After a weekend of rapid-fire developments in the battle over food benefits for hungry families, the Trump administration has tripled down on its demands that SNAP payments not be made during the government shutdown.
The brazenness of the administration’s demands that Congressionally allocated resources not be given to people in need left even some of President Donald Trump’s supporters stunned. Trump and his allies have fought vigorously to deny payment of federal food benefits — even though the funding exists — and ended the weekend demanding that payments already made be clawed back.
Lisa Murkowski
Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called the latest Trump directive “shocking.”
“It’s one thing if the federal government is going to continue its level of appeal through the courts to say, no, this can’t be done,” Murkowski said. “But when you are telling the states that have said this is a significant enough issue in our state, we’re going to find resources, backfill or front load, whatever term you want, to help our people, those states should not be penalized.”
Yet that’s exactly what the administration did, threatening to penalize any state that has made November payments to SNAP recipients. Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture Patrick Penn called these payments “unauthorized” and said they should be taken back immediately.
Further, as millions of Americans faced the threat of insufficient food as Thanksgiving approaches, the Trump administration told the court it is the government — not the people — who will be harmed if SNAP payments are allowed to be sent out.
James Sample wrote for ABC News: “There is a paragraph on page 22 of the Trump administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s requirement that it make full November SNAP payments that has to be seen to be believed. The opening sentence asserts that ‘the district court’s order threatens significant and irreparable harm to the government which outweighs any claimed injury to plaintiffs.’
“In plain English, the Justice Department is telling the court that it would hurt the federal government more to comply with a judge’s order requiring full food stamp payments than it would hurt millions of low-income Americans to potentially starve.”
“The Justice Department is telling the court that it would hurt the federal government more to comply with a judge’s order requiring full food stamp payments than it would hurt millions of low-income Americans to potentially starve.”
With the public on their side and the presidential threats growing more severe by the day, Democrats have seized on the moment to call out the cruelty of the Trump regime.
“Donald Trump and his administration have made the decision to weaponize hunger, to withhold SNAP benefits from millions of people, notwithstanding the fact that two lower courts, both the district court and the court of appeals, made clear that those SNAP benefits needed to be paid immediately,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Saturday.
Potetial 2028 Democratic presidential candidate Gavin Newsom, governor of California, wrote on X: “Donald Trump is literally fighting in court to ensure Americans starve. HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.”
Navigator Research last week found a majority of Americans blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for SNAP’s funding lapsing (51% blame Trump and Republicans while 33% blame Democrats in Congress), including 53% of independents who blame the GOP.
Mike Johnson
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson continued to blame Democrats for the crisis. The Louisiana Republican wrote on X Friday: “The EASIEST WAY to end the chaos and put food back on families’ tables is for Democrats to release their hostage and vote to reopen the government. Every day they delay means more moms skipping meals, more seniors facing empty pantries, and more families wondering how they’ll get by. THIS ISN’T ABOUT POLITICS. — it’s basic human decency. End the shutdown. Reopen the government.”
Democrats are using what little power they have in Congress right now to demand a continuation of Affordable Care Act supplements for health insurance for millions of Americans. Republicans long have opposed these subsidies as “Obamacare” and have been unwilling to guarantee future funding.
Those who work to feed the hungry across the country said their work is getting harder.
“This situation is catastrophic,” Monica Lopez Gonzales, Feeding America chief marketing and communications officer, told Fortune. “Right now, 42 million people are having a hard time affording groceries, and their lives are being disrupted because their benefits have been disrupted.”
The legal battle playing out over the weekend took new turns almost by the hour.
On Friday, for the second time in less than a week, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to fully restore food stamp payments during the government shutdown.
District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island issued the second order Nov. 6 directing the release of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds for November and chastising Trump for politicizing food insecurity.
McConnell’s initial ruling Oct. 31 was met with mixed signals from the administration. The president vowed to withhold funding until Democrats agree to end the shutdown, while a White House spokeswoman first promised full compliance before adding only partial payments would be made.
The administration petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for rapid relief on the matter and — to the surprise of Democrats — got a short reprieve from liberal justice Kentanji Brown Jackson. On Friday night, she temporarily paused McConnell’s rulings ordering the full SNAP disbursement while an appeals court considers the administration’s request to halt the payments.
That led the Department of Agriculture on Saturday to write state SNAP directors to warn them it now considers full payments under the prior orders “unauthorized.”
The matter is far from settled, however, as the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals could run on the administration’s original protest as soon as Monday. The case is likely to end up back before the full Supreme Court as the drama continues.
In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Agriculture still has a $6 billion reserve fund to continue financing SNAP for its 42 million recipients this month. Those fund were allocated by Congress for such a time as this.
A hallmark of the second Trump administration is refusing to spend funds as allocated by Congress — which typically has gone unchallenged because Congress is controlled by the GOP and its leaders want to appease Trump.