President Donald Trump said he would withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits until Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government.
“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 wrote on TruthSocial.
The Trump administration had previously told a judge Monday that it would use contingency funds to partially fund the SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, during the federal government shutdown. More than 40 million Americans use SNAP to pay for groceries.
The Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding the benefits due to the now 34-day shutdown. In response, Patrick Penn, the USDA official who oversees SNAP, told a Rhode Island judge that the Trump administration would use an emergency fund of $4.65 billion to cover about half the normal benefits for November. The full cost of SNAP benefits is $8 billion each month.
According to Penn, the administration had said it intended “to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for clarification on the president’s statement.
