think Pete Hegseth ate $6.9 million of lobster tail all by himself in the month of September.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 12, 2026
Begala: He has spent $15 million in one month for ribeye steak, $6.9 million for lobster tail… all for himself.
Scott Jennings: Do you believe the… pic.twitter.com/eTU54ORgc4
BEGALA: You know what’s important? He [Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth] has spent 15 million dollars in one month for ribeye steak, 6.9 million for lobster tail, 225 million dollars for furniture. He spent more in the month of September than most countries on Earth spent in their defense. All for himself! Lobster tails!? While our troops are eating MREs!? Lobster tails!?
JENNINGS: Do you believe the secretary of defense is personally eating all the lobster? It’s for the troops!
BEGALA: Oh really? The troops are getting lobster!?
JENNINGS: Frequently in theater! Troops who are going to war.
BEGALA: Oh my God!
JENNINGS: You know that!
BEGALA: They’re getting lobster, you are so full of it!
JENNINGS: You’re gonna get killed over this, you’re gonna get killed over this. Internet, do something!
BEGALA: They get the gold mine, we get the shaft!
Here is the monumentally unfunny comedian Seth Meyers. Why does the left have to try to gaslight us into believing their comedians are funny? Don't they have real ones?
Seth Meyers (with the help of a Jen Psaki clip) joins Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert in not knowing about military surf and turf meals, "They spent $15 million on steak in one month. Who are you? Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce? If you're gonna eat that much steak, you better… pic.twitter.com/eskqq2b3US
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 12, 2026
This man helps select federal judges and U.S. Attorneys.
While Americans struggle with the high costs of living, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spent millions on lobster tails?…..
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) March 11, 2026
Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars. pic.twitter.com/P6tAPm5b2Q
And she's responsible for...for...well, for something that nepo-elected senators do, not really sure what that is, but it has to be important, amirite?
Trump and Republicans took food assistance away from hungry children, working parents, and veterans while enjoying $93 billion of things like lobster and steak.https://t.co/rfPtw5RDll
— Rep. Debbie Dingell (@RepDebDingell) March 11, 2026
Leftist media also piled on.
😳 Pete Hegseth blew billions on shellfish, steak, fruit baskets and furniture.
— TMZ (@TMZ) March 10, 2026
Read more: https://t.co/eh8qa4CODH pic.twitter.com/F4NVYRXWUn
Remember when they defunded food for hungry children a few months ago? https://t.co/FuGSYXJh9P
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 10, 2026
There was a clue built into The New Republic story that indicated some of this might not be as frivolous as alleged had someone with an IQ on the right side of the Bell Curve written it: "(Lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon—the department spent more than $7.4 million total on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October.)" Why, one might ask, is the Pentagon dropping $7 million per month on "surf and turf?"
As it turned out, the grand piano was allocated to the Air Force band. We can debate that, but portraying it as adorning the Air Force Chief of Staff's living room was dishonest.
The Steinway piano was ordered for Air House, a historic air force building that coincidentally serves as the residence for the Air Force chief of staff. On the right you'll see that it was provisioned for the "USAF Band." It's not some general's personal piano in his private… https://t.co/g2jNSh0ifW pic.twitter.com/W6dLDqWooB
— Chris (@chriswithans) March 11, 2026
The answer to the steak-and-lobster scandal was rather mundane. It was for military dining facilities, in particular those deployed in war zones, or for ships and units whose deployments had just been extended as a sort of consolation prize.
Look at these gluttonous infantrymen cooking steak on their shitty little combat outpost… what a waste of taxpayer money pic.twitter.com/gWJDWAYqZB
— Voödoo 6 von Inyanga (@6Voodoo) March 11, 2026
The reality of steak and lobster in the military. pic.twitter.com/pmeOrvFAGl
— Kagan.Dunlap (@Kagan_M_Dunlap) March 11, 2026
🔥🚨BREAKING: Pete Hegseth's Department of War is facing backlash from liberals after reportedly buying $22 mil worth of steak and lobster near the end of the spending year.
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) March 11, 2026
Liberals are attempting to criticize the DOW but are disregarding the fact that our government pays for… pic.twitter.com/2pzUAkyARG
Military steak and lobster (surf 'n turf) isn't what most of you are imagining. No restaurant would ever serve it because no customer would ever buy it. The steak is cheap and tough; the lobster, a small and terribly hairy variety I've never seen anywhere else. It's more of a… https://t.co/shfT1JbyaQ
— Pvt A B (@col_a_buendia) March 11, 2026
What was saddest about this bizarre, though increasingly commonplace episode was the veterans who deliberately lied about what the expense entailed for the sole purpose of damaging the reputation of a much better man. Men so utterly degraded by their political stances that they have totally lost any vestigial sense of honor they once had.
Even though Adam Kinzinger never got closer to combat than shooting some reporter (Watch: Senate Candidate Steps on One Last Rake, Justifying Wounding a Reporter – RedState), there is no doubt he experienced steak-and-lobster nights departing on or returning from deployments.
DOGE said it was cutting government waste.
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@AdamKinzinger) March 11, 2026
So they gutted USAID — the agency that feeds starving people around the world.
Meanwhile the Pentagon spent millions on lobster, ribeye, and even a $98,000 piano. (link in reply) pic.twitter.com/AUgtVQmMkj
And there is Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe, a person (I won't use the term "man") with several combat deployments who participated in these meals and is now pretending it is a scandal.
Pete Hegseth is spending millions of your tax dollars on lobster, ribeye, and a grand piano.
— Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) March 11, 2026
Meanwhile, he’s sending Americans off to war and folks are struggling to get by. https://t.co/wApmTlF4o7
This retired colonel sums up Crowe the best.
How many times did you eat steak and lobster when you were downrange, you Blue Falcon filth?
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) March 12, 2026
HOW MANY TIMES?
Answer the question. https://t.co/fqJB4kHJ1A
If you're not familiar with the term Blue Falcon, never say I wasn't generous with my time.
The minions of the left are after Hegseth because he not only has stopped their "long march through the institutions" at the Pentagon, he is actively uprooting what they planted and sowing salt into the earth. But if this is the best they can do, he has nothing to worry about.
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