Washington, D.C. — A new analysis from the Center for American Progress chronicles the Trump administration’s coordinated effort to systematically dismantle food assistance programs.
The Trump administration is using the ongoing government shutdown to illegally withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, leaving 42 million Americans without the food they need beginning November 1. The administration’s refusal to fund legally obligated SNAP payments caps months of calculated efforts to cut off food aid, shutter local programs, and hide data showing the extent of hunger in the United States.
“The Trump administration’s decision to stop food assistance payments is the latest step in a long campaign to dismantle SNAP and punish struggling families,” said policy analyst Kyle Ross, a co-author of the analysis. “This has been a pattern from the administration, which has prioritized politics over meeting Americans’ basic needs.”
The report identifies five key ways the administration has laid the groundwork for widespread hunger:
- Freezing and cutting meals for vulnerable families. Funding freezes and billion-dollar cuts to programs that supply food to schools and food banks have left children, older adults, and small farmers without the support on which they rely.
- Launching a trade war that has driven up food prices. Tariffs have pushed up grocery costs and worsened shortages, while mismanagement at the U.S. Agency for International Development led to the destruction of 500 tons of food aid for children overseas.
- Slashing SNAP to fund tax breaks for the wealthy. The Big Beautiful Bill enacted earlier this year cut $187 billion from SNAP—nearly 20 percent of projected outlays—to finance massive tax breaks for the richest Americans.
- Hiding the evidence by canceling food insecurity reports. By ending the annual food security survey, the administration is trying to conceal the harm caused by its cuts and obscure the growing crisis of hunger.
- Illegally refusing to provide benefits during the shutdown. Despite having legal authority and available contingency funds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is refusing to pay November SNAP benefits, directly contradicting its own prior guidance.
CAP’s Trump’s Take tracker shows that President Donald Trump and his family have taken in more than $1.8 billion since he was elected, enough to pay a full month of SNAP benefits for 9.4 million people.
Read the full report: “5 Ways the Trump Administration Is Forcing Families To Go Hungry” by Ryan Koronowski and Kyle Ross.
For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Christian Unkenholz at [email protected].