Trump says US troops will be paid on Oct. 15 despite shutdown

María Paula Mijares Torres, Bloomberg News on Oct 11, 2025

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President Donald Trump said he is directing the Defense Department to use funds his administration has identified to deliver paychecks to U.S. troops on Oct. 15 despite the ongoing government shutdown.

“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 15th,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday.

More than a quarter of a million federal employees missed scheduled paychecks this week, with another 2 million expected to go without pay by next week, which would be the third week of the shutdown.

Under current law, U.S. troops aren’t guaranteed backpay during a shutdown, unlike civilian employees. The Pentagon’s next military payday, Oct. 15, was shaping up as a key pressure point in the ongoing standoff between Republicans and Democrats over a stopgap spending measure.

Trump’s decision to pay the troops may ease some of the immediate pressure on Republicans to soften their stance on Democratic demands to address health care costs, including extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire.

“I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,” Trump wrote on his post.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Trump administration had found enough funds to cover all military paychecks due on Oct. 15.

Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office that “a lot of people” with federal jobs will be fired amid the shutdown, as his administration made job cuts across departments including Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce.

The administration plans to slash at least 4,100 workers from the government during the shutdown, according to court documents. The affected employees worked for programs that were “Democrat-oriented” or were “people that the Democrats wanted,” Trump said Friday, without providing additional detail.

The dismissals represent the first mass firing of federal workers during a funding lapse in modern times, a sharp escalation from the furloughs that are typically carried out during shutdowns.

The current shutdown has no clear end in sight, reflecting deep partisan distrust on Capitol Hill. While the White House is threatening further layoffs if the shutdown continues, Republicans in Congress have shown little interest in engaging with Democrats on their health care demands. Democrats, for their part, are digging in as they see a rare point of leverage to demand action on expiring health care subsidies.

Stopgap measures aimed at ending the standoff have been blocked in the Senate several times in the 11-day shutdown. The Senate is expected to hold another vote when senators return to Washington on Tuesday.