Defense spending: King crab, lobster tail cost taxpayers more than $80 million in a few months
Topline: One doesn’t associate luxury with being in the military, but Pentagon personnel spent record amounts of money dining on seafood in 2025, according to federal spending records reviewed by Open the Books.
Key facts: From March to November 2025, the military spent $15.9 million on 524 orders of Alaskan king crab and $66.7 million on 1,359 orders of lobster.
There have only been seven times in history where the Pentagon spent at least $2 million on Alaskan king crab in a single month. Donald Trump has been president for six of them. It happened in July 2019, October 2020 and four times in 2025. Joe Biden’s military bought $2.2 million worth of king crab in February 2021.
King crab has replaced caviar as the country’s “hottest luxury ingredient,” according to Bloomberg, with wholesale prices reaching $85 per pound. One seafood merchant explains that “king crab isn’t a budget buy,” due to its “remote harvesting” and “labor-intensive handling.”
The lobster spending is also on track to greatly exceed previous levels. During Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2020, the military ate $108.4 million worth of lobster in a four-year span — versus the $66.7 million spent in 8 months last year.
The DOD has also bought $170.5 million worth of ribeye steak and $17.6 million in salmon since Trump’s second term began.
Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.
Background: While shellfish is a small expense in the grand scheme of the military’s budget, it is a signal that overall spending is increasing. The DOD spent $93.4 billion on grants and contracts in September 2025, the most expensive month on record dating back to 2008.
Trump recently called for the military budget to increase from $900 billion to $1.5 trillion, which the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates would create $5.8 trillion worth of debt in the next decade.
The Washington Post reported that defense officials are “struggling” to figure out what they would do with the extra money. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has internally objected to the budget increase, according to the Post.
Summary: The massive U.S. military budget should be spent on projects that contribute to national security, not luxuries that many taxpayers cannot afford for themselves.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com