Top U.S. Cabinet Members Living in Publicly-Funded Housing and Spending Taxpayer Dollars on Lobster Tails, Crab Legs, Ribeye Steaks, Grand Pianos and Horse Ads
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, facing threats from drug cartels and over her handling of the Epstein files, has reportedly moved from her Washington, D.C. apartment to a U.S. military base in the area. Threats to Bondi also allegedly ramped up after the questionably legal capture and prosecution of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in January.
She joins a host of Trump administration officials who have recently relocated to taxpayer-funded military housing, including Stephen Miller, top domestic policy advisor and key architect of the Project 2025 initiative that has provided a blueprint for U.S. immigration policy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and War Secretary Pete Hegseth have also relocated.
And a new analysis from government watchdog Open the Books found that as of September 2025 (the end of the fiscal year), the Pentagon had approved more than $93 billion in spending. In the month of September alone, Hegseth’s War Department spent $6.9 million on lobster tails and $2 million on Alaskan king crab. Additionally in September, the department spent $15.1 million on ribeye steaks, $124,000 for new ice cream machines, and $139,224 on doughnut orders. Other Hegseth splurges include $100,000 on a Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff and $5.3 million on Apple devices, including brand new iPads.
The Pentagon spent $225.6 million in 2025 for furniture, including $12,540 for fruit basket stands and more than $60,000 for recliners from high-end furniture maker Herman Miller. The Pentagon furniture budget was the largest since 2014, when Chuck Hagel was Barrack Obama’s Defense Secretary.
The spending spree news comes on the heels of Noem’s dismissal. Noem is now being investigated by the department’s internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General, for “systematically” obstructing its work and refusing to cooperate with criminal investigations.
The Office is also investigating Noem’s $220 million in ad spending, funded by taxpayers, in self-promotional spots featuring her on horseback. Noem had no-bid contracts with three businesses, including a $77 million contract awarded to The Strategy Group operated by a former colleague of Noem’s top advisor and alleged boyfriend Corey Lewandowski. The company does not appear on public documents about the contract and the main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, created days before the deal was finalized.
