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food aid
'Disgusting': Republicans Applaud as Trump Brags About Taking Food Aid From Millions
"His Big Ugly Bill ripped food away from hungry moms, kids, and seniors to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans," said one House Democrat.
Feb 25, 2026
US President Donald Trump received a standing ovation from Republican lawmakers and administration officials Tuesday night when he bragged during his State of the Union address about taking nutrition assistance from millions, which he euphemistically characterized as lifting people off food stamps.
"In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans—a record—off of food stamps," Trump said during his nearly two-hour speech.
The Republican reconciliation package that Trump signed into law last summer included $187 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over a 10-year period, the largest cuts to the program in US history.
Trump: "In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans -- a record -- off of food stamps" (In other words, Republicans cut food stamps) pic.twitter.com/19EoNEUmPF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 25, 2026
The Republican law includes reductions in federal nutrition funding for states—which administer SNAP—as well as expanded work requirements, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would strip nutrition benefits from "roughly 2.4 million people in an average month" over the next decade.
As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted in a recent analysis, changes enacted by the Trump-GOP law mean that "for the first time in the 50-year history of the modern SNAP program, the federal government will no longer ensure that the lowest-income people, including children, older adults, veterans, and people with disabilities, in every state have access to the food assistance they need because states that refuse to pay the cost share could see the program end."
Shortly after Trump signed the Republican megabill into law, his administration canceled an annual US Department of Agriculture survey aimed at measuring food insecurity, undercutting efforts to track the impact of the unprecedented SNAP cuts. The USDA's final reports estimated that nearly 48 million people in the US faced food insecurity in 2024—including nearly one in five households with children.
"Trump says he 'lifted' millions off food stamps," Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) wrote in response to the president's State of the Union remarks. "But what he really means is his Big Ugly Bill ripped food away from hungry moms, kids, and seniors to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The lies are blatant and disgusting."
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) denounced her Republican colleagues for their celebratory response to Trump's boast.
"They're applauding ripping food out of people’s mouths to fund their tax cuts for billionaires," McBride wrote on social media.
USDA data released ahead of Trump's speech shows that around 696,000 fewer people received SNAP benefits in November 2025 compared to the previous month.
Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst on the food assistance team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, noted that "people haven’t been dropping off SNAP because they no longer need help."
"Economic conditions haven’t improved and groceries haven’t gotten more affordable," Bergh added. "They're losing basic food assistance because of policy choices. Allowing this trend to continue is also a policy choice."
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How States and Cities Can Take Care of Those Left Behind by the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill
With Trump and Congress turning their backs on American families, states have to rise to the moment.
Aug 18, 2025
The new tax law US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans passed this summer drastically reduces taxes on the wealthiest, slashes essential spending, and adds over $4 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
The law weakens healthcare and food assistance more than any legislation in history. Combined with tax cuts that give a whopping $1 trillion to the richest 1%, no law has ever done so much to enrich the wealthy while hurting those of modest income.
What does it mean for your state and community? For starters, states will lose billions in federal funding for healthcare, food, and other necessities.
Federal funds provided more than 1 of every 3 dollars that states spent last year—and much more in places like Mississippi, Indiana, and South Dakota. In Louisiana, federal aid delivers fully half of state spending. But we’re likely to see layoffs of federal employees in every state—and potentially of state and local employees whose paychecks rely on federal dollars, too.
All in all, this law will leave our communities sicker, less educated, and less safe.
For families, it means less access to the basics.
Hospitals and nonprofits (like food banks) depend on federal funding and will reduce staff at best and shutter at worst. More than 300 rural hospitals face likely elimination. And because of Trump’s healthcare cuts, more than 50,000 Americans will die early every single year.
In addition to these cuts, Trump has also illegally withheld congressionally authorized funding for healthcare, Head Start, child care, disease control, disability services, and more, causing crises at organizations nationwide.
Funding is also getting cut for community colleges, four-year universities, financial aid, loans, and first-generation students. This will block access to degrees for working class kids coast to coast.
Federal emergency funding, long the bedrock of state response to floods, hurricanes, and other disasters, is also on the chopping block—meaning more devastation, less recovery, and billions in costs shifted to states. Transportation projects will stall too, harming commuters and construction jobs.
All in all, this law will leave our communities sicker, less educated, and less safe.
Only the federal government can raise sufficient funds from those most able to pay and distribute them to poorer states like Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia, who have less capacity to raise dollars locally.
But policymakers can fill some of the gap with improved state and local taxation. With Trump and Congress turning their backs on American families, states have to rise to the moment.
States have many options.
They can raise more by bolstering income taxes on the wealthiest—policies that have won recently in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Minnesota. They can also tax income from wealth by improving capital gains income taxation. Washington, Maryland, Minnesota, and New Mexico have passed such reforms recently.
And they can stop corporations from hiding profits in other states, as most states now do, or in other countries, something innovators are increasingly proposing.
Localities have options too: enacting mansion taxes, as cities in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, and New York have done, and passing local income taxes as thousands of communities in Ohio, Indiana, and 13 other states do. At the very least, local policymakers could rein in costly corporate tax breaks that shortchange schools.
Tax dollars pay for essentials that make America healthy, educated, and safe. If Trump and his allies slash those fundamentals to enrich the richest, we must insist that states and cities get creative in taking care of the rest of us.
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Israeli Troops Gun Down 30+ Palestinians in Yet Another Food Aid Massacre
One witness said Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately at Palestinians seeking food aid near a hub operated by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Jul 19, 2025
Israeli forces on Saturday opened fire on Palestinians seeking food aid in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing more than 30 people as the manufactured hunger emergency in the enclave intensifies.
The Associated Press reported that the massacre "occurred near hubs operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation," which the United Nations and aid organizations have described as death traps.
GHF, a private entity backed by the U.S. and Israel, attempted to distance itself from Saturday's killings, saying in a statement that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) shooting took place "hours before our sites opened."
But CNN noted that Gazans have said they "have to travel to distribution points several hours before they open to have a chance of receiving aid."
One witness, Mahmoud Mokeimar, said he was traveling with a large number of people toward the GHF aid hub in Khan Younis early Saturday morning when Israeli forces "opened fire at us indiscriminately."
The entire population of the Gaza Strip is in the grip of an increasingly devastating hunger crisis under Israel's blockade, pushing the enclave's desperate residents to travel to the GHF aid sites in the hope of obtaining food—even if it means risking their lives.
"Bread is what drives me to risk death. There's no alternative," said one Palestinian man who was recently shot in the leg by Israeli forces. "Has the world failed to provide a safe channel for aid delivery?"
The U.N. Human Rights Office estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 870 Palestinians seeking food aid since late May.
The World Food Program said Friday that nearly a third of Gazans are "not eating for days at a time" and "thousands of people are on the verge of catastrophic hunger."
"WFP continues to call for an immediate and sustained cease-fire, and safe, unhindered access to reach all those in need," the organization added.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) echoed that call on Saturday, writing on social media that it "has enough food for the entire population of Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses—including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry."
"The supplies are available," UNRWA said. "The systems are in place. Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need, among them 1 million children."
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