A volunteer displays information about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA, on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump indicated Tuesday that the United States will not pay SNAP benefits at all during the government shutdown, contradicting a court filing by his administration the day before.
Trump said the benefits, which help feed 42 million Americans, would not be restored until Democrats in Congress agree to pass an emergency funding bill that would reopen the government.
On Monday, the administration told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it would cover half the cost of SNAP benefits for November.
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday: “SNAP BENEFITS, which have increased by billions and billions of dollars (MANY TIMES!) during crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous administration (due to the fact that they were arbitrarily “handed out” to anyone upon request and not just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will only be given when the radical left Democrats open the government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
CNBC has asked the White House for clarification on Trump’s statement.
The social media post came shortly after attorneys for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the government’s termination of SNAP benefits told a federal judge in Rhode Island that the decision to pay partial benefits from an emergency fund was inconsistent with his previous order that a decision to make partial payments “shall not be arbitrary and capricious.”
Judge Jack McConnell had told the government on Friday that it needed to pay SNAP benefits as quickly as possible from an emergency fund and that it also needed to examine whether other federal funds could be used to fully fund the program in the absence of a new appropriation from Congress.
Read more about the government shutdown on CNBC
The Trump administration told McConnell on Monday that it would use all $4.65 billion remaining in the emergency fund, but said it had declined to use at least $4 billion from the child nutrition program to fully fund SNAP at least through November.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case told McConnell on Tuesday: “The court should issue a preliminary injunction and stay on the grounds that defendants’ decision not to provide full SNAP benefits – even though they have funds to do so and even though switching to partial payments at this late date would result in devastating delays – is arbitrary and capricious.”
McConnell later asked the Trump administration to respond to the request by Wednesday.
Last week’s dispute over the continuation of SNAP benefits has become a major issue in the ongoing U.S. government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Previous presidential administrations have continued to disburse funds for SNAP during previous government shutdowns.
But the Trump administration recently said SNAP benefits would expire this week because Congress did not approve the funding needed to continue the program during the shutdown. The administration also refused to use more than $4 billion in emergency funds that Congress specifically allocated for SNAP, in what is seen as an attempt to pressure congressional Democrats to vote to end the shutdown.
Various plaintiff groups then sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture in various federal courts to force the department to continue paying benefits.
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