“Powers as Commander-in-Chief”
Shutdown reaches US soldiers – Trump gets creative
Updated 10/12/2025 – 3:51 amReading time: 2 minutes
Donald Trump wants to pay soldiers’ wages despite the budget standstill. He found a way out, he wrote on Truth Social.
Despite the existing shutdown in the USA, US President Donald Trump wants to pay the soldiers. He wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had found a way to pay out the wages. He spoke of redeployments, but did not give any further details. Since Republicans and Democrats have not yet agreed on an interim budget, there is a spending freeze. The army is actually also affected by this.
Trump wrote that he was using his authority as commander in chief and had directed the Pentagon to use all available resources to ensure that soldiers receive their money on October 15th. Funding has been found and will now be used “to PAY OUR SOLDIERS,” Trump wrote. He had recently raised similar hopes in a speech to the military.
According to a Pentagon official, about $8 billion originally earmarked for research and development will be used for military pay if the budget freeze continues.
In the budget dispute, the government has even started to permanently cut public sector jobs. “The reduction in personnel has begun,” said the head of the US budget office, Russell Vought, on Friday on the X platform. In the USA, such measures are called “RIFs” (“reduction-in-force”). Trump had repeatedly threatened permanent cuts – particularly in agencies traditionally supported by Democrats.
Both sides blame each other for the blockade. The last government “shutdown” was almost seven years ago – around the turn of the year 2018/2019. This lasted 35 days and fell during US President Trump’s first term in office.
The effects of the shutdown are noticeable. Staff shortages at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are leading to significant flight delays in the USA. On Friday (local time), more than 6,400 flights were delayed and 470 were canceled, according to the website FlightAware. Since Monday, delays have totaled more than 23,000. The problems hit air traffic ahead of a long weekend due to a US holiday.
