Trump uses speech to Navy graduates to lie about military pay raises
Trump’s lie has been debunked over and over again, but he keeps telling it anyway.
Trump already lied directly to military spouses this month about giving troops an unprecedented pay increase. So in a sad, demented way it makes sense that while addressing midshipmen graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, he would also lie directly to them about the same topic.
And that’s what Trump did on Friday, implying that the U.S. military under President Obama was denied any pay raises during his two terms in office.
“We just got you big pay raises, first time in 10 years,” Trump bragged. “We got you a big pay increase, first time in over ten years. I fought for you. That was the hardest one to get. But you never had a chance of losing. I represented you well.”
None of this is true. Or as MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle pointed out when Trump told the same untruth earlier this month, “This is 100 percent a lie.”
Note that it’s also a lie that Trump had to valiantly fight for the pay increase, since there was absolutely no political opposition to the move.
Trump was referring to the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018, which includes a 2.6 percent pay increase.
But there’s not much that’s newsworthy there since, by federal law, U.S. troops are required a receive at least a 1 percent pay raise every year.
And that has been true for the last three decades. During 2009 and 2010, when Obama was president, military members received 3.9 and 3.4 percent raises, respectively.
The idea that troops were denied that for “the last 10 years” is just a purposeful fabrication.
And the White House knows it because everyone, including the Military Times, keeps calling out the misinformation:
And let us add, what Trump did IS LIE. The White House admits it is not true. He continues to say it, anyway. That is the definition of a lie. Media, please accurately report that he LIED to our military today. https://t.co/voLVmxst5T
— VoteVets (@votevets) May 25, 2018
Still, Trump peddles the petty falsehood, even at the august setting of a U.S. military graduation ceremony.
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