Trump to Pay Troops Again
The Pentagon's couch cushions are huuuuge.
Axios (“Exclusive: White House finds 11th-hour shutdown workaround to pay troops — for now“):
President Trump’s budget team raided three different financial accounts to make sure U.S. troops are paid Friday as the government shutdown continues, White House officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: As long as military personnel are paid, Trump isn’t planning to budge on the nearly month-old shutdown, even with as many as 42 million people set to lose food stamp benefits Saturday.
Zoom in: Earlier in the week it was unclear whether the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) could find roughly $5.3 billion to make the military’s payroll by Friday, but two White House officials tell Axios the money was found at the last minute. The OMB found:
- $2.5 billion from a military housing fund specified in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to continue paying housing allowances for military personnel.
- $1.4 billion from the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation fund, which largely will cover U.S. Army and Air Force payroll. The account normally funds military research and was heavily relied upon two weeks ago to cover military paychecks.
- $1.4 billion from a Defense Department procurement account for building U.S. Navy ships, largely to fund the Navy and Marines.
Zoom out: Democrats and liberal policy experts have accused the president of illegally usurping Congress’ powers to appropriate money, but Trump and his congressional allies believe their opponents won’t sue over work-arounds to pay the military because it would be too unpopular.
When the administration decided to pay troops with “available funds” midmonth, I observed, “Since neither Congressional Republicans (who constitute a majority in both Houses) nor the Republican-supermajority Supreme Court seem inclined to interfere, it appears that Trump has taken on near-complete control of the budget.” This simply extends that.
Most analysts thought the October 15 paycheck was a one-time trick, simply because there just isn’t that much money lying around that can be shifted. Apparently, we were wrong.
Meanwhile, some 730,000 federal civilians are working without pay while this continues. This includes a large number of defense department employees, including my wife and me. (Another 670,000 are furloughed and ostensibly guaranteed back pay.) As I’ve noted many times, the first missed paycheck for the armed forces will likely be the most significant impetus to get serious about negotiating out of this impasse.
********************@
I can’t believe they didn’t just raid the SNAP surplus that they won’t dig into to keep those benefits going. I think the Administration really missed an opportunity to make their point here.
Of all the lessons of history, it’s not surprising the world’s biggest oligarchy has learned the Carthaginian Lesson: always pay your mercenaries in full and on time.
I don’t think that’s actually going to happen. Meaning, as @Joe: notes, there are various pots of money that they can draw from. I suspect that Vought and others have convinced Trump that since he’s the boss he gets to decide how and when to spend what money, Congress can get fucked. I’m guessing that the accounting and pushback is just easier if they raid military pots. As this drags on, they’re going to have to start doing things that are worse.
I’ve also seen some reporting that Trump just doesn’t give a shit, to the point that some Republicans are scared. I think the should be, they’ve got a couple of looming disasters in the next several weeks:
1. ACA price increases are going out now and the lies about them are not convincing.
2. When SNAP shuts off in poor Red States, gonna be a lot of angry White people with guns.
3. ATC’s are apparently stretched thin. What happens when they say fuck it and bail on Thanksgiving.
4. People are a couple of weeks out from learning that because of the elimination of the De Minimis rule, Christmas is cancelled. I’ve been told that I can only send documents to the US from London. I’ve seen on the US Expat subreddits that people who have been shipping their own stuff back to the US are being told it’s being destroyed because of whatever is going on at customs.
Gonna be a pleasant holiday season.
I detest all of this. The wrangling, the posturing, the ability to “find” money for some but not others. It’s all so childish.
The next time (if it ever happens) the Democrats have a trifecta, they need to pass legislation that prohibits CONGRESS from getting paid during shutdowns. We’ll see how long this ish drags out if/when that is in place.
@Beth:
Old nonsense: So they get two dolls instead of ten dolls.
New nonsense: Christmas isn’t about gifts, it’s about family. What? Deployed on DC to shovel snow? Christmas has always been about obedience to El Taco!1!!!!111!
@Jen:
Two necessary additions:
1) They don’t get paid, and they don’t get backpay when the shutdown ends. And they are still required to work.
2) They get fined $1,000 per day of shutdown, including weekends and holidays.
I expect most or all have “campaign” funds they can use to get by, even those who are independently wealthy (a lot of them). It would be nice to put them in jail if they touch their campaign funds, but I don’t see it as realistic. Not that I see the proposals above as realistic, either. Those who shape the law rarely shape it to their disadvantage.
I guess this means that Timothy Mellon can keep his $130 million… Or it can go into the trump slush fund.
@Eusebio:
First Rule of Acquisition: Once you have their money you never give it back.
he’s tall for a Ferengi.
I hate being this cynical, but now I wonder if it was really the case that “money was found at the 11th hour” or whether they had this in their back pocket all along and just want to play the heroes and grab a few more headlines.
They can pay some of the housing allowance out of the $4-5k rents charged to Administration Officials for living on DC-area military bases for “security.” Noem has taken over the traditional USCG Commandant’s house – where is the new Commandant going to live? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/10/trump-officials-military-housing-stephen-miller/684748/?gift=1ga2TvL-DbuHDQIcYF7oR6IRKlFiVQjpKpNmoQZhUgw
Some of these grand old houses are dated. I remember one at Offutt AFB had been split in half for visiting VIP quarters. A visiting Secretary of Energy was astounded that her senior staff would be in adjacent bedrooms. She then requested a massage at 8PM, like a high end hotel (answer, a retired E-9 did massages at the base gym, rapidly called and he came over). Seriously, good luck asking for a massage at an Omaha hotel 30 years ago.
I’ve seen reports that the Commissaries are fully funded through Dec 4. After that the overseas bases and remote (to include Alaska and Hawaii) are still covered. A base local to me has opened up the chow hall to dependents and government employees (without having an active duty sponsor present) – basically $7 for all you can eat.