The Trump Administration has been remarkably open at admitting that they have not been forced to cut off SNAP benefits because of the shutdown. They are doing it on purpose and even when the Court's told them they could, and must, pay the benefit, they are spending government resources to try to get out of doing it.
This is, quite blatantly, illegal. Congress created an emergency fund so that benefits would not be interrupted if the government shuts down and that emergency fund has enough money to cover the benefits for November. In other words, the money is there, and the law says that benefits must be paid during a shutdown.
They are cutting off benefits because Trump thinks it will hurt Democrats more than Republicans. He is wrong. More SNAP recipients are in red areas than blue. But Republicans, especially MAGA Republicans seem to assume that "welfare recipients" are the "urban poor," meaning black people. They ignore the wide swaths of poor areas that are spread across rural communities in predominantly red areas.
But you can't dislodge racist ideas from a bigot's head no matter what the data says. Trump is starving his own supporters, while announcing he is doing it on purpose, because he thinks that will make Democrats give in on the shutdown standoff.
