{"id":55922,"date":"2025-10-12T09:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/trump-orders-pentagon-to-pay-troops-despite-gov-t-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:54:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:54:46","slug":"trump-orders-pentagon-to-pay-troops-despite-gov-t-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/trump-orders-pentagon-to-pay-troops-despite-gov-t-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump orders Pentagon to pay Troops despite gov’t shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump said the move was necessary to prevent service members from missing their regular pay due on October 15. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The instruction, which Trump said draws on his authority as Commander in Chief, comes amid growing concern that troops would miss their first paycheck since the shutdown began on October 1. <\/p>\n

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reportedly notified Congress of plans to reallocate research and development funds within the Department of Defence to cover the payments. According to sources cited by NBC News, there are sufficient funds available for at least two years.<\/p>\n

The Defence Department has not yet publicly commented on the directive.<\/p>\n

{{Partisan blame over the shutdown
\n}}<\/p>\n

The shutdown, now in its twelfth day, has deepened the standoff between Republicans and Democrats over a federal spending plan. Democrats have refused to back a Republican proposal unless it includes provisions to maintain key health insurance tax credits and reverse Trump\u2019s cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare program serving low-income and elderly Americans.<\/p>\n

Republicans, in turn, accuse Democrats of prolonging the crisis and disrupting essential services. Trump reiterated this position on Saturday, writing: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

{{Thousands of federal layoffs
\n}}<\/p>\n

While military personnel are considered \u201cessential\u201d and must continue working even without pay, around 750,000 other federal employees\u2014roughly 40% of the government workforce\u2014have been furloughed without pay.<\/p>\n

In a highly unusual move during a shutdown, the Trump administration has begun permanently laying off thousands of workers across several agencies. White House Budget Director Russell Vought confirmed the move Friday, posting on X: \u201cThe RIFs have begun,\u201d referring to \u201creductions in force.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to administration disclosures, more than 4,000 employees have already been terminated across seven federal agencies. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saw its entire Washington, D.C. office dismissed, including staff working on immunisations, Ebola response, and the agency\u2019s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said the cuts targeted \u201cnonessential\u201d personnel and were part of efforts to eliminate \u201cwasteful and duplicative entities\u201d under Trump\u2019s Make America Healthy Again agenda.<\/p>\n

Employees at the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were also among those laid off.<\/p>\n

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the AFL-CIO have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Northern California seeking to block the layoffs, calling them unlawful. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d said AFGE President Everett Kelley.<\/p>\n

In court filings opposing the unions\u2019 motion, the Justice Department revealed that additional cuts could affect staff at the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The filing argued that halting the layoffs would \u201cirreparably harm the government.<\/p>\n

\"<\/figure>\n
\"President<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has directed U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to use \u201call available funds\u201d to ensure military personnel receive their paychecks next week, despite the ongoing federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000096010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000096010,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-06-12_120704logo.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000096010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55922"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55922"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}