food stamps

'Truly disappointed': Residents of deep-red state turning on Trump over 'empty promises'

Despite having a centrist Democratic governor in Andy Beshear, Kentucky is a deep-red state that Donald Trump carried in three presidential elections in a row. Nationally, Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in 2024; in Kentucky, he won by 31 percent.

But in an article published on Thanksgiving 2025, The Nation's Zachary Clifton focuses on struggling Trump voters in Kentucky who are feeling disillusioned with his economic policies.

"In an April morning in 1964," Clifton explains, "President Lyndon B. Johnson landed in Martin County, Kentucky, stepping from Marine One to the hollers of a rural county where 60 percent of residents lived in poverty. With reporters and photographers from Time and Life in tow, Johnson ended up on the cabin porch of Tom Fletcher, a father of eight who had been unemployed for two years…. By August (1964), Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act, which — along with Medicaid, Medicare, and Head Start — federalized the tools he had promised to deploy during that tour through places like Martin County. This month, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history brought the deepest disruption to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since Johnson made it permanent."

Clifton adds, "In Martin County, families are preparing for Thanksgiving as roughly 23 percent of residents, or around 1300 households, rely on SNAP to put food on the table."

The Nation reporter notes that in 2024, Trump won 91 percent of the vote in Martin County.

"Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' will also jeopardize SNAP benefits for 114,000 people, or roughly one-fifth of recipients, in Kentucky, where work requirements will now expand to roughly 50,000 people aged 54 to 65, along with caregivers whose children are older than 14, starting in early 2026," Clifton explains. "The bill also expanded work requirements for military veterans and people experiencing homelessness — effectively pushing many out of a program they rely on to not go hungry."

According to Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025's work requirements are "particularly problematic" in Kentucky because it has "the second-highest food insecurity in the United States for adults over 50."

Thomas Howell, a 25-year-old fast food worker in Martin County, told The Nation, "It sucks, but right now, I don't have my own vehicle — and it's pretty much the only work opportunity I have. If I make $170 per week, I consider that a really good week. And I get $110 per month in food stamps. It's pretty much all the food I have unless someone else buys it for me."

Howell voted for Trump in 2020 and 2024 but is now feeling disenchanted with him, lamenting that the president "seemed unwilling to cooperate with any amount of funding when it came to food stamps and just shifted blame toward Democrats."

Howell told The Nation, "I'm truly disappointed in the minimal effort Trump's been giving us poor people. I think most of this country voted for Trump on empty promises, hoping he’d give us a better future. But instead, it seems it's going the exact opposite direction. I pray to God I'm wrong."

Read Zachary Clifton's full article for The Nation at this link.

Experts say 'tidal wave of loss' undercuts Trump's latest claim about food stamps

President Donald Trump is continuing to insist that his leadership on the economy has been good by citing a figure that 600,000 to 800,000 fewer Americans are using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps). But several experts are pointing out that the president's claim is misleading.

NBC News reported Friday that multiple factors complicate the president's insistence that he had "lifted over 600,000 Americans off food stamps." Despite fewer SNAP enrollees, multiple economic indicators like lagging hiring, increasing demand at food banks and persistently high inflation rates suggest that millions of Americans still struggle with food insecurity on a daily basis.

While several hundred thousand Americans have been removed from SNAP rolls since January, there are also multiple seasonal factors at play. According to NBC, the impact from disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 led to an outsized number of Americans qualifying for SNAP benefits while they were displaced from their homes and unable to work. Once impacted communities were rebuilt, residents of disaster areas no longer needed SNAP benefits.

Additionally, there are families whose household income teeters on the edge of no longer qualifying for SNAP benefits ($3,483 per month for a family of four), even though they may be just $10 over the limit. Linda Nageotte, who is president and chief operating officer of the nonprofit Feeding America, referred to that as the "benefits cliff" and added that it was a "significant challenge that many, many people experiencing food insecurity are facing."

