In Iraq, Trump told the troops 2 falsehoods about their pay

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

While speaking to U.S. service members at the al-Asad airbase in Iraq on Wednesday, President Trump spread two falsehoods about military pay.

First, Trump asked the gathered troops if anyone there was "willing to give up the big pay raise you just got," and declared that service members hadn't received a raise "in more than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one." Trump also claimed he spoke with "plenty of people" who told him he could make the pay raise "smaller," at "3 percent," "2 percent," or "4 percent," but he said he told them, "No, make it 10 percent."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.