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Media Is in a Tizzy Because We Give Troops Good Food Sometimes

War Secretary Pete Hegseth (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past." Send an email to Jarrett

In World War II, the U.S. Navy operated “ice cream” barges behind ships to make sure our sailors had a few comforts in the most terrible war in human history.

That we were able to operate such a fleet is a testament to American logistical magnificence, but if it were in operation today under President Donald Trump, the corporate media would have accused the War Department of engaging in “extravagant” spending.

There have been plenty of pernicious, media-concocted scandals associated with Trump’s presidential tenure in the last decade, but I contend that “lobstergate” may be the dumbest.

Several prominent publications ran with headlines in the last week about how War Secretary Pete Hegseth created an apparently lavish budget for steak and lobster.

These stories were based on a report from government watchdog Open The Books about a surge in the military food budget in September.

The report was straightforward and acknowledged that this sort of spending has been going on for more than a decade as the Pentagon uses up its end-of-year budget. Open The Books acknowledged that this late-year spending surge has happened “regardless of which party controlled the White House.”

That didn’t stop the deluge of misleading headlines making it seem like Hegseth and Trump were spending money on steak and lobster just to stuff their own faces.

“The Pentagon blew through a total of $93.4 billion that month by spending, for example, $6.9 million on lobster tail; $15.1 million on rib-eye steak; and $225.6 million on furniture. There were 272 orders of doughnuts and three-tiered fruit basket stands that cost $12,540,” The New York Times reported Saturday with the subheadline “Tracking the Pentagon’s profligate lobster budget.”

The Times then quoted two unfunny professional funnymen, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, mocking Hegseth and the military for wildly spending on succulent meals.

“As Paul Revere declared on his famous ride, ‘One if by surf, two if by turf,’” Colbert said.

“What is this? My 600-pound defense department? How are they eating so much food?” said Kimmel.

Several high-profile Democrats jumped in on this narrative too.

This was from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on X.

HEGSETH BLOWING $93 BILLION OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN 1 MONTH !! pic.twitter.com/L8GmyWQ2bt— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) March 10, 2026

HEGSETH BLOWING $93 BILLION OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN 1 MONTH !! pic.twitter.com/L8GmyWQ2bt

No word on if Newsom is going to do anything about the likely tens of millions of dollars or more being squelched in hospice scams in his state, or the $24 billion spent on fighting homelessness that was never tracked nor reduced homelessness, or the billions of dollars spent over the last decade on the bullet train to nowhere.

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also weighed in.

“Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS,” Schumer wrote on X. “But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs, and a Steinway & Sons grand piano.”

As Fox News pointed out, the amount of spending on military food—including steak and lobster—was essentially the same under President Joe Biden. So why didn’t he complain about this HUGE PROBLEM then? You know why.

Another critique came from an editorial in USA Today with the absurd headline “82 million can’t afford health care, but Hegseth gets lobster.”

Not only is it laughable that the money spent on military food in September could pay for the health care of 82 million Americans, but it is also downright ludicrous to think this money is going to Hegseth personally.

The author of the piece, Rex Huppke, wrote of the military giving food to troops that it’s “enough to make you want to grab a torch and pitchfork and start marching.”

I’d say the Fourth Estate should be more worried about the pitchforks than the men and women in uniform who have to do a lot more than just marching these days.

It’s certainly fair to criticize the government for how it spends the taxpayer money, and the Pentagon shouldn’t be above scrutiny. But this is hardly the first place we should choose to skimp, especially with all the military personnel currently in harm’s way.

The reality is that the U.S. military has, through most of its history, prioritized better food for our troops than other armies. We are a rich and powerful country with a penchant for logistics and supply chains.

Those qualities have allowed us to better supply our soldiers than any other mass army in the world. While I’m not saying that typical military rations are fine dining (“Unless you’re in the Navy,” as my Army Air Corps grandfather used to grouse), they’ve generally been a cut above most militaries.

And that’s for a good reason. It’s good for morale for an army to be well-fed. It’s certainly a lot better for warfighting than making the Navy go green and the other nonsense that money was wasted on under the previous administration.

They’re Americans, they should expect to have the best food and equipment in the world.

The lobstergate talking point is just mindless blather from people who’ve never thought twice about reducing the budget nor apparently thought once about the actual wellbeing of our military.

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