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US President Donald Trump said on Saturday his administration has found a way to pay troops during the federal government shutdown and that he has ordered Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to do so.
“I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS,” said Trump.
Trump did not identify funding sources or the total amount that would be used for troop salaries.
The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to a request for details on the funds that would be used.
Trump made the announcement on the 11th day of a government shutdown that was sparked by a funding impasse with minority congressional Democrats.
Trump’s Republican Party controls the House of Representatives and the Senate. But to reach the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass a spending bill, Republicans must convince at least seven Democratic senators to back the measure.
Democrats are using that leverage to push for continuing and expanding health care subsidies for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Democratic lawmakers have refused to back a government spending bill that does not address the issue.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said he would “not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation HOSTAGE with their dangerous Government shutdown.”
He pledged to work with the Democrats on health care if they agree to reopen the government.
With no signs of a resolution to the impasse any time soon, the administration on Friday began making good on Trump’s threat to lay off thousands of federal workers.
On Saturday, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called minority Democrats back to Washington for a Tuesday evening meeting “to discuss a path forward in connection with the Republican shutdown and the health care crisis they have created.”
He issued the summons even though House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will not schedule any legislative sessions until the shutdown ends.

MISSISSIPPI, USA: High school homecoming celebrations in Mississippi ended in gunfire, with two separate shootings on opposite sides of the state Friday night that left at least six people dead and many more injured, authorities said.
Four of the dead were killed in downtown Leland, after a high school football homecoming game in the Mississippi Delta region on the state’s western edge, a state senator said Saturday.
About 20 people were injured in the gunfire after people gathered in downtown Leland following the game, state Sen. Derrick Simmons said. Of the 20 wounded, four were in critical condition and flown from a hospital in nearby Greenville to a larger medical center in the state capital city of Jackson, Simmons told The Associated Press.

Simmons said he was being updated on developments by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office as well as from other law enforcement authorities in the Delta.
“People were just congregating and having a good time in the downtown of Leland,” Simmons said of the town with a population of fewer than 4,000 people.
He was told that after the gunfire, the scene was “very chaotic,” as police, sheriff’s deputies and ambulances “responded from all over.”
“It’s just senseless gun violence,” he said. “What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns just being in circulation.”
No arrests have been announced, and Simmons said late Saturday morning that he had not heard any information about possible suspects.
“They are on the ground working and I have all the faith in the world that they will get to the bottom of this,” he said.
“As the state senator for the area, we are asking any and all individuals who might have any information regarding the horrific shooting last night to come forward and provide whatever information they have,” he added.
Meanwhile, police in the small Mississippi town of Heidelberg in the eastern part of the state are investigating a shooting during that community’s homecoming weekend that left two people dead.
Both of them were killed on the school campus Friday night, Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said. He declined to say whether the victims were students or provide other information about the crimes.
“Right now we’ve still got a subject at large, but I can’t give specifics,” White said Saturday morning.
An 18-year-old man was being sought for questioning in the Heidelberg shooting, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The sheriff asked that anyone with information contact the police chief or sheriff’s office.
The shooting in Heidelberg happened on the school campus where the Heidelberg Oilers were playing their homecoming football game Friday night. The town of about 640 residents is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southeast of the state capital of Jackson.
It wasn’t clear exactly when the gunfire occurred or how close it was to the stadium. White said he was at the scene Saturday investigating, and that more information might be released in coming days.