Last week, when Donald Trump announced a bailout for farmers hurt by his own economic agenda, the president boasted that the payments would be financed by revenue generated by trade tariffs. That was problematic for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the claim wasn’t true: The money was coming from a USDA fund, not tariff revenue.
Trump might’ve liked the idea of tariffs generating a pool of money he could draw upon to reward people he likes, but his public assertion was entirely made up.
This week, something very similar happened. The Washington Post reported on the White House’s announced $1,776 “warrior dividend” bonuses to service members. From the article:
In a prime-time address Wednesday night, President Donald Trump announced the Christmastime bonuses ‘in honor of our nation’s founding in 1776.’
‘Nobody deserves it more than our military. And I say congratulations to everybody,’ Trump said.
At first blush, the rhetoric sounded unobjectionable. Roughly halfway through his remarks, the Republican touted the checks, said the money was “already on the way” and, for some reason, added, “Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago.”
He went on to say of the financing, “We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the [inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill] helped us along.”
The obvious red flag was that tariff revenue is actually far short of Trump’s claims, and the money that does exist has already been set aside for a variety of other administration priorities.
But as the dust settled on the presidential address, a different problem emerged: Since the president cannot legally spend tariff money without congressional approval, where was the money for the “warrior dividend” payments actually going to come from?
As the Post’s report went on to explain, lawmakers approved $2.9 billion to supplement the military’s basic allowance for housing, and the White House is using those resources to pay for the checks he bragged about on Wednesday night. As Politico’s Leo Shane explained, “Trump’s new ‘warrior dividend’ for troops isn’t new — the money is coming from housing assistance funds approved in July as part of the reconciliation bill. He’s rebranding the stipend help as bonuses.” Despite these facts, the president nevertheless doubled down on Thursday afternoon, insisting at a White House event that he’s using tariff revenue to reward U.S. service members, even though his initial claim had already been discredited. Let this be a lesson to all of us: The next time the president starts talking about some priority he’s financing through tariff revenue, it’s best not to believe him.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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