Trump announces $1,776 'Warrior Dividend' for troops amid inflation fears

President Donald Trump announced plans to award 1.45 million service members $1,776 payments as he sought to reassure Americans concerned about his stewardship of the US economy. 

“Military service members will receive a special — we call Warrior Dividend — before Christmas, in honor of our nation’s founding in 1776,” Trump said.  

Trump announced the plan Wednesday during a prime-time address from the White House meant to extol his accomplishments this year and assuage Americans increasingly worried about their cost of living.  

The planned payments — pegged to the year the US declared its independence from Great Britain — are broadly in keeping with the administration’s efforts to steer financial rewards to certain constituencies.  

Administration officials cast the address as an opportunity to highlight the president’s accomplishments in his first year back in the White House and preview new policies for 2026, but the remarks come at a critical moment with Trump confronting mounting public anxiety about his economic agenda and his advisers struggling to hone their messaging. 

Voters returned Trump to office in part to address the persistent inflation that plagued former President Joe Biden. And Trump spent much of his remarks looking to lay the blame at the foot of his predecessor, detailing price increases during the prior administration. 

“11 months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said. “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.” 

Trump now finds himself facing the same economic headwinds. Surveys show Americans are worried about the cost of living and inflation, fears that powered rival Democrats to key electoral wins in November and pose a major threat to Trump and Republicans in 2026 elections that will decide control of Congress and the future of his legislative agenda. 

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed Trump’s approval rating had slipped to nearly its lowest level of his second term in office, with just 39 per cent of US adults approving of his job performance. 

Trump’s own inconsistent messaging on the economy has made his task harder. The president has vacillated between deriding voter anger over affordability as a Democratic “hoax” and at times emphasizing lower prices for gasoline and eggs as positive bellwethers.  

Trump graded his record on the economy as an “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus,” while insisting that his administration needs more time to remedy what he says was a mess left by Biden. The president also is in the final stages of a search for a new Federal Reserve chair. 

“I’ll soon announce our next chairman of the Federal Reserve, someone who believes in lower interest rates, by a lot, and mortgage payments will be coming down even further. Early in the new year, and you will see this in the new year, I will announce some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history,” Trump said. 

Trump sought to rally viewers by touting his work on other issues, saying he had stopped the flow of undocumented migrants and drugs while bolstering the military and brokering a ceasefire in Gaza. 

“Boy, are we making progress. Nobody can believe what’s going on,” Trump said.