In the final month of the fiscal year—when federal agencies drain the remains of their budget allotments—the military spent $6.1 million on lobster, $16.6 million on rib-eyes, $6.8 million on Alaska king crabs and salmon, and $117,787 on donuts.
That was part of a $79.4 billion final spending spree for the month.
That happened in 2024, under Lloyd Austin, Biden’s occasionally AWOL secretary of defense.
There were a few isolated complaints but the media by and large behaved itself because our troops deserve the best. If they get surf-and-turf for dinner from time to time, so be it because the rest of the year, many of them live on Meals Ready To Eat in training and deployment.
Real Clear Investigations called it the “Waste of the Day.” I was disappointed because for the first time I can remember, Real Clear Politics and its subsidiaries let me down.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst tweeted, “Maintaining our national security is the highest priority, but we must ensure that defense dollars are spent on just that, defense.
“We need a full audit of the Pentagon and to declare war on waste by ending the use-it-or-lose-it model that encourages defenseless spending.”
Ernst also tweeted, “Who needs a 5-star restaurant when you can dine at Bistro Le Taxpayer Department of Defense.”
She knows better because she served for 23 years in the Iowa Army National Guard, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
When in session, members of Congress receive $79 for meals per day—or up to $15,000 a year.
The Pentagon spends $18-$20 a day to feed each serviceman.
Vin Tanner spoke for many of us when he tweeted, “I’d rather pay for our troops to eat steak and lobster than pay for welfare queens to eat steak and lobster.”
Most of those who use EBT (food stamps) to buy lobster and rib-eyes do not eat that food because you have to cook it. They use taxpayer money to buy the surf-and-turf and then sell this free food at half-price to others in the store’s parking lot. That is one way to convert EBT into cash.
True Americans want our troops eat well instead of illegal aliens with EBT cards.
The same thing surf-and-turf controversy arose this year. A few media outlets are going hog-wild because the Department of War spent roughly the same amount Austin’s DOD spent. Surf-and-turf amounted to 0.024% of September’s Pentagon spending spree of $93.4 billion.
The fancy food is worth every penny in terms of morale. Look at the soldiers enjoying their meal in that video. They earned it.
We have a commander-in-chief (that would be President Trump) whose war consigliere, Pete Hegseth, has supervised missions that closed the Mexican border, ended Iran’s nuclear program, cleaned up the crime and grime in DC, obliterated drug smugglers in the Caribbean, arrested Maduro and is ending a 47-year war with the Death-to-America regime in Iran.
I say a lobster in every pot and a rib-eye on the grill for these heroes because have done a decade’s worth of work in a little over a year.
An army runs on its belly. Commanders occasionally throw a surf-and-turf dinner. The tradition goes way back. When Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were in the service, you know what they ate?
That’s right. Rock Lobster.
You say it is no joking matter? No, my friends, it is very much a joking matter. Veterans are pointing at the journalists and laughing at their ignorance.
The same media that dismisses as Islamophobic anger against Somalians for ripping off $9 billion from taxpayers for fake daycare centers is self-righteously complaining about feeding our troops fancy food occasionally. The amount is but 0.2% of the Somalian fraud in Minnesota alone.
TMZ said, “Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department reportedly blew through tens of billions in one month including huge splurges on steak, lobster, crab, fruit baskets, and furniture according to recent analysis by the government watchdog Open the Books.”
By watchdog TMZ means foaming-at-the-mouth liberals.
Seldom does TMZ get as misleading as this. The site made it seem like Hegseth spent billions on luxurious food. The reality is the amount spent worked out to one lobster and one ribeye for every serviceman.
Media-ite bleated the party line as well, “Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department Blew $22M On Steak and Lobster in a Single Month, Watchdog Claims.”
Fox 11 in LA named and framed it, “Lobstergate: Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon faces backlash over $7 million lobster spree.”
Just a reminder, 99.976% of the fiscal year ending’s spending did not go to surf and turf.
Will Chamberlain tweeted, “The scandal, if there is any, is that the military spends so much on steak and lobster and doesn’t teach the cooks how to make it properly.
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“That is one gray steak.”
Salena Zito nailed down why the media swung and missed on this story.
She tweeted, “I covered the military from 2003 through the drawdown. I learned a lot of things I never knew anything about. It was an education that was a baptism by fire, but I got to use that knowledge today twice, first on the protocol on who salutes who first and now on the lobster meals for our troops. Probably of all the information I gleaned over the years in covering the military probably not the most critical to have retained.”
She is a unicorn. While she wasn’t in the military, she was embedded long enough to understand it.
I worked in newspapers as a civilian for 33 years. I do not recall any other veteran in the newsroom over that time. Journalism schools should require two years in the military—or at least boot camp.
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This article first appeared on Don Surber’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission.
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