Newsweek Discovers Trump Cares About SNAP, Sometimes
Newsweek highlights former President Trump's pronouncements on when SNAP payments would go out during a government shutdown. The article presents Trump as a source of information on the status of these critical benefits. What it fails to scrutinize is the broader political strategy at play: using the welfare of millions of Americans as a bargaining chip in budgetary stalemates, while military
spending and foreign aid often sail through with bipartisan support. While SNAP recipients anxiously await updates on payments, the same politicians who threaten government shutdowns to cut domestic programs consistently greenlight massive military budgets. For example, in 2023, Congress approved a record $886 billion defense budget, a sum that never seems to face the same 'shutdown' existential
threat. One might wonder if the concern for economic stability only extends to certain sectors, or if the 'fiscal conservatism' preached by some only applies when it affects the poor, not the Pentagon.