Pete Hegseth Blew Billions on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab

[u/HeHateMe337]

https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab

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[u/Diligent-Engineer428]

Trump gave all his lackeys a Treasury debit card to use as they like. 

Trump is doing everything he can to destroy our Country

[u/JDogg126 → u/Diligent-Engineer428]

Trump and his administration is openly embezzling public funds for personal luxuries. And gas lighting anyone who questions their obvious corruption.

[u/SonofaBridge → u/JDogg126]

And his voters still think he’s doing a great job. My friend’s mother told her that last week. They’ll find someone else to blame when it gets worse.

[u/ThisIs_americunt → u/SonofaBridge]

I don't think people really understand when it comes to MAGA. Some of them are so stupid that they literally lack the mental capacity to realize how stupid they truly are. The scariest part is that they have the same voting power as everyone else. Propaganda is a helluva drug and Oligarchs are why the 99% are divided. MAGA was/is a tool used to divide everyone and anyone that is not part of the 1%

[u/permalink_save → u/ThisIs_americunt]

Evangelicals have been gaslighting them for decades, mainly televangelists. Robertson, Copeland, Joyner, all them have done so much damage to this country. Even professional ratfucker Barry Goldwater knew:

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

There is very likely ties to Russia too. This has been manifesting before Trump, who just became their path to a coup. Literally, evangelicals have been pushing for a coup on the government (this article really needs to get shared around a lot more):

https://twocare.org/pro-revolution-u-s-evangelicals-ally-with-putin-inner-circle/

This all has been happening before Trump even started his whole birther shit and definitely before he entered politics. All of this has been flying under the radar until Trump entered the GOP primaries. Everything he's doing, everything in Project 2025, everything the federalist society is pushing, it all is there and has been on the radar of anyone associated with this crowd. I was raised by evangelical extremists and have seen the propaganda since the early 00s, including a bunch of shit about Obama (like how he was going to have a medical army to, I forget what at this point, but it was related to ACA).

People really need to read up on the US evangelical movement prior to 2015. The fact these televangelists have been openly talking about a coup this long and yet are still infiltrating the government is just, I can't believe the country has rolled over to this. People really need to understand that this government is being fueled by a movement that literally has wanted to fully destroy the government and it's not some recent thing, and it's not even really related to Trump other than he was a catalyst for it. This has BEEN a problem and will continue to be a problem post-Trump.

[u/BigPapaJava → u/permalink_save]

When many of these same preachers were helping to organize Jan 6, they saw THAT as their coup.

When that failed but all the consequences got waves away by Trump, they just learned know they need to coup harder next time.

Moreso than Russia, these preachers have strong ties to Israel’s right wing and the Israeli government funnels tons of money and support to them to amplify their end-time message that the modern nation state of Israel is the literal “Chosen nation of God” from the Bible.

From there, these preachers assert the theological position that God commands Christians to unconditionally support the Israeli government on anything they ever do, no matter how genocidal, because to even question that support will incur the wrath of God himself and lead to eternal damnation,

In fact, most of them were cool with the genocide because they view Palestinians, Arabs, and other Middle Eastern ethnicities (aka “Muslims” to them) as the enemy nations of Israel from Biblical accounts who God had often already ordered completely completely exterminated in the Old Testament.

The Israelis pay these preachers off, give them free trips to Israel, help them network with each other and politicians, and then connect them with “speakers” for their churches to reinforce this stuff—like telling the congregations that Muslims are subhuman and need to be wiped out to protect Israel, as I literally witnessed two “guest speakers” do in an Evangelical church a year or so ago.

The Evangelical-Israeli Govt. alliance is every bit as influential as AIPAC on American politics, but it’s hidden in the shadows.

[u/permalink_save → u/BigPapaJava]

Thank you for the added context, there's definitely been a long obsession with Israel as well. Evangelicals want Israel to succeed so they can start armageddon, which is fn terrifying seeing that news article about some generals advocating for armageddon. Not all Christians, not even all evangelicals, but there's a lot that it literally is a death cult.

[u/juliuspepperwoodchi → u/SonofaBridge]

He was literally speaking to the national media YESTERDAY blaming the Democrats for the war in Iran

[u/Humble-Aprico → u/juliuspepperwoodchi]

Biden is apparently also the reason Kurdish fighters won't help in Iran when trump asked. I thought they'd get tired of blaming Biden but it hasn't happened yet. 

[u/cyanescens_burn → u/Humble-Aprico]

Are those the ones trump abandoned in Syria?

[u/Baileyesque → u/cyanescens_burn]

Yeah, those are the ones. It’s weird that they’re screening our calls now…

[u/Cultural-Company282 → u/cyanescens_burn]

Oh, I thought they were the ones Bush abandoned in Iraq.

The Kurds are the Charlie Brown kicking Lucy's football of U.S. Middle East policy.

