‘Lobstergate’ shows just how far our media have sunk

It is a terrible time to be a news consumer. Sadly, the only way to explain today’s media is to write them off as either malicious or hopelessly incompetent.

Consider “lobstergate,” one of the more achingly idiotic so-called controversies in recent years. This episode begins with a watchdog report from OpenTheBooks finding that, in the fourth quarter of 2025, the Pentagon spent an estimated $6.9 million on lobster tail, $2 million on Alaskan king crab, and $15.1 million on ribeye steaks.

Now, if you have served in the U.S. armed forces, or you know someone who has, you know all too well what those food purchases are about.

American mess halls often treat servicemen to special meals — usually right before deployments or other rough assignments, as a morale booster. Those special meals? You guessed it: lobster, ribeye, or crab. Special meals are also provided for the occasional non-deployment situation.

“It’s been a tell since at least World War II for garrisoned troops,” Marine veteran and former Daily Caller editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll explained. “They come into the chow hall. There’s steaming, often poorly cooked, sometimes even boiled, ribeye. Mass-produced lobster tail basically devoid of flavor beside it. Huge signal that some tribulation is coming. Either you’re about to get hazed or shot at, one of the two. So leadership wants bellies full and morale high.” There’s a reason U.S. Navy submarines are equipped with soft-serv machines.

This has been going on for the better part of a century — perhaps longer. But for some people, human history began only 11 years ago, when Donald Trump came riding down that escalator to launch his political career.

After OpenTheBooks reported the expenditures on Substack, the New Republic picked up the story, claiming that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth........

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