There are likely soon to be even fewer Americans on food stamps simply because Republicans succeeded in implementing strict new work requirements for SNAP recipients in the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that Trump signed into law this summer. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that those changes could result in 2.1 million fewer Americans getting SNAP benefits.

All of this is despite millions of SNAP recipients already having jobs: According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, roughly 86 percent of SNAP households in 2021 worked for at least part of the year. Most of the remaining SNAP enrollees who don't work are either children, elderly, or full-time caretakers.

"Just be candid, it feels like a very scary moment of where we are and what’s coming versus a narrative of an economy doing good," Harvard University public heath policy professor Sara Bleich told NBC. "There’s basically a tidal wave of loss that’s coming because people are going to be kicked off SNAP by the millions and the charitable food network and the states cannot make up for the shortfall. So, people are just going to be at a loss, and they are not going to have a way to make ends meet."

Click here to read NBC's full report.

Judge blasts Trump admin over withholding food stamp funding for 'political reasons'

A federal judge rebuked the Trump administration for defying his order issued last week to fully distribute SNAP payments by Monday, or at least partially by Wednesday. The administration had said it would release 65 percent of the funds but offered no timeline for doing so.

Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island sharply rebuked the Trump administration “for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on Thursday. “He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.”

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said, according to Cheney.

READ MORE: ‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

The judge alleged that “Trump and his allies have admitted to withholding SNAP benefits for ‘political reasons’ rather than to preserve child nutrition programs, which the judge said was a pretext,” Cheney also reported.

Judge McConnell cited a Truth Social post President Trump made in which he vowed to hold up the SNAP funds. The President wrote that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House later walked back the President’s remarks, claiming he was referring to any future shutdowns.

The judge “said Trump’s Truth Social post was essentially an admission of his ‘intent to defy the court order,'” according to Cheney.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said, according to the Associated Press. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial Snap payments and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

DOJ attorneys fact-check Trump in real time

Attorneys for the Department of Justice are attempting to walk back President Donald Trump's remarks about funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) in a new filing.

Politico legal correspondent Josh Gerstein reported Tuesday that the DOJ is pushing back on accusations that the Trump administration is defying a federal judge's order as "incorrect," and insisted that it simply needed more details on how to fund SNAP with a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contingency fund.

"As Defendants referenced previously ... the U.S. Department of Agriculture ('USDA') notified the States of the reduction and generated the table required for States to calculate the benefits available for each eligible household in that State; this action completes USDA’s direct, immediate steps necessary to deplete the full amount of SNAP contingency fund," the filing read.

The DOJ's filing came on the heels of Trump posting to his Truth Social platform that despite the ruling, SNAP benefits "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!"

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also attempted to clean up Trump's statement, telling reporters on Tuesday that the administration had no intention of defying the federal judiciary. Like Trump, she laid blame at the feet of Democrats, even though the shutdown does not impact the USDA contingency fund.

"The administration is fully complying with the court order. I just spoke to the president about it," Leavitt said. "The recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand it’s going to take time to receive this money because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position."

On Friday, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell ordered the administration to tap into the U.S. Department of Agriculture's contingency fund to ensure SNAP benefits are paid out through November. However, Trump said that while he intended to use the contingency fund, he asked the court for more detailed instructions on how the money was to be distributed.

Click here to read the DOJ's filing in full.

'Special place in hell': Lawmaker blasts Trump for trying to 'rip food away' from the poor

A prominent House Democrat erupted in anger at President Donald Trump and Republicans for “weaponizing” the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after Trump threatened to withhold funds in defiance of federal court orders. Hours later, the White House moved to walk back the president’s remarks.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the Ranking Member of the powerful Rules Committee and co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, denounced the Republican decision to “withhold nutrition assistance,” calling it “disgusting,” “immoral,” and “wrong.” He also condemned the Trump administration as “cruel” and “heartless.”

