Evidence from credible sources supports the statement as accurate. Learn more in Methodology.
An official directive, memorandum, or authoritative statement links the issuance of the payment to an instruction from President Donald J. Trump.
Multiple independent reports confirm that the $1,776 "Warrior Dividend" payments were initiated and directed by President Donald Trump as a White House policy, then implemented by the Pentagon using existing housing-allowance funds. Trump personally announced in a Dec. 17, 2025, national address that "we are sending every soldier $1,776" and that checks were "already on the way," framing it as his initiative. Subsequent reporting shows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Department of Defense to disburse $2.6 billion in one-time payments from a $2.9 billion housing supplement that Congress had previously appropriated, but those actions are consistently described as carrying out Trump's announced plan, and Pentagon officials told ABC News that troops would not have received this money absent Trump's decision. Therefore, describing the payments as having been made "at the direction of President Donald J. Trump" is accurate in ordinary-language terms, even though the legal funding authority derived from prior congressional appropriations and the formal disbursement order came from the defense secretary.