Trump Outfoxes Schumer and Jeffries, Directs Hegseth to Use ‘All Available Funds’ to Pay Troops
“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.”
Amid the war of words between Republicans and Democrats over the Schumer Shutdown, it’s been noted that something had to happen and soon in order to ensure our troops got paid by their pay date of October 15th.
This is something that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has repeatedly emphasized in his daily press conference since the shutdown started:
“This gets very real,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican. “Checks to our troops will be held up Oct. 15 if [Democrats] don’t come in here tomorrow [Oct. 8th] and vote to reopen the government. You have to get it resolved by Oct. 13, which is Monday, in order to process those checks.”
The Democrat Government Shutdown is JEOPARDIZING the finances of real
American families—including our troops.If Senate Democrats don’t vote to reopen the government by Monday, service members will miss their October 15th paychecks — and important programs will remain suspended.… pic.twitter.com/tUCSHNQRyw
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 7, 2025
Democrats have now voted EIGHT TIMES to BLOCK pay for our troops and federal workers.
Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats think every day of this shutdown “gets better” for them — even as it hurts hardworking Americans.
Once again, Democrats are putting AMERICANS LAST. pic.twitter.com/0uIM2cKfW5
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 10, 2025
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), on the other hand, blamed Republicans for the fact that Senate Democrats wouldn’t relent on the continuing resolution the House sent over on September 19th:
House Republicans canceled votes next week so they can remain on vacation.
The extremists refuse to pay our active duty military.
And they have zero credibility when it comes to addressing the healthcare crisis they created. pic.twitter.com/zBypzatZSU
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) October 11, 2025
That narrative, however, was shattered by reports like this:
Is this what Chuck Schumer meant when he said every day the shutdown "gets better" for Democrats?
Democrats are sick. They're perfectly fine sacrificing pay for our great U.S. military if it means keeping the government shut down so illegals can get free health care. pic.twitter.com/rQkmAHoA0g
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 9, 2025
🚨Wow.
Democrats are now saying that unless “planes are falling out of the sky” because of air traffic controller staffing shortages — they will not end their government shutdown.
One of the most disgusting statements I’ve ever read. pic.twitter.com/UqSs2euioP
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) October 10, 2025
Though there had been talk, pushed by House Democrats and even a few Republicans who have military installations in their districts, of a standalone bill to pay the military and air traffic controllers, it was rejected by Johnson, who noted that the funding is in the clean continuing resolution that Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), refuse to budge on.
On Saturday, however, all the talk about military pay became a moot point for the time being after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to pay them for this pay period:
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. 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. I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown. 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!
The AP reported that “research and development” funds would be used:
Trump did not say where he’s getting the money, but a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said Pentagon research and development funds would be tapped.
This takes the military pay issue off the table for at least another two weeks and buys Republican leaders more time to flex their muscle and to put more public and private pressure on enough Senate Democrats to make the Schumer Shutdown a thing of the past.
We’ll keep you posted on any significant developments.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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Comments
The legal judo in this order is epic. The President has made the Dems grab onto the 20 end of every 80/20 issue from deporting criminal aliens to this. Now, you’re going to see Dem after Dem complaining that….the military is getting paid. Yes, I voted for this.
Why doesn’t the Senate, by majority vote, amend the rules to pass a CR by a simple majority?
Because the way the Senate works it would take a 60 vote outcome to change the rules to pass a CSR (Continuing Spending Resolution) and Republicans do not have the votes to do that. If they had the votes too change the rules then they’d have the votes to pass the CSR.
To be picky, a change in the rules requires 2/3 (67).
If you look up Rule 22 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, which the cloture rule, where is no mention of simple majority. When cloture has been changed to a simple majority, as they have done with nominations, they do a change in the precedent, because the precedent trumps the written rule when it comes to how the Senate conducts itself.
Changing the precedent only requires a simple majority vote. For example, by a 49-48 vote you could change the cloture precedent from 3/5 to simple majority, vote on what you want under the new precedent and get it through, then vote 49-48 to change the cloture precedent right back to 3/5, all in the span of an hour or two.