“Donald Trump talks about ‘America first,'” McGovern said. “What about the 16 million American children who rely on SNAP? Or the eight million American seniors who are worried sick about where their next meal comes from? Or the one million American veterans who have to choose between health care and staying fed?”

READ MORE: White House Backpedals on Trump’s SNAP Refusal — and Blames Dems for Delay

McGovern also condemned Republicans for telling “everyday Americans that you have to pick between food and healthcare. I mean, who the h– comes up with that kind of sick, twisted choice?”

“Look,” McGovern continued, “the truth is, these guys don’t give a s– about everyday people. They’ve never gone hungry. They don’t even buy their own groceries, and they’ll never have to choose between putting food on the table or paying for healthcare. They have private cooks and concierge doctors.”

“Republicans are choosing to go after nutrition assistance,” he said. “Trump is doing this because he is a bad person. He’s a lousy president and an even worse human being. He’s weaponizing hunger and trying to rip food away from more than 40 million Americans, including 16 million children, for sadistic political leverage.”

“How dare he? How dare he exploit the pain of hungry Americans?”

RELATED: ‘Breaking the Law’: Trump Blasted After Threatening to Defy Judges’ Orders on SNAP Funds

“How dare he starve poor children who go to bed hungry?”

“These people are sick in the head,” McGovern charged. “They take food away from poor folks on Friday, and then they go to church on Sunday and proclaim to be good Christians. I’m not sure where in the Bible, it says that starving children makes you a good person. I must have missed that part.”

“But my faith tells me something else. It tells me that there’s a special place in hell for people who rip food away from hungry families,” he said.

READ MORE: Johnson Urges SNAP Recipients to Come ‘Home’ to Republican Party

Karoline Leavitt blames Dems for Trump dragging his feet on food stamp funding

The White House appears to be walking back President Donald Trump’s defiant refusal to release the more than $5 billion in the SNAP contingency funds that two federal judges ordered him to distribute.

In a Truth Social post, President Trump vowed to hold up the SNAP funds, writing that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

But according to the White House, the administration is fully complying with the judges’ orders and the President was only talking about “future” emergencies, not the current shutdown.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked by a reporter on Tuesday to help “clear some confusion about SNAP benefits.”

RELATED: ‘Breaking the Law’: Trump Blasted After Threatening to Defy Judges’ Orders on SNAP Funds

“The president,” the reporter told Leavitt, “just posted that they will only be given out when the ‘radical left Democrats’ opened the government, and not before. But just yesterday, the administration said it would comply with the court order to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds by end of business day yesterday.”

“So, did the administration distribute that money or defy that court order?” the reporter asked.

“No,” Leavitt insisted, “the administration is fully complying with the court order.”

“I just spoke to the president about it,” she said, before appearing to chastise SNAP recipients and place blame on Democrats.

“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,” Leavitt claimed.

“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.”

READ MORE: Johnson Urges SNAP Recipients to Come ‘Home’ to Republican Party

“The best way to get the full amount of SNAP benefits to those beneficiaries is for Democrats to reopen the government,” she added, not explaining why it would take longer if the funds were to come from the contingency fund.

“So to anyone who is a SNAP beneficiary at home, who needs that assistance, and President was just saying, this is for people who are truly needy, who need food, who need this assistance from the United States government, Democrats are holding it up, and making it difficult for the administration to get those payments out the door,” Leavitt continued.

READ MORE: ‘Pass Every Policy We Have Dreamt of’: Trump Again Urges GOP to Kill the Filibuster

Trump gets immediately fact-checked on SNAP claim for ignoring 'deep red Southern states'

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.”

READ MORE: ‘Complicit in Evil’: GOP Firestorm Erupts Amid Heritage Head’s Carlson Defense

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.”

READ MORE: ‘Disturbing’: Johnson Scorched for Saying He’s Starving SNAP to ‘Pressure’ Democrats

“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).

READ MORE: Americans Turn Against Trump’s Crime Crackdowns: Report

Federal judge forces Trump admin to fund food stamps through November

President Donald Trump's administration has been compelled to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) through November, after a decision by a federal judge.

