President Trump said on Saturday that he had “identified funds” that would allow the administration to pay members of the military on Oct. 15, even though the government remains shut down and Congress has not approved additional money for the troops.
The White House budget office said only that the money would be sourced from research and development funds previously approved for the Department of War for a two-year period, but offered no further details about the president’s plans.
“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. “I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump’s budgetary maneuvering appeared unorthodox, even though it may spare more than 1 million active-duty service members from the financial hardship of missing a paycheck next week.
Typically, the troops forgo wages while the government is closed, and receive their missing pay only after Congress brokers a new spending deal. Lawmakers otherwise have had to adopt special legislation to pay the military during a federal stoppage.
But Mr. Trump has repeatedly sought to push the limits of his power in the current shutdown, now in its 11th day. The president and his aides have lessened the pain of the closure for some, and maximized it for others, including Democrats, whom Mr. Trump is trying to pressure into supporting a short-term spending deal.
Mr. Trump previously told reporters that he supported legislation to pay the troops during the shutdown, siding with House Republicans who have military bases in their districts. But Republican leaders said there was no need for such a measure, and insisted that Senate Democrats should simply pass the stopgap resolution to fund the entire government into November.
“You’ve got a military pay bill right here,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, said on Friday at the Capitol, brandishing a copy of the stopgap bill. “This pays the military.”
Senators are not set to return to Washington until Tuesday, and Speaker Mike Johnson has told Republicans that he does not intend to open the House until Senate Democrats relent and approve the House-passed G.O.P. stopgap bill. That meant that without White House action, military personnel almost certainly would have missed their Oct. 15 paycheck.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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