OK, maybe not an hour or two. Probably would take a bit longer than that, because there is the post-cloture time to burn if the minority party is really POd.
It would be stupid to change the *entire* filibuster rule for this. Simply change it to “When the continuing resolution on the floor is a simple extension of the previous years budget with no changes, cloture may be overridden by a simple majority.” (or whatever the legalese version of that becomes.) I don’t think we’ve had a clean CR hit the Senate in the last fifty years, so it’s a fairly minor change that the Dems can’t use to wedge their insane spending bills through.
The CR can be passed with a simple majority. It’s cloture they can’t get, and they’ve been maxing out at 55.
Manchin and Sinema kept the Dems from changing cloture re: legislation to simple majority during the Biden administration, and the GOP has been banging the drum against it for longer than that. The main argument is that doing so would essentially turn the Senate, which is supposed to the world’s greatest deliberative body, into the House.
Even if the GOP changed the precedent to simple majority, got the CR through, and changed it right back to 2/3 of members duly chosen and sworn (aka. 60), the damage would be done. Once they start doing it, it will be become a feature, not a bug.
Correction: 3/5, not 2/3.
“turn the Senate, which is supposed to the world’s greatest deliberative body, into the House.”
p, that ship has sailed a long long time ago, when the 17th Amendment passed.
It should be repealed. The direct election of Senators took away the States’ representation from the legislature, and gave away the only stopgap a state had in the federal representation.
Someone, somewhere will sue the Administration about using R&D funds, and some judge somewhere will issue a TRO preventing use of the funds.
And she will insist that the money — already issued to the servicepeople — be clawed back.
I can’t think of a faster and cleaner way to suddenly and definitively end the burgeoning Blackrobe Dynasty movement. And it’s all your fault, John Roberts.
I had the same thought as I was reading the article.
I fear we may need a happy and well paid military given recent developments with China and Russia. I’m almost at the Quint stage of strapping myself in the chair before Jaws pulls on the line.
The danger here is that the Chinese or anyone else has fooled themselves in to believing the Democrats will protect them from any kind of bad act…which just encourages the Chinese or anyone else to do something stupid in the belief the military won’t respond.
I support the administration in their efforts to pay the troops.
BTW: Is congress getting paid during the shutdown? Are the fat and happy out of control judges getting paid? If not I suggest tapping their pay too, Every little bit helps.
BTW BTW: I haven’t noticed any shutdown effects yet? Has anyone?
Here in Arizona, our Republican representatives are vowing to forego their paychecks during the shutdown, but our Democrat Senator*, Ruben Gallego, told NBC News he can’t afford to miss one, saying, “I’m not wealthy, and I have three kids… So it’s not feasible, not gonna happen.” Boo hoo, Ruben. Government job security über alles!
*Complete silence on this topic from our other Democrat Senator, Mark “Mr. Gabby Giffords” Kelly.
Before he was a Senator he was a congressman for 10 years. During those years his congressional pay was 170k/year plus whatever else he scrapped up through honorariums and insider trading. That is over three times the average wage of 53K in Az. He is either lying through his teeth (well he is a democrat) or is terrible at managing his finances (well he is a democrat),
Hakeem Jeffries is such a dolt. He keeps harping about how the Republic HOUSE isn’t in session. Well no sh*t Sherlock… they’ve ALREADY passed their resolution. It’s the DIM SENATE that is refusing to play ball. I wonder if Jeffries and Schumer will EVER be able to wash the taste of Trump’s nutz out of their mouths.
Also, the daily cost of keeping the House in session runs in to the six figures, so keeping them out of town saves money.
Dear Lord. I pray that someone somewhere sues the federal government to prevent the military from being paid on October 15.
I also pray that the judge rules on a TRO to stop that payment, Dear Lord, and that the media supports the decision and telegraphs it throughout the shutdown
Then…
I would love to see Trump pay it anyway, and that Republicans have enough of a scrotum and spine to use this in all of their ads.