ABC News reported Friday that U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell (an appointee of former President Barack Obama) ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use its contingency fund to partially fund SNAP through next month. The contingency fund is capable of covering roughly two-thirds of the SNAP funding shortfall. The decision comes as U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani (another Obama appointee) sided with Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states, in declaring the Trump administration's decision to not use the contingency fund "unlawful."

"The court is orally at this time, ordering that USDA must distribute the contingency money timely, or as soon as possible, for the November 1 payments to be made," Judge McConnell wrote in his ruling.

"There is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will begin to occur -- if it hasn't already occurred -- in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family," he added.

Due to the ongoing government shutdown, approximately 42 million Americans were on track to lose their food assistance beginning Saturday. The Trump administration stated last week that even though there is a USDA contingency fund of roughly $6 billion to keep SNAP afloat, it wasn't going to tap into those funds, asserting that the money was to be used for emergencies like "hurricanes, tornadoes and floods."

The states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state and Wisconsin took the administration to federal court earlier this week. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) joined the suit through their respective offices, as their states have Republican attorneys general.

Top Republicans in the House and Senate have been insisting that Democrats vote for the Republican-written government funding bill if they want SNAP benefits to continue without interruption. However, doing so would mean tens of millions of Americans likely experience a significant increase in their heath insurance premiums when Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits expire at the end of 2025.

An extension would require 60 Senate votes due to filibuster rules, and Democrats — who have just 47 seats in the Senate — would need 13 Republicans to break rank and vote to extend the ACA credits. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose adult children are expecting their monthly premiums to double, has consistently laid blame for the shutdown at Republicans' feet and accused her party of not having an alternative plan to the ACA to lower Americans' healthcare costs. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) suggested earlier this week that Greene write her own bill.

Click here to read ABC's full report.

Senate GOP leader slammed over 'performative outrage' after he blocked food stamp funding

Washington Monthly Editor Bill Scher recently deconstructed Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) explosion on the Senate floor last weekend as he labored to pin the shutdown of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits on Democrats.

“SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country. And we’ve tried to do that thirteen times! You voted ‘no’ thirteen times!” Thune said. “This isn’t a political game. These are real people’s lives that we’re talking about!”

But it was all performance, according to Scher.

“Look, it’s fair to tag Democrats for being the instigators of the government shutdown, but not for President Donald Trump’s decisions that maximize the shutdown’s pain and hurt people who do not need to be hurt,” Scher wrote. “Before the shutdown began almost a month ago, the Department of Agriculture, led by Secretary Brooke Rollins, made clear that the delivery of SNAP … need not be impacted.”

The details of that reality were "available here at this URL until at least October 10, according to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine," said Scher. Additionally, Thune blocked legislation by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) that would have funded SNAP benefits.

“But Trump’s USDA has memory-holed it,” Scher said, adding that when visitors now visit that URL, they get a Republican attack ad against Democrats that Scher said “almost surely” violates the Hatch Act: “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”

But the truth is that SNAP has never been disrupted during past shutdowns, either during Republican or Democratic administrations, said Scher. They’ve always been provided by officials using available funding sources to prevent a break in benefits.

“Democrats shoulder no responsibility for Trump and Rollins cutting off SNAP benefits from those who need them to survive,” said Scher. “You can’t even argue Democrats should have expected SNAP to be affected because USDA declared ahead of the shutdown that it wouldn’t.”

Furthermore, the number of SNAP beneficiaries tops 40 million, “more than a tenth of the U.S. population,” said Scher. So, at least until very recently, the program enjoyed bipartisan support.

“Thune can save his performative rage for the people playing political games with people’s lives: Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Rollins,” Scher said.

Read the Washington Monthly report at this link.

Republican bashed after telling SNAP recipients to 'stop smoking crack' and stockpile food

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) ignited a firestorm of outrage after a recent tweet in which he blamed the 42 million Americans set to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this weekend for their own plight.

