President Donald Trump is taking steps to ensure that U.S. service members receive their paychecks next week despite the ongoing government shutdown, directing his administration to find and allocate available funds as congressional gridlock threatens military pay.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced he had ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.” He affirmed, “We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS.” The president emphasized that he would not allow Democrats “to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown.”
The government shutdown, now in its second week, began October 1 after Senate Democrats rejected multiple times a clean continuing resolution to maintain funding at prior levels. President Trump has consistently stated that essential national security personnel — including 1.3 million active-duty service members and hundreds of thousands of National Guard members — will remain on duty. However, congressional aides told Reuters that legislation must pass by Monday, October 13, for payroll to be processed in time for the standard mid-month pay date of October 15.
Trump’s post followed comments by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who told Punchbowl News “every day gets better” for Democrats during the shutdown. Trump responded, “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.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Friday charged Senate Democrats with “shutting down the government over a clean CR” and asserted Schumer was “bowing to the Marxist wing of his party.” He noted that in states like Virginia, California, and Maryland, hundreds of thousands of federal workers — including many military families — are already feeling the impact of missed paychecks. “This is beyond the pale what Chuck Schumer is doing right now,” Johnson remarked, describing the ongoing shutdown as “sickening to real Americans.”
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) also faulted Schumer for holding the government “hostage,” saying the senator was acting to appease “the pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist wing of his party.” Emmer maintained the shutdown has forced American troops to risk “their lives to fight – WITHOUT PAY – terrorists across the globe.”
The shutdown has created financial stress across the armed forces and the civilian defense workforce. Bridge loans and paycheck protection programs have already been activated by financial institutions such as Navy Federal Credit Union, which helped some 19,000 people with loans totaling more than $50 million during the last shutdown in 2019. The National Military Family Association wrote in its Facebook post that nearly 35,000 letters have been sent to Congress requesting passage of the Pay Our Troops Act, introduced by Rep. Jennifer Kiggans (R-VA) before the shutdown.
Despite these pressures, Senate Democrats have repeatedly voted to block a short-term funding bill that would reopen the government. Meanwhile, reports indicate that several members of the Democratic caucus plan to attend a Napa Valley retreat hosted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee set for Monday and Tuesday, October 13-14, prompting criticism from Republicans who contend the party is “vacationing during a shutdown.”
Trump’s latest action aims to bypass the impasse and ensure that military personnel are not left unpaid due to political disputes in Congress. “The Radical Left Democrats should OPEN THE GOVERNMENT,” he wrote, “and then we can work together to address Healthcare, and many other things that they want to destroy.”
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