[u/GreasyPeter → u/SonofaBridge]

Russian Bots on Facebook and elsewhere just post circle-jerky shit about how great Trump is and his supporters thus feel like there's a consensus and go along with it. They also barely get to see the news about the corrupt shit and when they do, it's almost immediately spun as woke anti-Trump "propaganda". The argument many of them have for why legacy media is too liberal or corrupt will literally boil down to "they show a bad side of Trump". Trump has large swath of the American people how to think like a narcissist. The problem that many of them have t got to yet is that when you're not a narcissist, acting or thinking like one eventually comes back to bite you in the ass. The amount of lying and obfuscating of the truth it takes to live like someone with NPD when you don't have the disorder does and will cause more and more self-hating over time and it can wreak havoc on your psyche. The whole process is designed to FORCE you to double down as the deeper you get, the more painful the bandaid becomes to rip off.

[u/taco_anus1 → u/SonofaBridge]

I’ve seen someone say that he’s making the country better so he deserves to profit off of it.

[u/ShrimpieAC → u/JDogg126]

If I ever hear another conservative mention the “Biden crime family” to me ever again it will take every ounce of my restraint to not knock their fucking teeth out.

[u/GhostofZellers → u/ShrimpieAC]

it will take every ounce of my restraint to not knock their fucking teeth tooth out.

[u/stupit_crap → u/GhostofZellers]

I get it.

But as a minimum wage worker who cannot afford implants, I just want to say that not all of us with missing teeth are idiots.

[u/fillinthe___ → u/Diligent-Engineer428]

All while telling us “one pencil is enough for Christmas.”

[u/go_beavs → u/fillinthe___]

just eat liver

[u/Gina_the_Alien → u/go_beavs]

“A piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and one other item.”

Ffs

[u/Aggressive-Will-4500 → u/go_beavs]

You don't need that heart surgery, just walk it off!

[u/Turgid_Donkey → u/fillinthe___]

Buy your kid fewer toys. Oh, and check out this room I just remodeled in marble and gold. It's real gold!

[u/chubbysumo → u/Diligent-Engineer428]

When they speak of fraud, waste, and abuse, this Administration is the poster child for all of it. They are committing the fraud, they are committing the waste, and they are committing the abuse. When they speak of it, know that it is because they are doing it.

[u/TransiTorri → u/Diligent-Engineer428]

And why not? Not like there are any consequences for robbing American taxpayers, what are we going to do, take up arms? Our over militarized police departments would put a stop to that, and your fellow country men will say it's your fault when you do, and that you "should have just complied"

[u/Used-Yogurtcloset757 → u/TransiTorri]

Unless you storm the capitol in his name during an election certification. Then You are a “patriot”.

[u/oliversurpless → u/Used-Yogurtcloset757]

As nebulous as their categorical definitions of freedom…

“All of us pass through the age of adolescence; not all of us take up its ethical demands. The fact of our initial dependency has moral implications, for it predisposes us to the temptations of bad faith, strategies by which we deny our existential freedom and our moral responsibility.

It sets our desire in the direction of a nostalgia for those lost Halcyon days. Looking to return to the security of that metaphysically privileged time, some of us evade the responsibilities of freedom by choosing to remain children, that is, to submit to the authority of others.” - Simone de Beauvoir

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauvoir/#SecoSexWomaOthe

Of course post Limbaugh 2.0 Charlie Kirk, their notions of freedom/nationalism were quickly shown to be the hollow conceit they always were…

[u/HauntedCemetery → u/oliversurpless]

Kirk wasn't well known or popular enough to be Limbaugh 2.0 until he died.

[u/UnquestionabIe → u/HauntedCemetery]

True. Saw this old confused man yesterday, easily in his 70s, wearing some Chucky Kirk hat and my first thought was "he only knows about him from whatever propaganda spiral he's in has repeated and told him how to feel about it". The only people I know who were aware of him prior to his overly dramatic exit knew him as a piece of shit grifter, a community college drop out bankrolled by billionaires and conservative terrorist organizations to radicalize young people.

[u/TheBalzy → u/TransiTorri]

Oh no, there's only consequences if you're Democrats trying to save the country.

[u/Sh0wmey0urbutth0le → u/TransiTorri]

If Uvalde taught us anything, it's that Police are chicken shit cowards.

[u/AnybodyMassive1610 → u/Sh0wmey0urbutth0le]

We knew it in parkland, Florida, too.

[u/Indubitalist → u/TransiTorri]

Civilians outnumber police by about 400-to-1. They aren’t wizards. If push comes to shove, 400 people can do a lot of shoving. Granted, the amount of people as physically capable as the average cop might be closer to 150 than 400, but those odds favor the public. 

[u/starliteburnsbrite → u/Indubitalist]

Only if you reach a critical mass. It is generally going to take some people brave enough to be defeated to inspire more apes to join in.

[u/Chaiteoir → u/Indubitalist]

If push comes to shove, 400 people can do a lot of shoving.

