Trump visits Troops and lies to their faces

The president told service members at al-Asad air base in Iraq that he was proud to secure them a much-needed pay bump of “more than 10 percent” after years of stagnant wages. Many of the troops in attendance may have been surprised to learn they hadn’t seen a pay increase in more than a decade.

In fact, military members have seen a pay raise in each of the last 10 years, ranging from 1 percent to 3.9 percent, according to the Defense Department. They even saw pay bumps when other federal workers were subjected to a three-year pay freeze in the wake of the Great Recession.

The pay increase for 2019 passed by Congress and signed by the president in August will be 2.6 percent, the largest since 2010. It is not far above last year’s raise for troops, which was 2.4 percent.

“We had plenty of people that came up. They said, ‘You know, we can make it smaller. We can make it 3 percent. We can make it 2 percent. We can make it 4 percent.’ I said, ‘No. Make it 10 percent. Make it more than 10 percent.’”

Is there anybody who is OK with the President doing this?

bettyd

Dec 27, 2018 at 8:30am

It’s not that he just lies, it’s the extent of the lie. He is not satisfied with two lies: this is the first raise in ten years and it is a ten percent raise. He felt the need to “embellish” even more and actually said people came up to him and said we can make it 2 or 3 %, but he insisted, “I said no. Make it ten percent, make it more than ten percent.” That is pathological. Again, who is OK with the President doing this?

apple44

Dec 27, 2018 at 9:40am Edited

Yes, the old "people tell me ..." line. There's no one on the planet who is less inclined to take advice and learn from others, yet he is constantly saying "people tell me ..."

Also, he always reverts to what is easy. It's relatively easy for him for give them a pay raise and publicize that. Presumably what they really want are better services such as healthcare and perhaps benefits for education and career development when they come home. He ran partly on a position of "fixing" the veterans affairs department but it's not clear what he's done, if anything.

drummerboy

Dec 27, 2018 at 9:44am

wait. Trump lied?

BG9

Dec 27, 2018 at 10:14am

A braggart.

Posturing a 10% wage hike assuming many are stupid enough to believe "wow, he really supports the troops." If had any intention of support he could have done this a year ago.

If anything, don't be surprised if hate radio or Fox and Friends say "He wants to give you give 10%, but those Democrats in the House ....".