Trump’s mystery ‘friend’ gives $200 million gift to pay troops

Paying service members is a major concern among lawmakers of both parties and a political vantage point. The Trump administration shifted $8 billion from military research and development funds for last week’s payroll, ensuring military compensation would not expire.

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But it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will be willing or able to shift money again as tensions mount over the prolonged shutdown.

$130 million would cover only a small fraction of the billions needed for military paychecks. Trump said the donation was to cover any “deficiencies” and that it was unclear how regulations would cover such a donation.

“This is crazy,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization focused on the federal government.

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“Payment for our uniformed services is treated as if someone were collecting your bar bill.”

Stier questioned the legality of the donation and called for more transparency.

Pentagon policy says officials “should consult with the appropriate Ethics Officer before accepting any such gift valued at more than $10,000 to determine whether the donor is involved in any solicitations, purchases, litigation, or other specific matters of Department concern that should be considered prior to acceptance of the gift.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group to deploy from the Mediterranean to the US Southern Command region near the South American coast.

“This will strengthen the United States’ capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities that endanger the security and prosperity of the United States,” Sean Parnell said on social media.

Ford, which has a crew of approximately 5,000 sailors and more than 75 attack, surveillance and support aircraft, including F/A-18 fighter jets, was recently in a Croatian port on the Adriatic Sea.

It is unclear how long it will take to reach the coast of South America or whether all five destroyers in the strike group will be able to make the journey.

The deployment of an aircraft carrier would add major resources to a region that already has an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuelan waters.

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The latest deployment and increasing pace of U.S. strikes, including Friday’s attack, have raised new speculation about how far the Trump administration might go in operations it says target drug trafficking and whether it might try to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

There are currently more than 6,000 U.S. sailors and marines on eight warships in the region.

Hours before Parnell announced the news, Hegseth said the military had carried out a 10th attack on a boat suspected of drug smuggling, killing six people and bringing the death toll from attacks that began in early September to at least 43.

Hegseth said on social media that the attack was on a ship operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. This was the administration’s second operation linked to a gang emerging from a Venezuelan prison.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you the same way we treat Al Qaeda,” Hegseth said. “Night or day, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

Maduro maintains that the US operations are a last-ditch effort to oust him.

Two of the most recent attacks were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean; The area from which the military launched its offensive has been expanded and moved to areas where much of the cocaine is smuggled from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia.

The Trump administration, which escalated tensions with Colombia, also imposed sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a government member, on charges that they were involved in the global drug trade.

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