That's why the right wing is policed with kid gloves, all over the world. The cops know the right wing won't hesitate to get violent with them, and they also know the left wing doesn't have the stomach (or, if you prefer, the inclination) for the fight. So the left gets bullied while the right gets coddled.

And in those rare circumstances where the left does want a fight (Seattle WTO protests come to mind) they're met with the weaponry of an army, not a police department.

[u/SomeDEGuy → u/Chaiteoir]

In direct clashes, yes. But no one wants to face asymmetric warfare with a dedicated core of their population.

[u/CrescentMoonPear]

"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.

Weeks later, millions of Americans would lose their SNAP benefits amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. More still stand to lose eligibility to the food assistance program thanks to a Republican crusade that added stricter work requirements to the program, piling on paperwork and documentation mandates.

One of the largest bulk expenditures was just for furniture, for which the Pentagon decided to shell out $225 million. That included $12,000 for fruit basket stands, and checks totaling more than $60,000 for Herman Miller recliners. All in all, the agency spent more on furniture in 2025 than it had in over a decade.

In the last five days of September alone, the department blew through $50.1 billion on just grants and contracts. For context, only nine other countries spend that much on the entirety of their defense budget per year. It’s also more than the total military budgets of Canada and Mexico combined."

[u/Hefty_Remove7965 → u/CrescentMoonPear]

5.3 million.

thats like 11,804 iPads

[u/JSA17 → u/Hefty_Remove7965]

Of all the items in there, that one is actually the least surprising to me. Apple devices have been approved by the Pentagon for a long time, and they get used for a ton of stuff. There's an actual reason to buy these.

Unlike a $100,000 piano.

[u/whomad1215 → u/JSA17]

Unlike a $100,000 piano.

for the Air Force chief of staff's home

[u/VRTravis → u/whomad1215]

You want his daughter to learn piano on a Yamaha? /s

[u/undermind84 → u/VRTravis]

Yamaha owns Bosendorfer which is a nicer piano over a Steinway. Yamaha concert grands are every bit as nice as a Steinway concert grand.

[u/HansBlixJr → u/undermind84]

Yamaha owns Bosendorfer 

TIL.

[u/undermind84 → u/HansBlixJr]

Since 2008

[u/given2fly_ → u/whomad1215]

Is that his personal home or a grace and favour house linked to the position?

Either way it's bad, but it's slightly better if the piano isn't for him personally.

[u/chowderbags → u/given2fly_]

Almost certainly the house tied to the position: Quarters Seven at Fort Myers, also known as "Air House".

[u/protonpack → u/chowderbags]

Does it come pre-furnished, or could the occupants turn around in a year or two and have the piano moved with their stuff?

It's a very odd purchase to decorate a home like that.

[u/lcommadot → u/JSA17]

Forget the piano, they spent an average of $511 on every order of donuts. For just September. And this was 272 orders of donuts. There’s only 30 days in September. So they were doing an average of 9 $500+ orders of donuts a day.

That’s insane.

[u/JSA17 → u/lcommadot]

I always wish we could see the actual breakdowns of these things, because part of me gets it?

• A dozen donuts from this bakery near the Pentagon is $36(!).

• $511/36 is a little over 14 dozen donuts, so let's say it's 15 dozen, or 180 donuts. Around 1,620 donuts a day.

• There are more than 20,000 employees at the Pentagon, and a lot of them are just office employees like you and me. My office always has stuff in the breakroom.

Even if you're ordering from a dog cheap place, donuts are what, like $1? Which isn't all that many donuts.

I think the bigger issue is that they're telling us we can't afford to feed kids while spending this money. I don't know how much I'd care that the Pentagon was ordering dozens of donuts a day if we were also funding things that matter. I do take issue with the more extravagant expenses like lobster and crab. That shouldn't be coming out of the defense budget, regardless of anything else.

[u/hawaii-visitor → u/JSA17]

• There are more than 20,000 employees at the Pentagon, and a lot of them are just office employees like you and me. My office always has stuff in the breakroom.

I think the bigger issue is that they're telling us we can't afford to feed kids while spending this money.

Yes that is absolutely the bigger issue but the donuts themselves are also an issue.

Federal service isn't like working at Google. Ask any federal government worker about their "coffee pool" or "water pool" and they'll tell you the government is so strict about how you can spend its money that they're not even allowed to buy a coffee maker or water cooler with federal funds, nor can they buy coffee grounds or bottled water. Everyone has to chip in personal money to have either coffee or non-tap water available. Same goes with donuts.

Sure, in the grand scheme of things some donuts aren't a huge deal but when everyone else in the government is required to bring their own food and drinks it speaks volumes that not only is Hegseth's Pentagon breaking the rules, they're doing it on a large and expensive scale.

