Trump said..
“Because of tariffs,” the US president said, along with his massive tax-and-spending bill, “we are sending every soldier $1,776 – and the checks are already on the way. Nobody deserves it more than our military.”
“We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along,” he added.”
What the payments actually are
It’s essentially a one-time bonus drawn from existing military housing funds Congress already appropriated.
- Instead of coming from new money or tariff revenues (as Trump implied), the payments are being funded by Congressionally-approved military housing subsidy funds — specifically money allocated to supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) in legislation already passed this year. Defense One+1
- Defense and budget analysts describe this as a rebranding or repackaging of funds that were meant to help service members with housing costs — now being distributed in lump-sum form. The Fiscal Times
📌 Key points about the funding:
- The roughly $2.6 billion for these payments came from funds Congress approved in spending bills, not a fresh “bonus fund” created by the White House. AP News
- Trump’s claim that tariff revenues financed the payments is widely disputed by independent reporting and officials; tariff income doesn’t nearly cover these payouts.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Sounds like more BAH humbug from Ebeneezer Trump;
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Yeah, it is technically not a use of tariff revenue to do the $1776 payments. Although the tariff money is fungible when it enters the Treasury so he could claim it was used for the payments. Congress would need to specifically appropriate the funds if I remember the old civics lessons correctly.
In the meantime, Trump can claim most anything about it. My problem is the tariff revenue won’t pay for all that was promised.
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Al Lindquist:
“massive tax and spending bill” as they say in Vermont “it doesn’t amount to pee in a snowbank” compared to what the corpse gave us–selective memory by the author but who can be surprised by that.
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Okay what did Biden give us compared with Trump?
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Biden added $8.4 trillion to the debt–to be fair the 1st Trump administration gave us $7 trillion +–didn’t hear your concerns from 2021-2025 about the deficit–selective outrage?
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Look closer. I have been writing about debt and deficits for years.
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In addition, any military member who is using base housing will not receive the bonus because they do not get Basic Allowance for Housing. I guess if you live on the installation you are not a hero.
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