In today’s newsletter from my Rep, Paul Gosar:
Remember when the guv got shutdown under Zero? Instant “Washington Monument Ploy.” Popular National Parks and public services were immediately shuttered (while continuing to pour funds into CPB and USAID).
We spent a peaceful yesterday visiting Organ Pipe National Monument. Nobody manning the guard booth or the gift shop. All the areas perfectly open to the public, including the camping and RV areas (since they don’t offer any utilities other than common water spigots and restrooms — which were still operating — it didn’t make a whole lot of difference). Other than having to truck out your own trash, you’d never know “the government was closed.”
The difference between what Obama did and what Trump did is the difference between “shutting down the government” and “purposely oppressing the people.”
Another unorthodox move to counter the prevailing d/prog obstructionist narrative. Puts a paycheck into the accounts of the Military while d/prog fume and sputter and defangs this particular argument just as the WH did with WIC.
It demonstrates once again the difference in this WH and others when the Admin isn’t attempting to inflict pain on normies, the troops, deprive ‘needy’ infants of WIC but is instead working to limit the damage to taxpayers while finding ways to cut future spending with a Reduction in Force (RiF) of Federal employees.
It is about time that the federal employees felt the pain they have inflicted on the American people for so long.
I was one, and approve of this.
When the federal government finally does open, bureaucrats will forever on know that their protected job status and cushy berths are no longer guaranteed.
I’m hoping for at least 10% personnel cuts in every dept/agency to include DoD with much higher % for others. Every ‘essential’ employee that participated in a sick out as a few ATC reportedly did should get the boot. The employees occupying ‘non essential’ positions as identified by their own Dept/Agency? They should be sitting down with ‘The Bobs’ and explaining ‘what would you say you do here’.
Obvious answer is as little as possible.
DoD employees a lot of civilians now. Wonder if that’s cheaper than using military personnel.
Not the answer to give to ‘The Bobs’. See the movie ‘Office Space’.
DoD civilians cost at least as much as service members often far more…. it isn’t as if a civilian is gonna accept the same pay as a PFC (E-3) at $2,500 per month or a SGT (E-5). at $3,000 per month with a dorm room and a meal card + healthcare.
DoD Civilians get paid substantially more for the same jobs. Their health benefits are very good as is their retirement plan. They don’t have to put up with same regimented lifestyle as Troops. They ain’t rolling out their bed at 05:30 to make PT formation, much less go do regimented physical training. They don’t have to put up with the paternalistic crap Troops do where, even as a SGT or SSG they are in responsible for equipment worth many $ millions but are prohibited from having a toaster in their barracks room. I was offered several opportunities to be a contractor at roughly 2-3 x my military compensation at several points in my 26+ year Army career. Same at retirement but I couldn’t wait to get away from the drama of PC/DEI becoming prominent in the military back in 2014 and the arrogance of some SR leadership with very little to zero combat experience despite the GWOT going into it’s 15th year. Too many ticket puncher types building a CV v a true commitment to mission focus, tough training and the well being of Troops.
The main reason for the large number of DoD civilians as well as the huge number of ‘contractors’ employed by DoD is simple; hard limits on end strength. IOW Congress set limits on how many Troops DoD can have. The mission set is more than can be done with that # so they hire Civilians and ‘contractors’ to perform many of the needed functions.
I thought the answer given to the Bobs by the main character was “as little as possible” ,
You answer makes sense and tracks what I know. Sounds like congress needs to specify manpower levels in two parts – one for combat levels and the other for supports and transition civilian jobs back to the military to reduce costs. Unless it can be proved that specific job can be done cheaper by outsourcing. Outsourcing stuff like the cafeteria and cleaning maybe cheaper overall since you;re not adding any type of employees. The one problem is probably security.
There should be a significant bolus of money coming in, as people who filed 6-month extensions last April do their taxes now.