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Gatsby Trump Says He’ll Only Give Partial Help to the Hungry

The Trump administration has agreed to partial funding for the SNAP program.

The Trump administration revealed Monday that it would only partially fund SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, as some 42 million Americans risk going hungry during the government shutdown.

The development came in the form of a court filing on Monday after two federal judges ordered the administration to keep SNAP going.

It comes just days after President Donald Trump and other top officials partied it up with wealthy friends in a lavish Great Gatsby themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago as food assistance was being shut off to vulnerable families.

For weeks, the Trump administration had insisted it would not have the money to keep funding SNAP and would have to halt the program due to the government shutdown.

It also pushed back that a contingency fund created to keep benefits going could not be used leading up to the November 1 deadline.

In response to the courts, the administration said it would deplete the contingency fund and provide reduced SNAP benefits for the month of November.

The administration also shared that it had considered diverting Child Nutrition Program and funds for SNAP but determined those needed to be kept available.

On Friday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins standing alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted her department could not use contingency funds for SNAP and argued Democrats needed to vote for the Republican bill to fund the government or benefits would not go out.

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Trump left the door open to moving around funds to cover SNAP while speaking to reporters on Air Force One while jetting off to Florida for his party and a golf weekend on Friday, but he also suggested the program largely benefitted Democrats when it is a lifeline in both red and blue states.

“Largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats, but I’m president, I want to help everybody, I want to help Democrats and the Republicans. But when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look it’s largely Democrats, they’re hurting their own people,” Trump said as the clocked ticked down on funds running out.

Hours later, the president was captured on video receiving a round of applause by attendees dressed in costumes as bedazzled flappers and 1920s gangsters at the party at his private club.

Other videos captured from the event showed scantily clad dancers performing as others looked on from the flashy event.

Critics seized on how the president could be attending such a swanky affair surrounded by rich club members while Americans were struggling to put food on the table.

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In response to the Trump administration insisting it could not move around funds to cover food assistance during the shutdown, multiple states and groups sued.

The filing in response to court orders on Monday showed the administration would tap $4.65 billion in the SNAP contingency fund to cover SNAP benefits this month.

It would cover 50 percent of eligible households’ current benefits. That would be short the approximately $8 billion a month the full program costs.

The Department of Agriculture also warned that due to system changes, it could take a few weeks to several months for some states to implement the reduced benefits.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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