President Donald Trump announced in his prime time address Wednesday night that he was sending $1,776 checks to more than a million military service members, but a senior administration official confirmed they were already entitled to that money.

The president told viewers he was “proud to announce” that “1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call ‘warrior dividend,’ before Christmas," saying the dollar amount was intended to "honor the nation’s founding" and promised "the checks are already on the way" – but Defense One reported the funds were already being sent out by Congress.

“Congress appropriated $2.9 billion to the Department of War to supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing entitlement within The One Big Beautiful Bill,” the senior official said. “Approximately 1.28 million active component military members and 174,000 Reserve component military members will receive this supplement.”

In other words, the checks are being taken out of congressionally allocated reconciliation funds intended to subsidize service members' housing allowances.