Amid the administration’s refusal to tap contingency funds to sustain the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — and with two federal judges now ordering it to do so — President Donald Trump came under fire Friday for claiming that most SNAP recipients are Democrats.
Forty-two million Americans may lose their benefits starting on Saturday if the Trump administration does not act.
While there are no exact statistics on party affiliation, large numbers of SNAP users reside in deep red states.
According to WIRED, data collected by the USDA “shows that deep-red states like Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana are among those with the highest percentage of food stamp recipients.”
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And according to Philip Bump, the former Washington Post columnist, “more members of vulnerable populations who receive SNAP benefits … live in districts that also voted for Trump.”
President Trump, however, offered a different perspective while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to Mar-a-Lago.
“And, you know, largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats, but I’m president. I wanna help everybody,” he said. “I want to help Democrats and Republicans, but when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look, it’s largely Democrats, they’re hurting their own people.”
Critics pushed back against the President’s claim.
“Florida has nearly 3 million SNAP recipients. Texas has 3.5 million. All those deep red Southern states have huge SNAP populations,” noted Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan.
“This is not true at all. The loss of SNAP funding will hit red America hard, too,” observed MSNBC deputy managing editor of news Zack Stanton. “Even if it was true, it’s weird to be ok with Americans going hungry because they live in blue states.”
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“He’s trying to say—of course—that SNAP is for poor non white people, mostly living in the cities he wants militarily occupy. But, as it happens, SNAP is also for lots of poor white people living in the rural/small town areas Trump claims to care about,” wrote Dissent Magazine’s Richard Yeselson.
“And there it is. Trump openly reveals why he and other Republicans are cutting SNAP. The irony is that a lot of poor people in America who are on SNAP are rural Trump voters,” noted U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA).
“Trump is refusing to fund SNAP during the shutdown (something every other administration has done) because he wrongly believes that all families who rely on it are Democrats, and Democrats deserve to starve,” wrote The Lincoln Project.
“SNAP helps feed children, including one in four kids in America. Are children Democrats or Republicans? I don’t know BECAUSE THEY ARE CHILDREN. SNAP also helps veterans, seniors and people with disabilities,” commented U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA).
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