White House Scrambles After Trump Threatens to Block SNAP Benefits

Washington, D.C. – The White House sent a batch of emergency talking points to Hill Republicans late Tuesday as the party scrambled to contain political damage from President Donald Trump’s threat to withhold food assistance from millions of low-income Americans during the ongoing government shutdown.

Trump’s social-media post earlier in the day — declaring that “SNAP benefits will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” — stunned GOP aides and directly contradicted his own administration’s legal commitments.

“We all were like, ‘what the fuck is this?’” said one senior Senate Republican aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly. The aide noted that the president’s message appeared to defy a federal court order just hours after the Department of Agriculture had circulated guidance to states explaining how to distribute partial SNAP payments following a judge’s ruling.

The scramble inside the GOP

According to several aides familiar with the situation, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs quickly distributed a list of talking points to Republican offices on Capitol Hill. The memo included an excerpt from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s briefing earlier Tuesday, in which she attempted to clarify the administration’s position:

“No, the administration is fully complying with the court order.”

The talking points urge GOP lawmakers to echo that line in interviews and public comments, emphasizing that the administration is following the court’s directive but that the process “takes time due to Democrats’ refusal to reopen the government.”

Trump’s threat also came just a day after House Speaker Mike Johnson said publicly that the president “isn’t appealing the decision” from the courts and that the USDA was already executing the order.

SNAP at the center of the shutdown fight

The ongoing government shutdown — now in its 35th day, depending on how the start date is counted — has tied the record for the longest in U.S. history. The dispute over SNAP funding has become one of its defining flashpoints.

• The USDA is under federal court order to use contingency funds to pay partial food-aid benefits during the shutdown.
• Officials say it will take weeks to months to process payments because states must reprogram their systems.
• Democrats have accused the administration of slow-walking relief, while Republicans have blamed Democrats for refusing to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to reopen the government.

Read more on the background:

• Funding SNAP could take months, Trump admin official says
• Klobuchar on partial SNAP funding: “It is not enough to do the bare minimum”

Bottom line

After President Trump said no SNAP funding would be issued until Democrats reopen government, the White House raced to reassure Republicans — and the courts — that it is complying with the federal order to pay benefits. The result is a rare public contradiction inside the GOP, as aides, officials, and the press secretary scramble to keep both the law and the president’s words in the same frame.

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