'Fat generals and admirals' — Pentagon spent millions on luxury food items in September

The US defence department spent a record $93.4 billion in September 2025 alone, including millions of dollars on luxury crabs and other food items, as part of a frantic end-of-the-fiscal year spending spree to maintain its immense funding, according to a report released on Tuesday.

While a majority of that $93.4 billion price tag was spent on military grants and contracts, the nonpartisan government watchdog group Open the Books noted that a significant amount of taxpayer money was used for luxury food items.

Topping the list in the September 2025 spending report, the Pentagon dished out $15.1 million for ribeye steaks, $6.9 million on lobster tails and $2 million for Alaskan king crab.

The US military also spent $1 million on salmon, $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts, $124,000 for ice cream machines and $26,000 for sushi preparation tables in September 2025.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the military in a speech on September 30 that it is "completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon."

The numbers are not anomalous, according to the watchdog group.

Open the Books noted that this is the fifth time under President Donald Trump that the Pentagon has spent $2 million or more on Alaskan king crab in a single month: twice during his first term and three times in 2025.

The only other time that happened was under Joe Biden's presidency in February 2021.

In addition, Open the Books said the Department of Defense spent more than $7.4 million on lobster tails in four separate months in 2025: March, May, June and October.

That had only happened one other time in history: October 2024.

Experts said the defence department typically spends the rest of its budget during the last quarter of the fiscal year. Under the "use it or lose it" funding rules, if the money is not spent, the Pentagon forfeits the unused portion of the budget, which could cause reduced funding the following year.

Open the Books has tracked Department of Defense’s September spending for nearly a decade and said that military expenditures have spiked every year regardless of whether a Republican or Democratic president was in office.

While the luxury food budget has caught the attention of the government watchdog group, Open the Books said that no federal agency in American history has ever spent this much money on grants and contracts in a single month.

In the last five working days of September 2025 alone, it said the Pentagon spent $50.1 billion on military grants and contracts.

In 2025, Open the Books called on Hegseth and the Pentagon to reduce wasteful spending by the military.

"Mr Secretary, you have the power to end this practice today," the group wrote. "We urge you to do so as you pursue your goal of reorientating DOD (Department of Defense) around its central warfighting and lethality mission."

The group said the money should be spent on critical items like defensive missiles and drone interceptors, not fancy appetisers.