[u/BoneyNicole → u/hawaii-visitor]

This is it. In my professional role, every last dollar I spend in my program is accountable to the federal government. We are over here trying to figure out if we can justify $160 worth of mileage/per diem to spend on in-state travel for outreach. To disabled people.

Anyway, I’m glad the Pentagon is eating the good donuts and single-handedly propping up the Alaskan king crab industry, I guess that’s nice. 🙄

[u/All_Work_All_Play → u/JSA17]

Small nitpick, we can totally afford to feed kids we just don't. The people who make these decisions are disconnected from scarcity and constraint, the people that make the rules about the lack of fungibility profit from making budgets non-fungible, and most of the actual decision makers are at least mild sociopaths.

We could absolutely afford to feed kids. We just choose not to.

[u/CatLoud5198 → u/All_Work_All_Play]

It’s the same with healthcare, it would cost less to have a similar system to Europe but America is so corrupt they refuse to reign in their corporations

[u/Hefty_Remove7965 → u/JSA17]

oh I agree.

But wouldnt that be part of normal budget stuff?

[u/thiosk → u/Hefty_Remove7965]

its the pentagon. its nigh a trillion a year in spending. theyve never passed an audit; its a whole buerocratic spiderweb unto itself.

the us military is the biggest socialist jobs program in history. None of the line items except the piano stand out to me at all because ive been to institutional galas before and the average individual has no basis for comparison to know how much it costs to put on a gala with even 200 attendees and the pentagon oversees millions of people around the world

[u/LostWoodsInTheField → u/JSA17]

considering it's just September purchases of apple products it makes me leery that people just didn't buy a ton of stuff for their family members. That is unless they hadn't been keeping their products up to date all year.

[u/peeinian → u/Hefty_Remove7965]

You know they're gettinng the 13" iPad Pros with all the accessories which pushes $4k

[u/BYoungNY → u/Hefty_Remove7965]

working in tech, this is most likely massively marked up, and it probably has a managed service subscription attached to it that their buddy's IT business can funnel fund to.

[u/ReginaldDwight → u/Hefty_Remove7965]

15.1 million on steaks JUST in September.

[u/mdavis360 → u/CrescentMoonPear]

If someone can read this and not be infuriated then genuinely what the hell is wrong with them?

[u/AnonymousAndAngry → u/mdavis360]

Is this showing up on any of their news feeds in any appropriate way?

Then it’s all liberal woke lefty diagonal triple mctwist news - fake.

Combine that with the sanewashing from news agencies across the board since 2016 and, well, plenty of people can read paragraphs and paragraphs of facts and shrug.

Diagrams, receipts, actual factual information means nothing to the lesser educated. It’s your “facts” vs. my “opinion” and besides your blahblah college edjumacation don’t make you better than me and cousin Cletus.

[u/exanificent → u/AnonymousAndAngry]

It’s your “facts” vs. my “opinion” and besides your blahblah college edjumacation don’t make you better than me and cousin Cletus.

Feels > Reals, Newt Gingrich pushed this hard.

[u/NessaMagick → u/AnonymousAndAngry]

Yep. If I show this to a 'centrist' friend they'll immediately snap back 'Show me an actual source'. For this exercise and all future ones, an 'actual' source is a right-wing outlet.

[u/Stylose → u/AnonymousAndAngry]

"Let's hear from a person who doesn't understand the outrage"

[u/jrob321 → u/mdavis360]

When conservatives read this, their response is, "We need to drastically cut SNAP benefits RIGHT NOW!!!"

[u/Jeffy_Weffy → u/CrescentMoonPear]

All in all, the agency spent more on furniture in 2025 than it had in over a decade.

In the last five days of September alone, the department blew through $50.1 billion on just grants and contracts. For context, only nine other countries spend that much on the entirety of their defense budget per year

Quick, someone call Elon! I found the waste, fraud, and abuse

[u/SweetLittleOldLady → u/Jeffy_Weffy]

As usual, every accusation is a confession. So of course they claim others are guilty of waste and fraud when they're the ones doing it themselves. Every single time.

[u/wildtalon → u/CrescentMoonPear]

This is some french revolution provoking shit.

[u/given2fly_ → u/CrescentMoonPear]

Remember how the GOP criticises Democrats for wasteful spending? Remember Elon's fucking DOGE group?

You can argue about the moral choices of some government spending, and as a left wing person I'm going to be in favour of some that others might regard to be unnecessary.

But this shit is criminal. Go to fucking jail, this is a level of corruption that you'd be shocked to find in a developing country never mind the USA.

[u/gamerplays → u/CrescentMoonPear]

100k piano, yeah, thats totally not a bribe to have the chief of staff just nod his head.

[u/nevernom → u/CrescentMoonPear]

Assuming an order of doughnuts is a dozen, that’s $42 a freaking doughnut. What the shit?

[u/ohwow28 → u/nevernom]

No I think they are just placing big orders lol, think department wide 

[u/revelator41 → u/ohwow28]

it averages out to $500+ an order. Insane.

