In five days
Pentagon spends a fortune on luxury products
Updated March 11, 2026 – 1:44 p.mReading time: 4 minutes
A new analysis accuses the US Department of Defense of massive spending shortly before the end of the fiscal year – apparently the result of a controversial rule.
According to research, the US Department of Defense under Minister Pete Hegseth spent around 93.4 billion US dollars on grants and contracts in September 2025 – the equivalent of around 86 billion euros. The expenditure therefore only includes money transferred to entities outside the government, but does not include salaries for members of the armed forces and numerous other expenses.
According to the newly published analysis by the transparency organization “Open the Books”, part of the money flowed into unusual purchases: millions of dollars were spent on lobsters and king crabs, expensive office furniture, hundreds of tablets and even a Steinway piano worth almost $100,000 for the house of the US Air Force chief of staff.
The expenditure itself dates back several months. The case is only now hitting the headlines because “Open the Books” has subsequently evaluated the state financial data and has now published its analysis.
According to the authors, the timing of the payments is particularly striking: in the last five working days of September alone, the Pentagon spent around 50.1 billion US dollars – around 46 billion euros. This is more than the entire annual defense budget of countries like Israel or Italy.
According to the analysis, a rule of US budget law may be behind the spending surge: the “use it or lose it” principle. Agencies must spend their allocated funds by the end of the fiscal year, which ends September 30 in the United States. Unused funds expire – and can have a negative impact on future ministry budgets.
That is why government procurement traditionally increases sharply in the last weeks of the budget year. According to the research, this does not only affect the current Department of Defense or other agencies of the Trump administration. In the report, a management consultant even compares the last day of the fiscal year to an “Amazon Prime Day” – a large shopping event – for government contracts.
However, some of the Defense Department’s spending is particularly eye-catching: Some of it went to food for military facilities, including apparently luxury products: According to the report, in September the Pentagon ordered lobster tails for $6.9 million, Alaskan king crabs for $2 million, rib-eye steaks worth $15.1 million and salmon for around $1 million. There was also $139,224 for donuts, about $124,000 for ice cream machines and $26,000 for sushi prep tables.
Office equipment also had an impact. The Defense Ministry spent $225.6 million on furniture in September, the equivalent of a good 200 million euros. According to the analysis, these included high-priced office chairs and three-story fruit basket stands for around $12,540.
After all: According to the report, the Pentagon’s spending on furniture was significantly lower in the last fiscal year than under President Barack Obama. The military regularly spent $300 to $400 million on this category in September. However, compared to Joe Biden’s government, current spending is said to have increased significantly. Since 2008, there have only been four September months in which the Defense Department spent less than $178 million on furniture: the four in which Biden was still president.
