Trump Gives WARFIGHTERS 'Warrior Bonus' Checks Stolen From Their Military Housing $$$
Donald Trump is, after all, a master of bait and switch.
We didn’t watch Donald Trump’s weird Wednesday night rant thing where, we hear, he told Americans all about the wonderful things he’s done for us, and bitched at us for not loving him enough for it, just because prices are high and everybody is far more stressed out than we were before he came back and started fucking things up. Shame on us, we guess.
We also saw something on Bluesky about Trump giving members of the military checks for $1,776, and it would supposedly come from all the money rolling in from the beautiful tariffs, and I believe the message pointed out that’s not how taxing and spending works, at least not legally. We didn’t read it carefully, just rolled our eyes and scrolled on. Yeesh, there he goes again.
But then we came across another Bluesky message that really got our attention: Trump was making shit up again, because the funding for the “Warrior Dividend” payments wasn’t coming from his stupid tariffs, and it wasn’t a special gift for Christmas, either. Trump was talking about taking some extra funding for housing that Congress already approved in July, and handing it out as a beautiful new “bonus,” thank you for your service.
We guess the regifting of funds that military members were already expecting to get is no surprise, really. Trump has always been a master of bait and switch.
For what it’s worth, here’s Trump bragging about the “warrior dividend” in his weird ranty speech Wednesday. You don’t really have to watch it, but knowing that the funding was already included in the Big Beautiful Blowjobs for Billionaires Bill that Republicans passed in July will help you appreciate some verbal sleight of tiny hand slipped into the announcement. We like the bit at the beginning where he bobbles the number of service members he’s reading off the teleprompter. Man, remember how that Barack Obama always needed a teleprompter? What a dope he was!
TRUMP: One thousand, four hundred fifty thousand … 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call, warrior dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend. In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that.
And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago.
Translation: Trump didn’t understand that until about 30 minutes before he said it.
Then it was time for the fib that had fact-checkers scrambling.
We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations to everybody
That line about the tariffs made it into most of the stories about the “dividend,” often with a note explaining, as Politifact did, that “typically an expenditure this large would require Congress to pass a law making the appropriation, which wouldn’t have happened if the checks are already in the mail, as he said.” The story also noted that this was yet another of the endless Festivus Miracles that Trump has claimed would be paid for by tariff revenue, such as the “$2000 checks” every American has not received, or the elimination of the income tax, which wouldn’t actually pencil out even with the far higher, more economy-crushing tariffs Trump initially planned and then caved on.
But yes, Politifact had it right: Normally, Congress would have to approve spending like that. And of course, it did, and it had fuck-all to do with tariffs. Did you spot that throwaway mention, “the bill helped us along”? It didn’t simply “help,” it was where all the money came from.
Yeah, sorry, we really have got to stop acting like we’ve accomplished anything when we catch Trump lying. What, we want a bonus or something?
As Defense One reported Thursday, a “senior administration official” confirmed that the funds would be coming from a $2.9 billion appropriation Congress passed to “supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement within The One Big Beautiful Bill.” The article didn’t specify whether extra housing funding will actually arrive in a cheerful $1,776 check with Donald Trump’s idiot face on it.
Apart from the duplicity of regifting an increase in housing funds that service members were already going to get — if they qualify — there actually is one good thing here for the service members receiving the extra money: The Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is not taxable, so the 1.28 million active duty and 174,000 reserve members who get it won’t lose any of it to taxes. Had Trump managed to finagle an actual bonus, it would have been part of their taxable income.
Honestly, the real surprise here is that Trump didn’t boast in the speech that he’d personally made certain the fake “dividend” was tax-free. The Defense Department announcement of the mentions that service members will receive the “dividend” as a “nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance,” but also tries to maintain the fiction that it’s a special gift, with a headline boasting “Just In Time For Christmas, Nation Gifts Service Members $1,776 ‘Warrior Dividend.’”
A few paragraphs down, just before the bit about how it’s part of the basic housing allowance, the press release acknowledges the additional BAH money “came earlier this year as part of the president's One Big Beautiful Bill,” so good on whatever Pentagon press flack slipped in some reality.
To be clear, we certainly don’t begrudge military members getting a little extra housing help, although hey, would be nice if other low-income folks did, too. In the enlisted ranks, military families often struggle to make ends meet, and frequently fall victim to scammy payday lenders. Trump made that situation worse by ending protections against such scammers this summer, with the elimination of the “Office of Servicemember Affairs” in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, yet another agency he’s trying to kill without congressional approval.
Every family could use some extra financial breathing room, not just the military, but good for the folks who really need it. But it’s incredibly on-brand cynicism for Trump to take money they’d be getting anyway, slap a Christmas bow on it, and call it a “Warrior Dividend” — and to lie that it’s all coming from his stupid tariffs, not an existing appropriation.
But that’s just another Trump lie that’ll get lost in a sea of lies, and only some stupid progressive bloggers will care about Trump’s BAH humbug.
[Defense One / PBS NewsHour / AFR]
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The fact that a bunch of people will just fall for this fucking bullshit really makes me despair for the future...
OT
Said student has given a review to the school giving me 10/10 and saying, apparently, I am the best teacher she has ever had.
I am feeling quite smug.