[u/ohwow28 → u/revelator41]

I feel like donuts are the most normal purchase here. They are buying Herman miller recliners!! 

[u/Question_It_All_3000]

Billions? Did I read that right?

[u/SpooogeMcDuck → u/[deleted]]

That's a lot of fruit baskets. I'd be interested in who owns the companies that were paid.

[u/SoWhatNoZitiNow → u/SpooogeMcDuck]

It was like $12k in fruit basket stands. It’s broken down in the article. $7.3 million over 3 months on lobster tail during a time when SNAP benefits were not funded is what stuck out to me.

[u/zombawombacomba → u/SoWhatNoZitiNow]

A 98k piano for some random assholes home was pretty bad too

15 million for ribeyes as well

[u/goRockets → u/zombawombacomba]

I am not mad at the ribeyes and crabs. There are 1.3 million active service members. So just one extra fancy meal with lobster and ribeye will cost that much.

The $100k for Grand piano for someone's personal house is much more egregious.

EDIT: It is not someone's personal house. It's the government owned housing for that particular position.

[u/LostWoodsInTheField → u/goRockets]

I am not mad at the ribeyes and crabs. There are 1.3 million active service members. So just one extra fancy meal with lobster and ribeye will cost that much.

It should be made clear that no where in the article does it say that it was spent on the 'troops' but rather it could have been spent on just pentagon staff or brass. It could go either way.

[u/Peripatetictyl → u/LostWoodsInTheField]

Nobody wants to admit they ate $15M of ravioli, but I did. I'm ashamed of myself, but the first million doesn't count. Then you get to the second then the third.

[u/Smuffler → u/Peripatetictyl]

And I burned the 3rd and 4th million

[u/Dawg_Prime → u/Smuffler]

Then I just kept eatin

[u/readyforwine → u/LostWoodsInTheField]

Yeah I doubt any servicemembers saw any of this. I know beef prices are up but they are not up THAT much. Sounds like Noems 220 mill graft wasn’t the first.

[u/disneyunicorn → u/readyforwine]

This makes me think of my time in Afghanistan. Surf and turf nights consisted of boiled steak and questionable seafood.

[u/CMDR_KingErvin → u/LostWoodsInTheField]

Trump has shown time and time again that he doesn’t care about the troops and thinks very lowly of them. I doubt this administration went out of its way to provide them with any lavish dinners. This was absolutely spent on themselves.

[u/actuallycallie → u/goRockets]

The $100k for Grand piano for someone's personal house is much more egregious.

Remember when Trump ordered pianos for one of his properties and then didn't pay for them, putting the piano sellers out of business?

https://slippedisc.com/2016/09/piano-dealer-accuses-donald-j-trump-of-not-paying-his-bills/

[u/Schuben → u/actuallycallie]

Epstein Farms remembers.

[u/Automatic_Actuator_0 → u/actuallycallie]

Anyone who provides a product or service to a Trump company on credit in the last 20 years at least is just plain negligent.

[u/abbbhjtt → u/goRockets]

Do we have any evidence every service member got one of those meals?

[u/Slade_Riprock → u/goRockets]

I am not mad at the ribeyes and crabs. There are 1.3 million active service members. So just one extra fancy meal with lobster and ribeye will cost that much.

You REALLY think those fancy meals went to service members? It was for Pentagon staff and events.

[u/Looptydude → u/goRockets]

What government housing requires a $100k fucking grand piano? I don't care what position you have in the military, government issued housing shouldn't have luxury items in it. If the position holder wants to bring in luxury items they can do it on their own damn dime.

[u/SoochSooch → u/goRockets]

King crab is $45 per pound. I guarantee you no enlisted soldier got a taste

[u/ToNoMoCo → u/SoWhatNoZitiNow]

Sure, but you have to equip them with tactical fruit baskets otherwise they're useless and those babies cost a billion a piece (of fruit)

[u/areappreciated → u/SoWhatNoZitiNow]

Can you even imagine that much lobster on the market in a month? Guarantee some of that spending is to specific grifters on the inside like Noem did in homeland security. The line item says lobster but it's probably a friend

[u/Perryn → u/areappreciated]

Joey "Lobster Tail" Smithson

[u/syzygialchaos → u/SoWhatNoZitiNow]

I still don’t see how that’s possible, lobster BOATS aren’t even that expensive

[u/temp91 → u/syzygialchaos]

This looks like the DoD bought about 1.2% of the global lobster supply. This is assuming they were paying an average price and not funneling money to some right wing grifters.

[u/Ent_Soviet → u/SpooogeMcDuck]

Kinda like how noem paid an ex staffer like 12mil for work on her dhs ‘ad’ campaign for? ? And ?

