I’ve been pondering it for hours… 98% it’s a threat about kidnapping Americans, put the word “ransom” in place of “bonus”. A non native English speaker could easily confuse the two words. It’s like when you are in a hurry and the precise word in another language escapes you for a moment, but you toss in a placeholder, knowing that the person you’re talking with will fill in the right word from conversational context. This is a shitty vetsion of “Look at me. I am the Captain now.”