Trump claims 'largest' raise for troops — but Obama's were bigger

Trump lied in his 2019 budget with the claim that he has proposed the largest military pay raise since 2009. The military twice got larger pay raises under President Barack Obama.

Trump’s budget released on Monday proposes a 3.1 percent military raise and describes the proposal as “the largest increase in a decade.”

Not so.

In 2009, when Obama was president, service members saw their pay increase 3.9 percent. Obama also topped the Trump proposal in 2010, when pay went up 3.4 percent.

Trump’s budget proposal also includes a provision to round down the money paid out to the military for cost-of-living increases.

“It is astounding the lengths to which Donald Trump will go to avoid saying Barack Obama had better numbers than he did, especially when it comes to troops and military families,” said Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz, chair of VoteVets, in a statement to Shareblue Media.

“Fact is, any pay raise is great, and welcome, but this is a guy who is just pathologically incapable of telling the truth. Further, it would be nice if he’d note that his administration is looking at raiding money for troop pay, and pensions, to pay for his wall.”

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to fund his racist border wall using money designated to the military’s personnel fund.

Trump loves to lie about military pay. He falsely claimed in 2018 that he had given a military pay raise for the “first time in 10 years.” He later repeated the lie and made it seem as if Obama had rejected such increases.

He even made a tone-deaf “joke” about military pay, arguing that the men and women in the service “don’t want it because you’re very patriotic.”

Pay isn’t the only military deception in Trump’s budget.

The pay falsehood is included in a budget request that also asks for $164 billion to fund overseas operations, which Military Times reported is the largest request since previous troop surges in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet Trump has continued to prematurely declare victory over ISIS while top military leaders say this isn’t true.

Trump has tried to hide behind the troops to shield his unpopular presidency from criticism. But even when discussing a serious issue like military pay Trump is unable to stop himself from outlandish lying.

The result is disrespect for the troops and the reminder that his predecessor did more for them.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.