With President Donald Trump proclaiming on Friday that “I do NOT want Americans to go hungry,” it appears that Trump’s Republican Party is indeed the party of the people.
But MSNBC producer Ja’han Jones said don’t be fooled. This is just one empathetic proclamation from one person at one particular moment. There’s still a whole party saying something else.
“Democrats have been in virtual lockstep in their support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the need to continue aid to its beneficiaries, which include millions of children and working-class Americans,” said Jones. “Republicans, on the other hand, can’t seem to decide whether their message should be that SNAP recipients are the [Democrats’] victims of a shutdown …, or that they are lazy grifters finally getting the harsh wakeup call they deserve.”
The Trump administration may post messages cooing over “mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us” falling victim to Democrats’ stubbornness, but the administration’s “performative compassion hasn’t been embraced across the Republican Party or among conservative influencers,” said Jones.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) ranted about “a lot of young men on SNAP that should be working,” despite data showing “39% of SNAP participants were children, 20% were elderly, and 10% were nonelderly individuals with a disability,” in 2023, and additional federal data confirming that millions of SNAP recipients are already working full time. Rep. Clay Higgins, (R-LA) posted on X that SNAP beneficiaries should have been stocking up for the shutdown in advance — so it’s on them.
“Any American who has been receiving $4,200 per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack,” Higgins said.
Jones said MAGA influencers are even more judgmental, with Trump ally Mike Davis, “who previously clerked for Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch and assisted Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh during their confirmation hearings” saying in a social media post that “it’s outrageous 40MM people get food stamps.” “Get off your fat, ghetto a——,” wrote Davis. “Get a job. Stop reproducing. Change your s—— culture.”
Politifact debunked the argument, promoted by people like Davis, falsely claiming the bulk of SNAP benefits go to non-white people and immigrants, but that doesn’t stop MAGA types like Conservative podcaster Adam Carolla from blithely suggesting that “nobody could benefit from a nice fast more than the SNAP recipients.”
“While some conservatives want to use the potential of SNAP recipients going hungry as a cudgel to force Democrats to give up their demands and end the government shutdown, that messaging is being clouded by more vocal conservatives who seem perfectly fine with — if not giddy about — the suffering of SNAP recipients, said Jones.
Jones added that, so far, the public does not appear to be buying Trump’s sympathetic act over the braying of his fellow Republicans. Recent polling data shows that a plurality of the country blames Republicans, not Democrats, for the shutdown.
Read the MSNBC report at this link.
