You know, most of the senior ranks would have known Trump was lying to them when he said he had given them the first pay raise in 10 years. Why? Most people learn how to read their LES's after being in a couple of years, and they pay CLOSE attention to how much they are paid, and if they don't feel it is right, they come to Personnel to ***** about it and get it corrected. They would have noticed every pay raise that they got.
The part that makes me feel bad for those in Personnel is the 10 percent pay raise thing. First, Personnel is gonna have to explain to the troops why they aren't getting paid yet, and tell them they have to wait until the government reopens, and then they will get back pay.
The next part that makes me feel bad for those in Personnel is that when the 15th rolls around (first paycheck to reflect the pay raise), there are gonna be some people in their office screaming about they got gypped for their pay raise, because it only went up a couple of dollars. They are then going to have to explain to them that it is Congress that authorizes the pay raise (for 2019 it's gonna be only 2.6 percent, not the 10 percent Trump said), so they were lied to when Trump visited.
How do I know these things? I spent 20 years in the Navy working in Personnel, and there were people who knew roughly when we were going to get tax free and combat pay, and if it didn't start on the day they thought it should, they were in my office bitching about not getting enough pay. I would then have to explain to them that I had to go by the dates in the authorizing message, not when they thought it should take effect.
My first supervisor, PN1 June B., told me that there are only 2 things an enlisted person cares about, how much they make, and how much liberty they can get. And, pay drives what you do on liberty.
Also had an MS1 (Mess Specialist) on my first ship that told me of a very simple formula he used to determine how much to make for dinner that night. He said, all he had to do was look in his wallet. If we had just been paid, he didn't make that much for supper, because most people would be eating out in town or ordering pizza. The closer it got to payday, the more food he would make, because more people would be eating on the ship.