U.S. President Donald Trump sparked widespread anger on Tuesday after he suggested the U.S. would not pay full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the ongoing government shutdown.
His statement directly contradicted a federal court filing submitted by his administration just a day earlier.
Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that SNAP benefits that help feed 42 million Americans “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Highlights
- Trump suggested partial SNAP benefits will be paid only if Democrats reopen the government amid a historic shutdown.
- The Trump administration plans to use contingency funds for half of November's SNAP costs, defying a federal court order.
- Judge McConnell ordered full SNAP funding via contingency funds; the administration refused to tap Child Nutrition funds.
Trump suggested the U.S. would not pay full SNAP benefits during the ongoing shutdown
Image credits: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The benefits program provides critical food assistance to low-income families.
The statement came after the Trump administration told a Rhode Island federal judge on Monday that it would use emergency contingency funds to pay roughly half of November’s SNAP costs.
Trump later said the benefits “increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly ‘handed’ to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!)”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing later that “the administration is fully complying with the court order.”
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump made the post soon after lawyers for plaintiffs in a court case challenging the administration’s termination of SNAP benefits told the federal judge in Rhode Island that the administration’s plan to pay only partial SNAP benefits from a contingency fund violated his earlier order, which said that any decision to reduce payments must not be “arbitrary and capricious.”
On Friday, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ordered the administration to pay SNAP benefits out of a contingency fund. He also instructed them to investigate whether other federal funds could be used to keep the program fully funded.
The Trump administration agreed that it would use all $4.65 billion remaining in the contingency fund, but declined to use $4 billion from the Child Nutrition Program to keep SNAP funded.
Lawyers for plaintiffs told McConnell, “The Court should grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary stay on the ground that Defendants’ decision not to provide full SNAP benefits—even though they have funds available to do so and even though switching to partial payments at this late date will cause devastating delay—is arbitrary and capricious.”
A federal court filing on Friday ordered the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits out of a contingency fund
Image credits: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Leavitt said she had spoken to Trump about his post and said, “The recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand it’s going to take some time to receive this money, because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position.”
“We are digging into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war, and the president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future, and that’s what he was referring to in his Truth Social post,” Leavitt added.
Continuation of the SNAP benefits has become a major issue amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1. The shutdown has entered its 36th day on Nov. 5, and it has become the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, overtaking the record 35-day shutdown of 2018–2019 during Trump’s first presidency.
The Trump administration is refusing to fully fund SNAP benefits as leverage to pressure Democrats into passing a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government.
Image credits: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Democrats have demanded that the parties negotiate a compromise on Affordable Care Act tax credits, which will expire soon, before they sign to reopen the government.
Economists have warned that the shutdown is already costing the U.S. between $7 billion and $14 billion each week that it drags on.
State officials have criticized the administration for politicizing a program that provides essential nutrition.
Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the decision not to tap tariff revenue to fund SNAP amounted to “playing politics with hunger.”
SNAP beneficiaries and families have also come forward to criticize Trump.
Trump supporter and Buffalo resident Betty Szretter told NBC News about her 26-year-old daughter, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes and a mental health condition that has left her unable to work.
A Trump supporter said the administration should focus on Americans’ dining rooms instead of presidential ballrooms
Image credits: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
“Now he’s busy out of the country and demolishing the White House,” Szretter said. “I believe the Trump administration, instead of focusing on presidential ballrooms, should be paying attention to individual Americans’ dining rooms.”
Trump’s disapproval ratings have skyrocketed to the highest level since he began his second term, with 63% of Americans being dissatisfied with his job in the Oval Office.
“I can’t see into the future, but I see Republicans losing the House if Americans are continuing to go paycheck-to-paycheck,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an interview two weeks ago.
“They’ll definitely be going into the midterms looking through the lens of their bank account.”
Historically, SNAP benefits continued uninterrupted during government shutdowns, making the current situation unprecedented. Past administrations distributed funds even when Congress failed to pass a timely budget, using contingency funds to maintain support.