'Get our troops PAID': Trump vows to pay US military members despite government shutdown

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he had found a way to ensure that the US military troops are paid despite the ongoing federal government shutdown, which is about to enter its third week. On Saturday, Trump said that he had instructed US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to release funds for the country’s military.

“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 15," the American leader wrote in a post on TruthSocial. Trump mentioned that he had identified the funds to make the payments happen.

“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," he added.

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It is pertient to note that the recent government shutdown in the United States began on October 1 and is the first since a 35-day closure that happened in December 2018 and extended into the new year, while Trump was serving his first term in office. The shutdown came as Democrats were looking to regain their footing with voters, who re-elected Trump last year and relegated them to the minority in both chambers of Congress.

Why it matters

Over 1.3 million military personnel across the country would not have received their first post-shutdown paychecks this month. They would have only gotten paid for the 21-30 September period. An estimated 750,000 federal employees have also been furloughed.

According to The Hill, federal workers in the US, however, are generally paid in full once a government shutdown ends, whether they are furloughed or working. After the last shutdown in 2018, Congress wrote into law that federal workers must be paid once the government reopens.

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Meanwhile, on Thursday, the US Senate remained in a deadlock over legislation to end the shutdown, despite Trump’s repeated threats to make Democrats pay for the funding lapse that has closed federal agencies and furloughed employees across the nation. While speaking to Punchbowl News, the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, expressed confidence in the strategy, saying: “Every day gets better for us.”

In light of this, the White House on Friday announced massive layoffs of federal workers, with a threat it made to initiate the mass firings of government employees. A document filed with a federal court on Friday evening revealed that hundreds of layoffs took place across the executive branch, including about 315 at the Department of Commerce, 466 at the Department of Education and 187 at the Department of Energy.

Union leaders warned that the layoffs would have “devastating effects” on services relied upon by millions of Americans, and pledged to challenge the moves in court. “It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 federal and DC government workers.

Meanwhile, Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote on social media that “RIFs have begun”, referring to the government’s reduction-in-force procedure to let employees go. In response to this, the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labour unions in the US, said: “America’s unions will see you in court.” Hegseth re-shared Trump’s Saturday post saying: “President Trump delivers for the troops.”