‘Morning Joe’ Fact Checks Origin of Trump’s Military Bonuses: ‘Really Cool, Except It’s Not True’ | Video

“Morning Joe” set the record straight straight about Donald Trump’s military bonuses on Friday, explaining that the nearly $2,000 payouts weren’t covered by the president’s tariffs but came from pre-existing congressional funds.

“These funds have already been approved by Congress, and they have nothing to do with tariffs,” co-host Joe Scarborough said during Friday’s segment of the MS NOW show. “It simply had to do with Congress saying, ‘We need to help our men and women in uniform take care of their housing problems.'”

Watch the “Morning Joe” breakdown clip below:

During Trump’s primetime Wednesday address, the president promised to send eligible service members a check for $1,776 — an amount that nods to the United States’ founding date — which he is calling a “Warrior Dividend.”

“We are sending every soldier $1,776 — and the checks are already on the way. Nobody deserves it more than our military.” Trump said at the time, falsely claiming that the money came from increased tariff percentages he’s mandated from U.S. trade partners.

“We made a lot more money than anybody thought,” Trump carried on.

In reality, as Scarborough explained, those dollars actually originate from a military housing stipend Congress previously approved.

“It’s really cool, except it’s not true,” Scarborough said of Trump’s claims at the top of his remarks. “The money that he’s getting these checks from are not actually coming from tariffs. We now know the one-time payments are actually going to be yanking funds from military families in what was intended to be a military housing stipend to help them with their houses, their spouses’ houses, their children’s houses. That’s what that was going to do. But they went in and took it out of that account so the president could make up this warrior dividend thing, giving $1,776 for whatever military members are eligible.

Altogether, the one-time payouts will cost $2.6 billion.

“It’s going to be paid out, again, not by tariff fine,” Scarborough said. “These are just the facts. No need for anybody to get mad at me about telling you what actually the truth is here.”

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