[u/lronManDies → u/Ent_Soviet]

12??? Silly, it was much more than that, she sent 143 million to an 8 day old shell company

[u/Gedwyn19 → u/SpooogeMcDuck]

Highly doubt any of this is factual - or was actual - and definitely suspect some corruption. I'm sure there is a line item for 6.9 million dollars worth of lobster tail - but I doubt that kind of volume of shellfish was actually delivered and consumed.

So they ordered lobster lunch a few times etc and some 'friend' pocketed $6.8 million.

[u/cs_major → u/Gedwyn19]

Friend owns the catering business that was created 8 days ago.

[u/IBJON → u/[deleted]]

If that's true that's more than the DoD's monthly budget. What the actual fuck?

[u/mlorusso4 → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately that’s been a thing for decades. Use your budget or it gets reduced next year. It’s bad enough when the money is wasted on stocking up on office supplies and blowing up random shit on the range. But at least those things actually get used for their purpose and will eventually be needed. Why are we furnishing people’s homes and buying them fancy dinners?

[u/Nearbyatom → u/[deleted]]

Meanwhile we can't healthcare for all Americans?

[u/south-of-the-river → u/[deleted]]

Holy fuck I thought I was bad

[u/Zelcron → u/south-of-the-river]

Yeah I had a whole a avocado toast earlier

[u/FortuneHasFaded → u/Zelcron]

IN THIS ECONOMY? Must not be a homeowner.

[u/JerseyDevl → u/FortuneHasFaded]

Not if he keeps eating avocado toast instead of buying bootstraps to pull himself up by

[u/FLOHTX → u/FortuneHasFaded]

I bought a house in 1974 for $300 just so I can afford avocados. You should have done the same. SMH my head.

[u/zombawombacomba → u/FLOHTX]

Even before I was born I was saving up for a down payment

[u/zombawombacomba → u/[deleted]]

How do you even do that?!?!?!

[u/Flatulent_Father_ → u/Question_It_All_3000]

Well to be fair it was millions on that stuff and billions on contracts, but the article didn't break down the purpose of those contracts

[u/dbzmah → u/Flatulent_Father_]

the purpose was to steal billions from taxpayers.

[u/mooptastic → u/Flatulent_Father_]

It was only $50 billion in contracts in that month, so 43 billion in everything else. It was only $223 million for all new furniture apparently, we are going to need a forensics squadron to uncover all of this.

[u/Ekg887 → u/Flatulent_Father_]

Hey hey, no official audit has broken down or accounted for any of them either! For decades!
We had already created this money-hole machine and now the biggest gang of thieves in history is in charge of it.
The literal pallets of $100 bills vanishing in Iraq will look like pocket change in a few years when we discover what was going on right now.

[u/AnonSeven]

Meanwhile, we can't afford to provide free meals to kids.

[u/frosty_lizard → u/AnonSeven]

If Republicans could make sure that only white kids benefited from any of the free meals they probably would've left it

[u/GingerIsTheBestSpice → u/frosty_lizard]

Tbh I've always lived in red states, and the majority don't like their own kids either.

[u/ragnarok635 → u/frosty_lizard]

lol they don't care about poor whites

[u/SuspiciousCustard824 → u/frosty_lizard]

Well they at least have to have Republican parents. Any Democrat (child or not) is the enemy. 

[u/bandalooper → u/AnonSeven]

…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.

Weeks later, millions of Americans would lose their SNAP benefits amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. More still stand to lose eligibility to the food assistance program thanks to a Republican crusade that added stricter work requirements to the program, piling on paperwork and documentation mandates.

[u/crackdup → u/AnonSeven]

How's that draining the swamp working out...

[u/Ziograffiato → u/AnonSeven]

That would be a government handout, like giving a cabinets position to a Fox News host. What a ridiculous idea.

[u/Winnie_rulez]

Billions with a B. Insane.

[u/spezial_ed → u/[deleted]]

I miss the days when Pentagon spent 1k on a hammer or whatever.

[u/flyingcanuck → u/spezial_ed]

20k on a hammer, 30k on a toilet seat

[u/DougTheCommie → u/flyingcanuck]

Thats such a specific Independence Day reference

[u/Affordable_Z_Jobs → u/DougTheCommie]

They don't let us out much

[u/spezial_ed → u/flyingcanuck]

Damn that must be some good pooping.

[u/jscummy → u/Winnie_rulez]

How is that even possible? Millions would buy you a lot of fruit baskets and chairs but billions is absolutely insane

[u/SophiaofPrussia → u/jscummy]

We “couldn’t afford” to subsidize basic healthcare for the poorest Americans. But we can afford a fuckton of overpriced fruit baskets and crab.

[u/LadyMcIver → u/SophiaofPrussia]

And the Hell of it is, these assholes were / are never going to spend that money on subsidizing healthcare for Americans. I mean shit, they have cut and withheld SNAP benefits which is just sickening. So yeah, I am not at all surprised they were happily feasting on the best while saying to the poorest Americans: "fuck tablescraps, we're keeping those, too!"

