Trump Says ‘No Money’ Going to Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Victims’ Claims if GOP Loses Midterm Elections

President Donald Trump said during a GOP rally Tuesday evening that the Justice Department will have “no money” for victims of contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune if Republicans do not retain the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.

Nefarious conditions at Camp Lejeune date back roughly 75 years. Approximately 1 million Marines, their families and civilian employees at the Jacksonville, N.C., base drank and bathed in water heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987. It

Trump’s push to bring Republicans to the polls before and on Nov. 3 is seemingly being tied to the health and financial welfare of thousands of victims negatively affected by toxic water at Camp Lejeune who still await progress on their government claims. The DOJ oversees the claims’ payout.

“If we don’t win, there’s no money,” Trump told conservative supporters Tuesday in Greenville, N.C. “If we do win, you’re getting it. It’s gonna be finally over with that nightmare that’s been going on for so many years. We will never abandon the heroes who served America.”

The president added that he and his administration prefer money “goes to the families, not to the lawyers.”

For more than a decade, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has provided disability compensation to service members and others potentially affected by being exposed, as part of the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012.

Trump’s String of Tying Money, Promises to Midterm Elections

Tuesday’s remarks were not the first time the president has tied money and promises, dubbed by critics as bribes, to the midterm elections.

He has now infamously pledged to give $5,000 to all U.S. adults should Republicans maintain majorities in the House and Senate, even as previously promised Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, checks never came to fruition.

Just one day prior to Trump’s tying of Camp Lejeune claims to those who await claims’ completion, the president stumped for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas and made a similar pledge.

“With Roger Marshall in the Senate, we will make year-round E15 permanent,” Trump said in reference to the sale of fuel blended with 15% ethanol, typically restricted in summer months due to environmental concerns. “But if Adam Hamilton is in, I’m not doing it. That’s it. I’m only doing it for him.”

Hamilton, the Democratic opponent of Marshall, is locked in a very tight race in a state that has long notoriously voted Republican. The last Democrat to win a Senate seat was George McGill in 1932.

Hamilton spokesperson Tyler Brody told NBC News of Trump’s remarks: “Blackmailing Kansans for our votes is Washington at its worst. We deserve leaders who work for all Kansans, no matter what political party we’re in. Roger Marshall has been in Congress for ten years and never passed year-round E15.”

AG Blanche, Laura Loomer Spar on Lejeune Trials

As President Trump tied the importance of the upcoming elections directly to people’s health and pocketbooks, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Trump supporter Laura Loomer expressed conflicting views on Camp Lejeune on social media. Bench trials are supposed to begin within the next week.

Loomer wrote on X that Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who she described as a “lifelong Democrat at the DOJ,” has been “sending these veterans insulting lowball offers designed to insult and belittle their suffering.”

“This is a political disaster waiting to happen. Let’s be clear: Democrats are 100% going to weaponize this against President Trump and try to hurt him with veterans heading into the midterms in two weeks,” Loomer wrote.

She called on Blanche to “step in NOW” and avoid a public relations disaster. Blanche shot back.

“Laura, you should be transparent with your followers, and you are dead wrong about Stanley,” Blanche wrote on X. “He is a patriot who is fighting for POTUS and the American people every day. Decisions in cases like Camp Lejeune are made by me, ODAG, Stanley’s team, the civil division and the trial team, consulting with and keeping the White House counsel’s office and DOW updated along the way.

“We love our veterans and we want to get these cases right. Find a different obsession other than going after one of DOJ’s best fighters.”

As of Sept. 18, 2026, the DOJ said that Camp Lejeune Justice Act settlement offers exceed $1.1 billion and settlement payouts exceed $879 million.

The Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012 provides qualifying veterans with health care (except dental care) from the VA if they served on active duty at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days in the aforementioned timeframe. That includes those without health conditions directly correlated to the toxic exposure.