Pianos, iPads and a lot of shellfish: Pete Hegseth's Pengaton spending spree

Pete Hegseth, the thirsty defence/war secretary currently acting as frontman for his boss Donald Trump’s folly over Iran, is clearly a fruitcake. But at the same time as acting out his action hero fantasies at the Pentagon, he’s also managed to burn through a lot of public cash on, among other things, fruit basket stands.

Figures showing defence department spending under Hegseth show a mind-blowing amount being blown on items not ordinarily considered essential to the defence of a nation, including a top-end piano, furniture, iPads and enough shellfish to keep an army going for months, were shellfish not famously highly perishable.

Analysis by US government watchdog Open the Books has revealed that the Pentagon spent more money last September – the end of the 2025 US financial year – than it had in any other year since 2008. The department splashed out an incredible $93 billion, seemingly in order to burn through what was left of its congressionally allocated budget.

If US federal agencies do not use the entirety of their budgets by the end of the financial year, they lose access to that cash completely, with the potential of having to request a reduced budget the following year.

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But much of Hegseth’s shopping list hardly seems relevant to modern, or indeed any, warfare. It included a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s house, plus $5.3 million for Apple devices like the new iPad.

A massive spend on food included a whopping $6.9 million worth of lobster tail. According to The New Republic, the department also spent more than $7.4 million total on lobster tail in March, May, June and October.

The department also managed to spend $15.1 million on ribeye steak in September alone, plus $2 million on Alaskan king crab, $124,000 on ice cream machines and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.

One of the biggest outlays was furniture, on which Hegseth managed to shell out $225 million, including $12,000 on ‘fruit basket stands’. All in all, the agency spent more on furniture in 2025 than it had in more than a decade.

If only Donald Trump had begun his second term by, say, setting up a new department of government efficiency with a chainsaw-wielding bro promising to cut all wasteful spending in charge…