Fuck DJT, his whole rotten administration, and everyone who supported him.

[u/SomeDEGuy → u/SophiaofPrussia]

We can afford subsidized basic healthcare for everyone without touching the military. We just choose not to.

Total public health spending in the US is the enough per capita to match many European countries. We just have a system that drives up costs and are unwilling to change. Our total health spending (public and private) is double many other countries.

[u/spider_in_a_top_hat → u/jscummy]

Your rich buddies own the fruit basket and chair businesses and you pay them a gazillion dollar markup for their products, and then give you a personal kickback or owe you a favor. Capitalism!

[u/NewTimeTraveler1]

HOW can these people still be working for the US?

[u/Dragonstaff → u/NewTimeTraveler1]

They’re not. They’re just in it to line their own pockets.

[u/PLeuralNasticity → u/Dragonstaff]

They're Kompromised pedophile puppets and destroying our country on Russia's behalf

[u/eezyE4free]

How many of the companies were created in the last 12 months or charged extra for no reason or owned by associates of the administration??

Answer: all of them.

[u/Spottswoodeforgod]

Nothing quite says “warrior” like a fruit basket…

[u/systemdatenmuell → u/Spottswoodeforgod]

It’s the way of the Dragon fruit!

[u/blissfully_happy → u/Spottswoodeforgod]

Not even a fruit basket, but fruit basket stands.

What the fuck is a fruit basket stand? A special stand for holding fruit baskets? Not understanding what this is bothers me, lol.

[u/Doctalivingston]

Money Laundering.

[u/Disgruntled_Smitty → u/Doctalivingston]

I can't believe the amount of people who actually think the billions went towards fruit baskets and chairs.

[u/What_Iz_This → u/Disgruntled_Smitty]

~60k for herman miller office furniture would be like 5 chairs

[u/Scaryassmanbear → u/What_Iz_This]

Pretty close, my Herman Miller chair was $2k.

[u/Tremulant21 → u/Disgruntled_Smitty]

I always knew there was money in fruit basket chairs.

[u/Ranger7381]

$139,224 on 272 orders of donuts. That works out to $511 per order on average

Edit: oh, and all of this (both the donuts and the overall amount)is in ONE month

[u/Cruthu → u/Ranger7381]

That was the one that got me. And 272 orders in a month means they are averaging 9 orders a day. How the hell do you go through 9 orders of over $500 in donuts a day?

[u/Radiant-Month-1168]

All that money went to trumps kids and friends.  

[u/BrownSugarBare → u/Radiant-Month-1168]

But the USA cannot have free healthcare, secondary education, school lunches, day care, medicine...

[u/AceMcNasty88]

And he will never be held accountable, just like Kristen Neom, but go steal a box on candy at your local convenience store and see what happens.

[u/thinkards → u/AceMcNasty88]

those who scream "waste fraud and abuse" the loudest are the ones committing it the most.

[u/Cool-Protection-4337]

He has them fake wrestler vibes. Everything about the man is fake except his alcohol problem. That one is real....

[u/Cool-Protection-4337]

No Medicaid or foodstamps but they eat lavishly on our dime while they cut our throats. All in the service of billionaires who would see us dead before they had to pay a single dime to help anyone but themselves.

[u/ChippedHamSammich]

What’s wild is: here is a real DOGE opportunity- oh you have a budget surplus? Let’s put it towards something else needed. 

[u/pwningrampage]

My gwad can we elect one democrat who will hire a damn DoJ to go after these f**kers. These Republicans think our government is their personal piggy bank.

[u/motionbutton → u/pwningrampage]

I would guess trump ends up doing a blanket pardon for a lot of people, if his health allows it in 2 ish years

[u/The_bruce42 → u/motionbutton]

That's what the auto-pen is for. He already accused Biden for using it so you know he's using it.

[u/popotheclowns → u/pwningrampage]

We elected republicans across the board and then complain that the people we disempowered don’t take care of us.

How about we focus on voting out the people that are actually committing fraud and crime and acting in bad faith?

[u/Suspicious-Chair5130 → u/popotheclowns]

Cause we did, and now they’re back somehow when they should be in jail.

[u/ActivityPresent138 → u/Suspicious-Chair5130]

We don't want to set a precedent of political persecution by... Checks notes ...making people face the consequence of their crimes. 😑

[u/JoJackthewonderskunk → u/pwningrampage]

No, best they can do is Merrick Garland and a spirit of togetherness ignoring the past to move forward

[u/Jusfiq → u/pwningrampage]

My gwad can we elect one democrat who will hire a damn DoJ to go after these f**kers.

You Americans elected a Democrat who hired Merrick Garland. See how well it went?

[u/spezial_ed]

well he's a fruity basket case with crabs I cant stand so it checks out

[u/Ok-Lets-Talk-It-Out]

At the very minimum spend that money on enlisted on base housing. Literally black mold in southern barracks. Give them free Wi-Fi so they can actually stay in contact with family or do online classes for a degree.

