Trump promises ‘warrior dividend’ military bonus by year’s end

“Tonight, I am also proud to announce that 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call, a warrior dividend before Christmas,” Trump said in his televised speech.

“In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776,” Trump added. “Think of that, and the checks are already on the way.”

Trump attributed the windfall to increased revenue from tariffs he raised beginning in April.

“We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations to everybody,” Trump said.

The $1,776 payments to troops are actually coming from a congressionally-approved housing supplement — money they were already set to receive — that was a part of tax cut extensions and expansions bill signed into law in July. Trump’s administration identified the source of the “dividend” payments Thursday.

In most of Wednesday’s prime-time address, Trump argued that wages are up and inflation is down. He said gas prices have fallen to the lowest average price in 1,741 days and “Americans are on track to spend the lowest amount of their disposable income on gas in the last two decades.”

In a video posted on X Thursday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said every member of the military, ranked E-1 to O-6, will receive a one-time, tax-free benefit.

“So to the American warrior, President Trump and I, and the entire War Department, we have your back. We thank you for your service, we thank you for your sacrifice, we love you and your families, and we wish you a very Merry Christmas,” the secretary said.

“The secretary of war has directed the department to pay eligible service members in grades O-6 and below a lump-sum, non-taxable Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) supplement of $1,776,” a Pentagon official told the Dayton Daily News. “This payment will be made outside of the regular pay cycle.”

Before the Trump administration offered a deferred resignation program to federal employees this year, Wright-Patterson had about 38,000 military and civilian employees. One estimate was that 15,000 to 16,000 of those were civilians.

A spokesman for the 88th Air Base Wing said Thursday that the base’s most recent unofficial economic impact analysis from 2023 indicates that Wright-Patterson is home to a total of 10,766 active-duty personnel across the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

That figure also includes Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) students, Air Force reservists, trainees, and cadets.

The spokesman could not break down personnel by rank, from E-1 to O-6. The latter rank is equivalent to a colonel in the Air Force and a captain in the Navy.

Most military members at Wright-Patterson can expect the dividend, one observer said.

“In general, the only active-duty and reserve members at Wright-Patterson who won’t get the ‘warrior dividend’ are the general officers, unless there are a few other categories that don’t fit — and in a base as large and diverse with as many unusual missions as Wright-Patterson, there could be small groups that fall out of that category, and we won’t know until we get more details," said Michael Gessel, vice president of federal government programs for the Dayton Development Coalition.

Questions were sent to the offices of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Jon Husted.

“As we approach Christmas, I hope the president’s warrior dividend is a reminder for our service members that we are grateful for their service and sacrifice for our nation,” Husted said in a statement Thursday. " I’m honored to be the voice in Washington for more than 32,000 military personnel in Ohio.”

On Wednesday, the Senate passed the final iteration of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a 3.8% pay increase for all uniformed members of the military.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.