One branch of the military isn’t getting paid during Donald Trump’s government shutdown: The Coast Guard is funded through the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense. That means about 44,000 Coast Guard members working without pay and another 6,000 furloughed. They’ll be missing their first paychecks on January 1, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson.
Trump has repeatedly focused on the Coast Guard’s “brand,” which according to Trump has improved dramatically—at least with Trump, who may not have understood what the Coast Guard is and does before he became responsible for it. He even tweeted praise and visited Coast Guard members on Thanksgiving. On Christmas, one Coast Guard district got a phone call with a promise of a new icebreaker … even though “the bad part is the price.”
Right now, most Coast Guard members would probably prefer the promise of their regular paychecks.