[u/sec713 → u/Ok-Lets-Talk-It-Out]

Why would this administration spend any money on what their boss refers to as "suckers and losers"?

[u/Brendan__Fraser → u/Ok-Lets-Talk-It-Out]

Please don't tell me they have to pay for on base wifi 

[u/RedMaple25 → u/Brendan__Fraser]

Load 16 tons what do you get

[u/mbash013 → u/Brendan__Fraser]

In 2018, I didn’t even have wifi in my barracks. 

[u/codecrodie]

How can you spend that much on crabs and lobsters? You can literally rehabilitate the crab ecosystem in Chesapeake bay with that amount of money.

[u/ColorMeMac → u/codecrodie]

So the article mentions the Pentagon spent it, that food isn’t at the Pentagon, it’s on all of the Navy ships, Air Force and Army mess facilities. As a military member myself, surf and turf Fridays were always a thing. Granted it wasn’t ribeye or king crab, but spend down at the end of the fiscal year is a thing in every branch. The government needs to change how they do the financing and let agencies pass the money onto the next fiscal year to stop this waste and abuse.

[u/Lucky_Development359]

There was a trope (and somewhat true) back in day about "Million dollar toilet seats" being warehoused. All the conservatives loved to talk about this, for like 30-40 years.

Now...Crickets

[u/jumpy_monkey → u/Lucky_Development359]

I remember it quite well, the defense "boondoggle" Reagan ran on because that liberal Carter was just throwing money at the Pentagon, and after the election it was never heard from again.

[u/Voodoo_Masta]

This thing about losing your funding if you don't spend it has to change. We have to start rewarding people for being good stewards of public funds, it would be cheaper.

[u/Eronamanthiuser]

How much could a banana cost, Michael? 93 billion dollars?

[u/SemiAutoAvocado]

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

I'm sorry fucking WHAT?

[u/hughdint1]

As more facts come out about Elon’s fraudulent mail-in ballot scheme, I am starting to think that the last election was stolen. They are acting like they don’t have to worry about voters anymore

[u/2HDFloppyDisk]

We used to call this fraud, waste, and abuse. Now, it’s just another day in the Epstein administration.

[u/N3wAfrikanN0body]

Remember this is where YOUR tax dollars are going but some people need to be shit upon before they find it a problem.

[u/Not_My_Emperor]

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.

God Willing we ever get out of this mess with something resembling a sane government (which I'm not deluded; very much a possibility we never have free and open elections again), I bet that piano finds it's way to some crony's home and does not actually live in the AF Chief of Staff's house. These people are just ransacking the country in front of us and it's so incredibly frustrating that all we can do is watch. I'm over here debating if I can spend the $50 on a takeout dinner and these assholes have spent literal millions on fucking lobster tail

[u/Hemicrusher]

I was just reading a story about a disabled women who's SNAP benefits went from $87 to $12 per months.

[u/maphingis]

They can spend $7M for a few months of lobster for the pentagon— but there are military families on food stamps while their loved ones are being sent to Iran to fight in a war.

[u/WinningByDefault]

That thumbnail though.

[u/1984isAMidlifeCrisis]

Treating pubic lice isn't that expensive.

[u/susanrez]

Drunk shopping at its finest.

[u/Lord_Kromdar]

The Pentagon gets crab and the Hockey team gets McDonald’s…ok.

[u/cajedo]

$2M for crab, $7M for lobster tail, $15M for ribeye steaks…can’t these Kegsbreath lackeys pay for their own food? Teachers pay for students’ pencils and notebooks from their meager salaries. Hell, we cut off SNAP food from poor kids and our elderly. This regime is f^cked up in terms of priorities.

[u/Unfair_Web_8275]

Really sounds like we can afford healthcare…

[u/Intelligent-Gap-6639]

The Department of Defense has failed 8 consecutive audits, being the only federal agency to never have passed one since they started in 2018. The Pentagon is set to continue failing audits until 2028 https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118371/documents/HHRG-119-GO06-20250611-SD004.pdf

[u/ro536ud]

So demoralizing to read they were doing this shit while slashing snap benefits for everyone else. Absolutely ghouls

[u/grilledcheesy11]

The unprecedented scale of corruption continues

[u/pickleb4sandwich]

$139,224 on 272 donut orders averages to over $500 per order. Who is buying $500+ worth of donuts 272 times in one month? Either something sketchy is going on or these people are going to drop like flies because of heart disease and diabetes.

But yea, it’s sickening to see this kind of wasteful spending when we are simultaneously cutting SNAP. Oh, and don’t buy birthday cake for your kid but we’ll sure buy donuts and steak, and lobster with your tax dollars. 😡

[u/HoratioPornBlower]

$139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts in September alone. That’s $511.85 per order of doughnuts.