On Thursday, Higgins posted to his official X account: "There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack."

Higgins' post was met almost immediately with anger and ridicule. Children's author Kristine Rudolph wrote on Bluesky: "Tell us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house without telling us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house." Pennsylvania Capital-Star editor-in-chief Tam Lambert posted that $4,200 per year in SNAP benefits amount to "about $80 a week."

Retired air traffic controller Vivian M. Lumbard argued that Higgins' post reveals how "none of these Republicans seem to understand how much groceries actually cost, especially if you have kids."

"$4200 equates to $350/month," she wrote. "I doubt I could cover all my groceries just for myself for that amount of money, even if I gave up meat."

Political consultant Jamison Foster quoted Lucille Bluth from the sitcom "Arrested Development" (who famously said: "It's one banana Michael. What could it cost? $10?) by writing: "It's one month of groceries, Michael. How much room can it take up? Ten closets?"

Political scientist Miranda Yaver broke down Higgins' post by pointing out that Republicans simultaneously expect Americans to "Stop eating processed foods. Make healthy choices: eat more fresh food" while claiming SNAP recipients are "irresponsible" if they "don't have a month's food supply on hand to live on when we can't keep the government open."

'Said it out loud': Johnson ripped for admitting he's holding food stamp funding hostage

As Republican leaders appear to grow increasingly frustrated with the shutdown of the federal government, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson admitted on Thursday that he is refusing to allow legislation to fund food stamps because he wants to keep “pressure” on the Democratic Party.

The federal government has been shut down for 30 days, with little end in sight. Republicans continue to block Democratic attempts to reinstate funding for the Obamacare health insurance premium subsidies and programs like SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Democrats refuse to vote to open the government without the Obamacare subsidies funding.

CNN’s Dana Bash told Speaker Johnson on Thursday afternoon that the “reality is that this has been a stalemate for 30 days, and it’s not just Democrats — you also have one of the most conservative Republican senators, Josh Hawley, who says, at least, please, move money around to feed people.”

READ MORE: Americans Turn Against Trump’s Crime Crackdowns: Report

Asked why he would not consider funding SNAP, Johnson replied: “Because if you deviate from the goal of reopening the entire government, Chuck Schumer and the radicals over there will continue to play games with people’s paychecks, their livelihoods.”

He added, “if you do just part of this, it will reduce the pressure for them to do all of it, to do their basic job, and that is reopen the government.”

“This is very real and very serious, and they can end it today,” Johnson insisted. “They can do it right now. All they have to do is, we just need five more Democrats in the Senate to help us reach the 60 vote threshold.”

“We don’t have enough Republicans to do the right thing on our own. We need them to do the right thing,” he said.

Critics say that Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune could go “nuclear” and drop the threshold from 60 votes to 50 votes to pass a clean continuing resolution and reopen the government.

Others criticized Johnson for using programs that aid low-income Americans as political leverage.

READ MORE: ‘How Authoritarians Rule’: National Security Experts Blast Trump’s New Nuclear ‘Fear Show’

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), responding to Johnson’s remarks, posted what he said is the law establishing the contingency fund that experts say should be used during the shutdown to fund SNAP.

“At least Johnson made clear that it is Republicans who want people to go hungry from their shutdown,” remarked Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

“Mike Johnson now admitting that Republicans [are] using SNAP as leverage and to ‘pressure’ Democrats!” commented Matt Rein, director of influencer and creative partnerships at the DNC.

“This is the Speaker of the House making two things clear: They could feed poor children if they chose. They are choosing to starve poor children as a tactic,” wrote Bill Prady, co-creator of “The Big Bang Theory.”

“Mike Johnson f– up on CNN just now and admitted they’re defunding SNAP as leverage to get Democrats to fold on the shutdown. Letting 40 million Americans go hungry just to try to win a political fight is disturbing—I can’t believe he said it out loud,” remarked Democratic strategist Mike Nellis.

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