Military Presents

Indicators and warnings are threats and opportunities

On 17 December 2025, Donald Trump announced that the troops would be getting a Christmas bonus.

Specifically, he gave everyone O-6 and below a $1,776 bonus. That means everyone in the Enlisted ranks (E-1 through E-9), all the Warrant Officers (W-1 to W-5), and the lower, larger half of the Commissioned Officers (O-1 to O-6) are getting an unexpected check, in addition to their regular pay and benefits, from the Great & Kind Orange Emperor. This is the privates, sergeants, lieutenants, majors, and colonels that make up the vast majority of the American military. Not only are these the war fighters, operators, technicians, and leaders that actually do the business of war, it’s also all of the men who strive and rise without the direct approval of the Congress.

If you’re not a political junkie like yours truly, you might have missed this detail. Even if you are, you might have missed the enormity of this decision. After all, we’ve been quietly bribing the troops for decades: home loans, college money, medical, housing, disability. Some states offer tax breaks or college tuition assistance for the children of veterans. It’s a very extensive system that gets remarkably Byzantine at times.

But this wasn’t that. This was a straight up bribe. Just shy of eighteen hundred dollars, at a time when the price of existence is painfully expensive, when political tensions are running high, and the future of America is up in the air.

So what does it mean?

Students of the Roman or Byzantine Empires will recognize the move. Their histories are dotted with exactly this: cash payments to the troops to ensure loyalty during times of Imperial transition or Imperial crisis. The more cynical among us view this as a symptom of Imperial Decline. It was then and it is now. It shows that America is in fact on the long, slow slide towards Imperial Collapse.

It also happens to be a brilliant political maneuver. Democrats are threatening prosecution and punishment for anyone brave enough to follow the orders of the Commander-in-Chief and his Secretary of War; Donald Trump is giving a nice Christmas bonus to everyone in uniform that isn’t hand selected by Congress.

Do you think any of the left leaning enlisted, as rare as they are, are going to turn that money down on ideological grounds? Not likely. And so, the choice becomes this:

Where does your loyalty lie?

Does it lie with the shrill homos who saddled you with diversity promotions and SHARP training¹, who have explicitly stated they want to throw you in prison for doing your job?

Or is it with the guy who likes you, who respects and praises you, and bought your kids some kick ass Christmas presents, because he actually cares about you?

Maybe you’re at a point in your finances where $1,776 doesn’t seem like a lot of money. And it isn’t, until you’re wondering how rent and Christmas gifts and groceries are all going to fit on the same paycheck that’s been dwindling for years.

Don’t discount the power of cash money.

Earlier I said it was a brilliant move. That’s not just because it buys some loyalty, but also because it significantly alters the dynamic of the underlying game theory.

If you noticed, no Democrats came out to publicly condemn the bonus. I suspect no foreign born judges or shrews in nylon with hyphenated last names will try to block it. Doing so would be DISASTROUS for their cause. Which means that, as of now, a Christmas bonus for the troops is de facto Imperial Policy. If Trump gives them another one next year, the policy will last exactly as long as the United States does. He could even pick another significant date that increases it as well as magnifies the socio-cultural significance. No future president will be able to weather the storm of unpopularity that comes with cancelling it. And thus, an unofficial precedent becomes a cherished tradition, which is indistinguishable from being the law of the land.

Now, a couple grand per solider is a lot of cash, but it isn’t that much money. The next time some President is feeling particularly insecure in their role, it won’t be $1,776, it’ll be $1,945. Or $2,016. Or maybe another $1,776 for the 4th of July in addition to the Christmas bonus. Or a bonus when a war needs to be started. Or a surprise infusion if riotous troops need to be calmed, or rewarded.

You can see how this could add up quickly. The Christmas Bonus is here to stay. But it will be possible to block that 4th of July bonus, making the whole thing a political football. Simply restrict the budget of your political opponent and he won’t be able to pay a proper bribe to ensure loyalty.

Which is where the other important part of this comes in. Because if you really need the money, you can always get it.

You just have to take it from someone else.

Don’t think for a second a future president with his back against the wall wouldn’t be willing to knock over a small nation for the chance to sell off oil and mining contracts for a few quick billions to make sure that he’s got money for that “Veteran’s Day” bonus that falls suspiciously close to Election Day.

And so, the Imperial Cycle advances and declines.

Merry Christmas, and God keep you and yours.

~

This is a guest post from a good fren of the TOMstack. Enoch Powell is a talented writer and a top notch memeist in the trench war that is social media. He wrote the essay and got notes & feedback from myself and a few fellow frogs in the Fren Network.

1. SHARP training in the Army refers to the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program, a comprehensive effort to eliminate sexual assault and harassment by fostering a culture of respect, providing education, training leaders and soldiers, and offering robust response and support for victims, focusing on prevention, intervention, and accountability through specialized roles like SARCs (Sexual Assault Response Coordinators) and VAs (Victim Advocates).