Politics

Last week, when Donald Trump announced a bailout for farmers hurt by his own economic agenda, the president boasted that the payments would be financed by revenue generated by trade tariffs. That was problematic for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the claim wasn’t true: The money was coming from a USDA fund, not tariff revenue.

Trump might’ve liked the idea of tariffs generating a pool of money he could draw upon to reward people he likes, but his public assertion was entirely made up.

This week, something very similar happened. The Washington Post reported on the White House’s announced $1,776 “warrior dividend” bonuses to service members.

The obvious red flag was that tariff revenue is actually far short of Trump’s claims, and the money that does exist has already been set aside for a variety of other administration priorities.

But as the dust settled on the presidential address, a different problem emerged: Since the president cannot legally spend tariff money without congressional approval, where was the money for the “warrior dividend” payments actually going to come from?