Any student of history will know that a ruler refusing to pay his army leads to trouble. In Roman times not paying troops brought down at least two emperors. In China, it led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. More recently, unpaid Russian Army troops decisively joined the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.
So you can see why Donald Trump and his MAGA cronies are trying their hardest to keep America’s troops paid during the ongoing government shutdown. Trump has already diverted $8 billion in funds previously allocated to military R&D towards paycheques, and the Pentagon even had to humiliatingly rely on a private donation of $130 million to help offset costs.
But, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed, all that only covers pay up until Oct. 31. Troops are getting antsy: they legally cannot stop showing up for work and are wondering how they’re supposed to pay their bills. Here’s a snapshot of how it’s going down from a serving Marine who says he and his comrades “just got told there is a good chance we will not get paid”:
“Like everyone else, I have bills to pay. don’t all gasp at once now. Unlike a lot of people, though, I can’t just stop showing up to work. I will be legally prosecuted, and more than likely sent to prison.
I still have to work, I still have to do my 12 hour work days, 4-5 days a week, all for no compensation. I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills this month when I usually rely on a handsome paycheck from the government. But as it turns out, the government does not have any immediate action to pay its own military.”
It’s nauseating that Trump and his MAGA cronies will happily wrap themselves in the flag while giving insane speeches to captive military audiences, then reward troops by making their children go hungry, ruining their credit scores with missed payments, and forcing them to borrow money to stay afloat.
Mass desertions?
And don’t think this is an isolated case. As this Marine explains:
For anyone that’s working right now, this is what every single person in the military is going through at this moment as of 2025OCT27. Panicking, on whether or not we will be paid, while also still being legally bound by law to go into work. And to the people responsible for all of this, thanks, I guess. I’ll go f**k myself.”
An outright mutiny or mass desertion isn’t going to happen anytime soon, though this situation is a major hit to morale across America’s armed forces. After all, politicians can butter them up by praising them for their services, but without a paycheque, those are just hollow words.
And hey, while rebellion isn’t on the cards now, if this shutdown stretches out towards Christmas we may get into what historians dub “interesting times”.
