To avoid losing Fiscal Year 2026 funding, the Department of Defense spent $90 billion in the final month of FY2025—including millions on frivolous or luxury items. 

For decades, and perhaps even longer, the United States Armed Forces have been accused of reckless and wasteful spending. Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) continued this trend, seeing taxpayer money virtually blown into the wind by the Department of Defense. In September 2025, at the end of the fiscal year, the Pentagon’s “defense spending” totaled $90 billion in grants and contracts—including millions of dollars on crab meat and a luxury grand piano, among other extravagances.

Though one might be tempted to blame Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for the profligate spending, and some blame is probably warranted, the issue runs far deeper than one irresponsible administration. In fact, the problem lies in the way the Pentagon is funded. If it fails to spend the money it is appropriated in a certain year, it triggers an automatic funding cut the following year. In other words, the money is literally “use it or lose it”—leading DoD officials to spend money like a drunken sailor on leave.

Government watchdog Open The Books (OTB) reported that the Department of Defense’s (DoD) spending in September 2025 totaled $93.4 billion—the largest end-of-year spending bonanza since 2008. In the final month of FY25, the Pentagon directed vast sums to items like furniture, which is typically at the top of the end-of-fiscal-year spending lists due to its high cost.

The report stated that the DoD spent more than $225 million on furniture, including $60,000 on premium Herman Miller chairs that month. However, it noted that the current Pentagon had actually spent less on furniture in the final month of the budget year than during President Barack Obama’s first years in office, when September furniture purchases regularly exceeded $300 million.

Even during the Biden administration, when nearly all officials were working remotely due to the global COVID pandemic and office furniture should not have been needed, DoD devoted $3 billion to furniture purchases between 2020 and 2022.

DoD Is Feeding the Troops—Plenty of Seafood!

What is notable about the Pentagon under Hegseth’s leadership is that the food budget was far higher than normal.

The Open the Books report noted that DoD had bought $2 million worth of Alaskan king crab from a variety of distributors. Other food-related expenses included $7 million for lobster tails—down from $7.4 million in March, May, and June. An additional $1 million was spent on salmon, and $15.1 million on ribeye steak, with a more modest $139,000 set aside for doughnuts.

Americans have complained about affordability, especially at the grocery store, but the Pentagon didn’t scale back its purchases. The DoD has claimed in recent years that such luxury items are for special meals, including holidays, and to boost morale before or during a deployment.

Musical Instruments for Generals While Military Bands Are Dissolved

The spending is hardly music to anyone’s ears, yet for reasons that seem downright confusing, the Pentagon apparently has a separate budget for musical instruments from that for official bands. That included $98,329 for a Steinway & Sons grand piano from Missouri-based Piano Gallery Inc, $26,000 for a Gonzalo Bayolo violin from Washington Fine Violins, and $21,750 for a handmade flute from Japanese instrument maker Muramatsu.

In total, $1.8 million was spent on musical instruments in September 2025.

What the Open The Books group didn’t note is that numerous US military bands have been deactivated or consolidated since 2011, primarily due to budget cuts and efforts to reduce overhead. In 2024 alone, the US Army broke up four prominent military bands, including the 11th Airborne Division Band, US Army Japan Band, 399th Army Band, and 77th Army Band.

The Air Force had previously disbanded the Band of the Air Force Reserve, Band of the Pacific-Alaska, and Band of Liberty. In March 2024, all Air National Guard bands were inactivated, marking the end of 75 years of continuous service.

Multiple USMC and US Navy bands have also been lost due to budget constraints.

These bands served in official roles for decades, and their loss is a great tragedy for the armed services and the country. However, one servicemember unlikely to be affected much is the Air Force Chief of Staff, who took delivery of the aforementioned piano at his residence. 

The Pentagon Has a $6 Billion Subscription Budget

In September 2025 alone, the DoD spent nearly $6 billion on information technology, including $3.5 billion for cable TV and technical support. It is unknown what premium channels and add-on services were in the bundle.

But what is also notable is that it was only the fourth-highest bill for a single month.

The rest of the money went towards computers, including laptops and licenses, as well as monitors, and various Apple devices. No mention was made of whether the government was able to secure any bulk-purchase discounts. 

Another $6.6 Billion Went to Foreign Governments

The Trump administration has pushed an “America First” agenda—yet it still spent $6.6 billion on goods from foreign governments, including $3 billion for training classes, janitorial services, and border surveillance.

The additional $3.6 billion covered a wide variety of goods, ranging from computer chips to fire trucks. The watchdog explained that $2.2 billion of the products were made in America, but still by foreign-owned firms. Another $1.4 billion was spent on items produced entirely abroad.

Ironically, this bill may have been lower if the products being purchased were not subjected to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

For fiscal year 2027 (FY27), President Donald Trump has called for an increased DoD budget reaching $1.5 trillion. One can only imagine how many crab legs, office chairs, and pianos will be purchased at the end of September 2027 if it is approved!

For a reference point, it is worth noting that, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the first 100 hours of Operation Epic Fury cost US taxpayers roughly $900 million per day. As of this week, more than $3.7 billion has been spent on the bombing campaign. That kind of money can buy a lot of crab legs.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines, and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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