Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
As the government shutdown slouches toward a historic milestone for the longest in US history, the high-stakes battle over SNAP—the country’s largest and most critical food aid program—once again devolved into chaos on Tuesday after the president issued his latest social media rant.
“SNAP BENEFITS, which 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!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” he declared on Truth Social.
At first, the post appeared to be a stunning reversal of what had transpired almost exactly 24 hours earlier: On Monday, the Trump administration had said that it would comply with federal court orders to send at least partial payments to SNAP beneficiaries—after missing scheduled payments this weekend for the first time in the program’s 61-year history. (The administration, however, refused to use additional sources of funding that could provide full payments to the nearly 42 million Americans—39 percent of whom are children—who depend on the program.) Two judges last week found the government’s claim that it could not use any emergency funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing amid the shutdown to be meritless, with one ordering the government to draw up plans by noon on Monday for how it would restore payments.
So did Trump’s Tuesday social media post indicate that his administration was again reversing course and would now defy multiple federal judges? Asked to clarify on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the administration still intended to “fully comply” with the court order. Leavitt said that she had spoken with the president and that—contrary to the plain meaning of his words—he was actually referring to future SNAP benefits once the contingency funds are exhausted.
One could argue that Trump’s Truth Social post was yet another effort to sow confusion, or that the president of the United States was once again posting without control—that it was harmless incompetence, even worth ignoring. But look closer and it distills the degree to which Trump and his Republican allies have been talking out of both sides of their mouths, as they lambast SNAP and its beneficiaries with misleading and often racist attacks, while arguing that it’s Democrats who are to blame for the pain.
Trump’s post also appears to evince his central stance in the fight over SNAP—that he is unwilling to help those in the greatest need purely because of politics, even when he is legally required to do so and when his own administration has already agreed to comply. That amid horrendously long lines at food banks around the country, the president is willing to let Americans go hungry.
