A MIA president and a hungry America
America can never be great if it can’t first be good to those who need assistance.
By Austin Sarat and Steve Kramer
Government shutdowns are never easy on federal employees and the most vulnerable Americans. Not only do people lose wages and their livelihoods, but people who depend on government assistance also often face hunger and privation.
That has never been clearer than in the current shutdown, one of the longest in history. On Nov. 1, the federal government stopped making payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
On Oct. 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is the funding agency for SNAP told state agencies “to hold off distributing November benefits ’until further notice’ because of insufficient funds.”
SNAP provides monthly food benefits so that poor can purchase groceries. The program is administered by the states and allows participants to get food using a card similar to a traditional debit card. More than 41 million people rely on SNAP. As NPR noted, “Most recipients are seniors, families with kids and people with disabilities.”
The Trump administration is not turning off the spigot because it has run out of funds. The Agriculture Department has enough money in a contingency fund to continue funding at least some portion of the program.
The Center for Budget Priorities explained that “[t]he Secretary of Agriculture has discretion under the law … to transfer funds among USDA’s nutrition programs, with certain limitations. This is the authority USDA used to transfer $300 Million to WIC earlier this month from the Child Nutrition budget account (which funds school meal programs) to prevent disruption in WIC.”
The administration’s position on SNAP shows its cruelty and sends a message that no one is safe from the administration’s heartless disregard of the law.
The Center for Budget Priorities noted that “by law, individuals and families who meet SNAP’s eligibility requirements are entitled to benefits. Despite this requirement, historically Congress has provided SNAP funding through the annual appropriations process.”
Furthermore, “USDA’s September 30, 2025 ‘Lapse of Funding Plan’ explained that SNAP’s October benefits were funded in September, out of fiscal year 2025 appropriations. It further explained that ‘multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.’”
Underlining the gravity of the situation, attorneys general and governors from about two dozen states have sued to try to keep SNAP funding flowing. At a hearing on Oct. 30, Federal District Judge Indira Talwani was exasperated by the administration’s contention that its hands were tied.
“Congress has put money in an emergency fund, and it is hard for me to understand how this is not an emergency.”
But whether or not the state AGs ultimately succeed in getting the government to release SNAP funds, the Trump administration cannot be forgiven for the unnecessary suffering it has already inflicted and for what it wants to inflict.
The lawsuit alleges that the Department of Agriculture has access to almost $30 billion that could be used to keep the program alive. But the department baselessly claims that the money can be used only for “natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.”
In Trump-world, human disasters, such as widespread hunger, don’t count.
The Trump administration’s callous indifference displays a “let them eat cake” attitude toward people who soon might not have bread, milk, or other food to eat.
Add this to the draconian cuts to health care and to SNAP contained in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, and a clear picture emerges of an administration that cares more about building lavish ballrooms or funding the president’s golf habit than caring for people in need.
As an article in the Nation reminded us, under the Trump administration, “Rural development grants, food banks, and environmental protection measures have all been slashed in the name of ending ‘racial and wasteful government DEI programs.’ Planned Parenthood and other life-saving healthcare services for poor and marginalized communities have been defunded. Homelessness has been ever more intensely criminalized and Housing First policies vilified.”
“The Department of Education, which has historically provided critical resources for low-income and disabled students, has been gutted.… Billions of dollars in funding for mental health and addiction services have been revoked.”
Not doing anything to fund SNAP fits the profile.
And on top of all that, where was the president in the run up to the SNAP funding cutoff? What has he been doing?
He has been MIA. Trump took a junket to Asia to collect gifts from foreign leaders and to do silly dances in front of adoring crowds.
Silly dances, adoring crowds, endless golfing, ballrooms—it all seems more like an episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” than the preoccupations of an allegedly populist president.
Trump, the self-proclaimed master deal maker, has not been interested in working on a deal to keep SNAP going. He seems more interested in complaining that he can’t run for an unconstitutional third term.
Moreover, the recipients of SNAP benefits don’t fit the profile of the president’s MAGA Cabinet. Recall that in 2017, the president said that he did not want a “poor person” in charge of the nation’s economy or other high-level financial positions.
His attitude toward people who don’t have a lot of money is that they’re “losers.” And where are House Republicans? Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent them home more than a month ago.
Though it is true that it takes two sides to reach a deal that would reopen the government, the president could direct the Department of Agriculture to use money it already has to support SNAP in the meantime.
Come on, Mr. President, just do it.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell got it right when she said, “It is an inhumane and cruel decision to suspend SNAP benefits for millions of Americans. Our federal government has an absolute obligation to ensure that these families, these working families, struggling to make ends meet, are able to put food on their table and to not punish them for circumstances outside their control.”
Inhumane and cruel have become the watchwords of the Trump administration. Whatever happens with SNAP, the American people should keep those words in mind when they hear the president say he wants to make America great again.
America can never be great if it can’t first be good to those who need assistance. Cutting off SNAP benefits does not contribute to our greatness or our goodness.
Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. Steve Kramer practices law and served as an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts.
Mister will not fully fund SNAP because it would involve reopening the government to access funds ... and THAT would involve a vote to release the Epstein files, which we can see he is bound and determined to prevent. All that talk about doing it before he was elected? Smokescreen. Like infrastructure week, it was never gonna happen because he knows what his own participation in that sex mob was.
I was interested to learn RE Prince Andrew's recent fall from grace that he once stated exactly when he cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein. Funny, so did Trump. How did a man who can't seem to remember what happened yesterday hang onto that date? It's a lie. He's up to his neck in that shit.
May all those "good" christians,to include the orange felon, who isn't one, burn in their self-proclaimed hell.