Trump Demands Troops Get Paid... by Defunding Other Americans?
The former President, via Truth Social, has gallantly declared his intent to use 'all available funds' to ensure troops are paid, while simultaneously initiating layoffs across Treasury, Education, and Health. This is the classic tale of robbing Peter to pay Paul, assuming Paul is a strategically important demographic and Peter runs programs for the unglamorous things like, say, food safety or
veterans' benefits not directly handled by the DoD. The political theater is almost charming, if it weren't so transparently cynical. One might wonder why a government shutdown is considered an acceptable negotiation tactic when it means potentially withholding pay from military personnel, but not when it means halting essential public services. Perhaps the troops, unlike the thousands of public
servants about to lose their jobs, have a better lobbyist. Or maybe, just maybe, this is another calculated move to blame the 'deep state' for problems created by an administration's own fiscal brinkmanship.