"Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month — roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS. But instead of lowering Americans' healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan King Crabs and a Steinway & Sons grand piano. A true grifter in every sense of the word," tweeted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He is outraged the Secretary of Defense fed soldiers in combat zones steak and lobster.

Sen. Schumer based his tweet off a left-wing outlet tweeting, "New Pentagon budget reports show Pete Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month, making it the highest monthly expense since 2008. This budget report included spending $2 million on Alaskan King Crab."

Other Democrats followed. Sen. Adam Schiff tweeted, "While Americans struggle with the high costs of living, Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spent millions on lobster tails? Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars."

Rep. Jason Crow, who served in combat, tweeted, "Pete Hegseth is spending millions of your tax dollars on lobster, ribeye and a grand piano. Meanwhile, he's sending Americans off to war and folks are struggling to get by." Congresswoman Debbie Dingell tweeted, "Pete Hegseth is spending millions of your tax dollars on lobster, ribeye and a grand piano. Meanwhile, he's sending Americans off to war and folks are struggling to get by."

They joined Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today, which has been pushing Iranian regime propaganda for the last two weeks. That outlet, echoing the Democrats, tweeted, "Pete Hegseth's Defense Department reportedly buys $22 mil worth of LUXURY STEAK and LOBSTER. The purchase was part of a larger 'end of year spending frenzy' of its 'immense budget.'"

"They serve more than 30 dozen eggs for breakfast every morning, washed down with 300 cups of coffee and they go through 40 gallons of ice cream a day. Every night has a theme, with Monday being Italian, Tuesday Mexican and so on. Saturday night is seafood night. The lobsters and crab legs are shipped from the United States and driven down on a refrigerated truck ... On seafood night, the crew serves up 400 of the tasty tails, 130 pounds of Alaskan King crab legs and 135 pounds each of shrimp and scallops," documented one reporter.

That sounds outrageous. They actually fly in lobsters and truck them to the bases in a refrigerated truck. That story is from the Obama era in 2009. What Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is doing is what all his predecessors did. The piano is for the home of the Air Force Band. The ice cream machines are for submarines. Everything is explainable. The Democrats attacking soldiers being well fed in war is not. They are siding with the Mullahs.

Democrats opened the southern border to a massive wave of illegal aliens, with some bad actors sneaking into the country undetected. Even members of the Biden administration worried about possible sleeper cells and terrorists entering the country. Having flooded the country with illegal aliens, Democrats will not now fund the Department of Homeland Security at a time the Iranians have allegedly activated global sleeper cells. Over 300 TSA agents have quit. Lines are backed up at airports. Democrats refuse to fund Homeland Security unless they can, again, gut border security.

They are left to attack a Secretary of Defense for boosting the morale of troops, many of whom are on the far side of the world performing heroics. The Democrats are joined by a national press corps that would have you believe we are losing to the Iranians. The press and Democrats are actively rooting for American defeat just so they can use it in the midterms. They'd have the Secretary of Defense force our service members to eat MREs so that they can give illegal aliens the lobster and steak.

Our nation is fighting a terrorist regime that has been killing Americans since 1979. It is a measure of Democrat brokenness that they hate Donald Trump more than the Iranian mullahs. They'd starve our soldiers in a combat zone to subsidize illegal aliens here at home.

To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Drew Dempsey at Unsplash