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| - In March 2026, a rumor spread that the U.S. Department of Defense spent more than $93 billion in one month under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
For example Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, shared the claim in an X post on March 10, 2026, calling Hegseth "a true grifter in every sense of the word" (archived):
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, amplified the rumor on X. The claim also appeared on Reddit.
Several news outlets reported the claim, including The Daily Beast, The New Republic and The Independent. Meanwhile, late-night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert relayed the rumor, deriding Hegseth's purported spending spree.
The claim stemmed from a March 9 report by government spending watchdog Open the Books on how much the DOD spent in September 2025. According to that report, the DOD spent a "historic" $93.4 billion in September 2025, the last month of the government's fiscal year (the fiscal year of the U.S. government runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30).
To verify the total number, we pulled up all DOD expenses for the period between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30, 2025, on USASpending.gov, an official U.S. Treasury website that compiles spending across the federal government. The total spending for that period, which appears in a section following the itemized expenditures, was $93.49 billion, matching Open the Books' total. As a result, we've rated the claim true.
(USASpending.gov)
Open the Books' report pointed to "use-it-or-lose-it" government budget rules as the cause for this spending spree: To avoid giving up leftover money and potential budget cuts for the following year, U.S. government agencies rush to spend all of the money in their budgets during the last month or even the last days of the fiscal year. In August 2025, Open the Books flagged this practice as one of 20 "areas of fiscal concern" in the DOD.
When asked about its data sources, Open the Books shared four spreadsheets from its private database, saying it uses the data from USASpending.gov. "Our own database is the largest of its kind, which pulls reported federal data from USA Spending so it's the same data that's available there, and we mine it for interesting findings on waste, fraud and abuse," Open the Books spokesperson Christopher Neefus said in an email.
He added that the organization also obtains salary information for government employees through Freedom of Information Act requests. "We FOIA at every level of government for salaries, pensions and spending," Neefus said.
Among other details, Open the Books said in its report that the DOD had spent $50.1 billion in the "last five working days of September" (emphasis theirs):
In the last five working days of September alone, the DoD spent $50.1 billion on grants and contracts. That's more than the annual defense budget of countries like Israel and Italy. In fact, there are only nine foreign countries that spend that much on their military in an entire year!
The report said the sum of $93.4 billion was historic because "since at least 2008 — and presumably in history — no federal agency has ever spent so much on grants and contracts in a single month."
Specific expenses the report pointed out included $98,329 to a piano vendor, $139,224 for doughnuts and a $26,000 violin.
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