Whoopi Goldberg claimed on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s plan to give monetary bonuses to members of the military was effectively a bribe to ensure that they’d obey the president’s orders even if they were not necessarily lawful.
Goldberg, during Thursday’s broadcast of ABC’s “The View,” first questioned whether or not troops would actually ever see that money — and then immediately insinuated that if they did see it, it would be solely because Trump was using it to buy their loyalty.
WATCH:
Whoopi doubts Trump is going to pay the troops his announced $1,776 bonus, but then claims it’s a bribe for them to back his plots:
“What he’s doing is, he’s thinking, ‘if I make sure that the soldiers have what they need they’ll back me and what I want, see?” pic.twitter.com/DBmKx6IfEN— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 18, 2025
Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin began by saying she’d actually like to give Trump credit for offering bonuses — “warrior dividends” — to troops, but Goldberg quickly interrupted.
“Let’s see if they get the — I want to see them get it first,” Goldberg said.
Griffin went on to say that she’d prefer to see “smart policies” rather than “handouts,” and argued that it was unfair for money to only go to members of the military — particularly if the money was, as Trump said, coming from tariff revenue — that all Americans were hurting and in need of assistance.
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Goldberg then pivoted to suggest that the reason Trump was singling out members of the armed forces had nothing to do with the notion that they’d earned it in service to the country, but rather because she believed they’d be more likely to do anything Trump wanted if he greased the wheels with a Christmas bonus.
“What he’s doing is, he’s thinking, ‘If I make sure that the soldiers have what they need, they’ll back me in what I want, see?’” she said.
