The one-time payment of $1,776 given to every service member who isn't an admiral or a general last month could disproportionately impact military families struggling to pay rent in high cost-of-living areas.
President Donald Trump announced the payments Dec. 17, falsely claiming they were being paid for by tariff revenue.
The funds for the payments in fact came from a provision in the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" passed this summer, according to a Pentagon statement.
"Money to pay for the Warrior Dividend came earlier this year as part of the president's One Big Beautiful Bill," the statement said. "Approximately 1.28 million active-duty and 174,000 reserve component military members will receive the dividend as a nontaxable supplement to their regular monthly housing allowance."
According to the bill, the $2.9 billion was given to the Pentagon to supplement the Basic Allowance for Housing some service members receive.
Janessa Goldbeck is the CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, a nonprofit that works to get veterans involved in policymaking. She said redirecting funds undermines military planning.
"No one is against bonuses or better pay for service members,” Goldbeck said. "It (takes) away from money that was Congressionally allocated to do other things. When the president rebrands existing money into a political payout, it undermines that planning. The person who gains the most from this stunt is President Trump."
The issue, Goldbeck said, is in how Basic Allowance for Housing, or BAH, works.
The housing allowance pays qualified service members who choose not to live in base housing a monthly tax-free stipend to pay rent on the private market. The amount each service member receives is dependent upon their rank and whether they have a family — BAH goes up as a person gets promoted.
It's also different based on where one is stationed. An E-5 with a family stationed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma is paid $1,644 per month in BAH.
The same service member in San Diego would receive $3,975 per month.
$1,776 doesn't go very far in San Diego, Goldbeck says.
"That amount ... is going to go a lot further for a service member stationed in a lower-cost place than for a service member stationed in San Diego," she said.
Goldbeck, who served as an officer in the Marines, said a lot of service members struggle to pay for housing as BAH rates don't always keep up with rising rents and inflation.
"In really expensive places like San Diego ... it's really hard for troops to actually live out in town on BAH, depending on their rank or how many members of their family they have."
That doesn't mean every Marine, sailor, soldier and airman in San Diego was shorted by the bonus.
A lot of service members, especially those who are young or early in their careers, live in barracks on base or on ships. Many military families also choose to live in base housing.
"So this one-time cash payment is actually a great deal for them," Goldbeck said. "But for the E-5 sergeant living out in town who is struggling to pay rent ... they are no longer able to see that adjustment because these funds have been reallocated in one flat way. It really does a disservice to the service members living here who can't afford the rent in San Diego County."
This isn't the first time Trump shuffled the military budget to pay troops. During the government shutdown the Pentagon diverted research and development funds to make military payroll.
