In a major move to outflank the Democrats and give Republicans more room to resist their demands during the Schumer Shutdown that has lasted since September 30, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce that America’s troops would be paid despite the shutdown inflicted on the country by obscene and absurd Democrat spending demands.
As background, the government has remained shut down for about two weeks, as of the time this article was written, because Democrats in the Senate refused to pass a continuing resolution that was devoid of partisan spending gimmicks and would have just kept the government running while a budget was negotiated.
Instead, led by House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Democrats insisted upon over $1 trillion in spending that would include, amongst other things, a massive $200 billion for healthcare spending on non-Americans, including illegal aliens. Republicans refused to go along with it, and so the government has been shutdown since funding ran out on September 30.
Amongst the many consequences of that, most of which are positive for Republicans, is the fact that military paychecks would not be coming until Congress agrees on spending, a potentially quite major problem. President Trump, however, took to Truth Social to announce that he has a way of getting around that and paying the troops, alleviating much of the pressure for Republicans to back down.
Beginning the post by describing the problem, the president said, “Chuck Schumer recently said, “Every day gets better” during their Radical Left Shutdown. I DISAGREE! If nothing is done, because of “Leader” Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, our Brave Troops will miss the paychecks they are rightfully due on October 15th.”
Continuing, he noted that he is using his authority as the commander in chief to appropriate existing funding toward paying America’s troops, saying, “That is why I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th. We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS.”
Further, the president argued that it is highly irresponsible for Democrats to try to use soldier paychecks as a way of holding America hostage to their agenda, saying, “I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown.”
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Concluding, he called on the Democrats to embrace sanity and reopen the government, writing, “The Radical Left Democrats should OPEN THE GOVERNMENT, and then we can work together to address Healthcare, and many other things that they want to destroy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Politico described the source of the funding in its report on the matter, noting that the Pentagon is diverting money from research and development funding that Congress had allocated for two years’ worth of R&D expenses. This was an alternative to a standalone bill regarding troop paycheck funding, an idea that was apparently rejected by Congressional leadership.
Watch Mike Johnson skewer Schumer over the shutdown here: