‘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 “blew billions” on, among other things, “crab,” adding that “a good chunk of the budget wasn’t used for anything that could be considered a pertinent military expense.”

Citing the New Republic article, part-time journalist and full-time nepo-baby Molly Jong-Fast claimed in a viral March 10 tweet that some of the “frivolous” September 2025 Pentagon purchases included “an astronomical amount of shellfish,” including lobster tail, which “is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon.” Her tweet immediately drew the attention of dozens in news media, including former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, Atlantic contributor Jemele Hill, and Washingtonian magazine’s Jessica Sidman, like flies to a road apple.

Later that same day, the celebrity gossip website TMZ reported that Hegseth “blew billion$” on fruit baskets and lobster.

This is where the story slipped the niche corners of the internet to become what can only be described as an “official narrative” for Democratic operatives in Washington.

On CNN, contributor Paul Begala — an ancient Washington hand who surely knows better — shouted indignantly that Hegseth “has spent $15 million in one month for ribeye steaks, $6.9 million for lobster tail … He has spent more in the month of September than most countries on Earth spend … all for himself!”

Speaking for the world’s bewildered, fellow CNN panelist Scott Jennings responded, “Do you believe he ate all that by himself?”

Mediaite joined in this shameful pile-on reporting that Hegseth’s Defense Department “blew $22M on steak and lobster in a single month.” The Daily Beast characterized the Pentagon’s expenditures as a “lavish year-end splurge.” Washingtonian’s Sidman gasped, “Almost $7 million in lobster!”

On late-night television, the story scored a hat trick, earning mentions from Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers. Each dutifully defamed Hegseth as having spent an outrageous sum on luxury items.

On “The View,” part of CBS’s news division, the hosts likewise repeated the charge that the Secretary of War had frittered away millions on unnecessary foodstuffs.

Are we to believe that not a single one of the people responsible for spreading this talking-point has ever served in the military? Do none of them know anyone who has served, who could shed light on why the Pentagon recently bought large quantities of lobster, ribeye, and crab legs?

It is truly amazing — not one of those mentioned above paused to ask what else has happened since late 2025 that might have merited such a bulk purchase of deployment dinners.

For a possible explanation for this otherwise unbelievable display of ignorance, it’s worth noting that their fake story is also being spread verbatim by top-ranking elected Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). They have seized on the story to accuse the War Secretary of waste and abuse. Schumer even called Hegseth a “grifter” — as if he had personally eaten all that lobster or somehow profited from it. Wyden actually alleged exactly this, grousing on Twitter, “The government can’t fund food stamps or health care but at least Pete Hegseth gets to eat lobster for lunch everyday [sic].”

It beggars belief that Schumer, who has served in Congress for decades and through multiple wars, is unaware of “surf-and-turf night.” It’s equally unlikely that either Schiff or Wyden, both of whom have spent years overseeing Pentagon budgets and spending, is in the dark.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who served in the Air Force, and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who served in the U.S. Army, have likewise pounced on the moment, alleging mismanagement and incompetence by the Department of War. They know exactly what they are doing.

The internet incentivizes the very worst kind of behavior. Some people may just be ignorant and too lazy to ask or check, but so many of those mentioned above are simply not sincere human beings. They are faking righteous indignation for clicks, or in the service of some political agenda, or both.

T. Becket Adams is a journalist and media critic in Washington.

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