{"id":470206,"date":"2026-03-11T19:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470206\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:46:15","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-stephen-colbert-take-aim-at-pete-hegseths-overspending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470206\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert Take Aim at Pete Hegseth’s Overspending"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYesterday it was reported that the Pentagon, led by Pete Hegseth<\/a>, spent more than $93 billion in September, including millions on lobster and ribeye steak. Several late-night hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> and Stephen Colbert<\/a>, commented on Hegseth\u2019s reckless spending, as well as his desire<\/a> to drop bombs on Iran<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think one of the things that\u2019s most troubling about this is how excited Pete Hegseth gets to bomb people,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cLike he would do it even if he wasn\u2019t getting paid. Just for the love of it. Just for the hell of it. But he is getting paid and he\u2019s spending a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel recounted how the report suggested that Hegseth spent $2 on Alaskan king crab, $6.9 million on lobster tail, $140,000 on donuts, $124,000 on ice cream machines, and $ 1.5 million on ribeye steaks. \u201cWhat is this? \u2018My 600 Pound Defense Department?’\u201d Kimmel asked. \u201cHow are they eating so much food? Can you imagine the size of the egg Sean Hannity would lay if a Democrat had spent millions of dollars on lobster tails and sushi preparation tables? He would never walk again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe host added that the Pentagon has spent more on furniture last year than they have over the entire past decade. \u201cBut that\u2019s because the vice president humped all their couches into disrepair,\u201d Kimmel noted. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn The Late Show<\/a>, Stephen Colbert recounted how Hegseth spent $12,000 on fruit basket stands. \u201cWait, you\u2019re ordering what?\u201d he asked. \u201cYou\u2019re ordering fruit baskets so fancy they come with a stand? Come on Pete, if you need fruit at work do the normal thing: put a clementine in your tote and find it three weeks later when it\u2019s a furry, grey golf ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe audience booed as Colbert listed the cost of shellfish and steak. \u201cNo, no boo,\u201d he replied. \u201cThey\u2019re just harkening back to our founders. As Paul Revere declared on his famous ride, \u2018One if by surf, two if by turf!’\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe spending report was published by Open the Books<\/a>. It said Hegseth and the Pentagon spent $93 billion in September, including on luxury food items, a grand piano, and Apple products. The Pentagon also paid $225.6 million for furniture. <\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUnder Secretary Hegseth, the Pentagon has consistently said its mission is to refocus on warfighting and lethality,\u201d Open the Books CEO John Hart wrote. \u201cLast year, we highlighted the problem of wasteful use-it-or-lose-it year-end spending. We noted that this reform is fully within the secretary\u2019s control and is a historic opportunity to make good on that promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn February 2025, Hegseth said he welcomed a DOGE review of the Pentagon spending. \u201cWe need to know when we spend dollars, we need to know where they\u2019re going and why that simple accounting and that has not existed at the Defense Department,\u201d Hegseth told Fox news<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to fix that.\u201d He added, \u201cThe Defense Department\u2019s got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday it was reported that the Pentagon, led by Pete Hegseth, spent more than $93 billion in September,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[141,96,10203,12838,61568,153,3767,10059,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-470206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","tag-late-night-tv","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-the-late-show","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}