On his first visit to a war zone, President Trump misled troops about how large their yearly pay raise will be, while falsely claiming it’s the first boost to military paychecks in a decade.
While addressing service members in Iraq, Trump suggested he secured a 10 percent jump in pay for military members — a far cry from the actual 2.6 percent base pay raise going into effect Jan. 1, which is about average year to year.
“You protect us. We are always going to protect you. And you just saw that, ’cause you just got one of the biggest pay raises you’ve ever received,” the president said Wednesday speaking to troops at Al Asad Air Base during his surprise visit to Iraq. “You haven’t gotten one in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one.”
The pay raise in 2019 is the largest in the past nine years, but the increase itself has happened every year in the past decade, ranging from 1 percent to 3.9. No raise has approached double digits. Trump also suggested there was pushback on the pay increase, despite public bipartisan support in Congress.
“They said: ‘You know, we could make it smaller. We could make it 3 percent. We could make it 2 percent. We could make it 4 percent.’ I said: ‘No. Make it 10 percent. Make it more than 10 percent.’”
