The Trump Administration Is Taking Food Away from Families Because They Want to
For weeks, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have kept the federal government shut down because they refuse to take steps to prevent health care premiums from skyrocketing for millions of people. And now—for the first time ever—the Trump administration has allowed funding to lapse for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps one in eight people across the country put food on the table.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency that runs SNAP, confirmed that it will partially fund November SNAP benefits, cutting them by 50%, Trump immediately backtracked on that plan, saying that even these reduced benefits won’t be paid until after the shutdown ends. Once again, the administration is delivering on the cruel promises made in Project 2025—taking food and health care away from families struggling to get by, all to make the richest among us even better off.
Because women, especially women of color, and their families disproportionately face economic insecurity, they also disproportionately rely on SNAP benefits—and are now even more likely to go hungry. Even before benefits were cut off on November 1, 73% of Black women and 80% of Latinas were worried about affording groceries.
Despite claims to the contrary, the Trump administration is to blame for SNAP cuts. While the shutdown stopped SNAP dollars from flowing as usual, SNAP has a “contingency reserve” that Congress specifically directed to be used “at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations.” The administration has not only the legal authority but the legal obligation to use this reserve to make sure SNAP benefits can continue. The contingency fund alone doesn’t have enough to fully cover November SNAP benefits, but the administration can take additional steps to fill the gap (as it has for other programs during the shutdown).
On October 31, two courts agreed: In separate lawsuits brought in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the judges both found that the Trump administration must release the contingency funds to pay for SNAP. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that these funds could be released by tomorrow, but Trump’s declaration today indicates that he is willing to defy court orders and use hungry families as a pawn in his political games.
Even if the funds are released right away, however, it could take weeks (or even longer) for states to actually get benefits to recipients—a painful delay that the administration easily could have avoided. The judge in Rhode Island also made clear that the federal government both can and should transfer additional dollars to fully fund November SNAP benefits, but the USDA has refused to do so, choosing instead to draw only from the contingency fund and cut benefits in half. In short, the Trump administration can prevent millions of people from going hungry—but it’s choosing not to.
The combination of cruelty and willful disregard for the law on display here is, sadly, not shocking coming from this administration. Nor is it shocking that Trump and other members of the administration gathered for a lavish, Great Gatsby themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday while 42 million people he was elected to serve worried about whether they’d be able to eat the next day. After all, just a few months ago Trump and congressional Republicans enacted a tax and budget bill with massive cuts to SNAP to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and corporations—and ripping away the supports that women of color and their families depend on is pretty much their standard operating procedure. Unless Trump and Congress move not only to end the shutdown, but also to reverse the brutal SNAP cuts, women and their families will be at risk of hunger for years to come.
