Trump snaps food from the mouths of children
White House determined to claw back SNAP benefits as shutdown grinds on
“Please, sir, I want some more,” says young Oliver Twist in the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Oliver, you will recall, is a starving orphan slaving away in a workhouse when he has the audacity — the nerve! — to ask for a second helping of thin gruel.
His overlords are shocked by the lad’s urgent plea as the novel spins out its tale of poverty and injustice.
Sound familiar? It should. The Trump Administration has been fighting bowl and spoon to keep SNAP benefits from reaching 42 million needy Americans during the government shutdown. It won a temporary victory at the Supreme Court on Friday when Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson allowed Trump to withhold future funds pending an Appeals Court hearing after a lower court said the government must pay up.
The Trump administration is literally fighting in court to block American families’ access to food. Trump is not fighting on your behalf. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom
But in the interim, some states had announced that they would advance benefits out of their own funds — a humanitarian action that apparently outraged the Trump White House. The USDA was quick to issue a memo to state directors of the SNAP program ordering them to pay only 65 percent of benefits during the shutdown and instructing those who had already paid up to claw back the money.
“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the USDA wrote.
60 years without an interruption
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, lapsed Nov. 1 for the first time in the program’s 60-year history due to the federal government shutdown.
Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey were among the states that said they were moving to issue full benefits to SNAP recipients. But the USDA responded that because of the Supreme Court’s action, the payments were unauthorized and should be clawed back.
It’s not clear how many states will abide by the ruling.
“If President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said in a written statement. “President Trump should be focusing on reopening the government that he controls instead of repeatedly fighting to take away food from American families.”