Trump Throws Literal, Actual 'Great Gatsby' Halloween Party As Food Aid Runs Out For Families Nationwide
'Marie Antoinette' party too on the nose.
Federal judges in Rhode Island and in Massachusetts ruled Friday that the Trump administration must use a congressionally authorized contingency fund to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) going. But because funding for SNAP ran out at the end of October, it could still be a week or more before states can get the emergency funds out to people who rely on the food aid. That also depends on whether the Trump administration decides to appeal the rulings or otherwise drag its feet to keep Americans hungry during the government shutdown.
Earlier in the day, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins insisted that the contingency funds couldn’t be used — as they have been in every previous shutdown — because suddenly it would be illegal to do so. Republicans have decided it’s necessary to shut off food aid to 42 million Americans, including millions who voted for Trump, in order to try to pressure Democrats to accept huge spikes in health insurance costs as the price of reopening the government. Just as long as everyone suffers more.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, spent much of Friday posting photos to social media of the beautiful, luxurious renovation of the bathroom off the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom, marveling over what a great job he’d done and emphasizing that the huge slabs of marble used throughout were the kind you’d use for statues.
Judges Explain Hunger Can’t Be Used As Political Tactic, You Ghouls
In the Rhode Island case, brought by a group of nonprofits, cities, unions, and small businesses, US District Judge Jack McConnell ordered that the Agriculture Department must use the $5.5 billion contingency fund immediately.
“The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP, it just does away with the funding of it,” McConnell wrote. “There is no doubt — and it is beyond argument — that irreparable harm will begin to occur, if it hasn’t already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family.”
In the Massachusetts case, brought by 26 attorneys general and governors of Democratic states, US District Judge Indira Talwani found that the USDA’s claim that it had to suspend SNAP during the shutdown was “illegal,” but didn’t yet grant the states’ request to order the government to use the contingency fund, or a second, separate backup fund of around $23 billion that has previously been used during shutdowns.
Instead, Talwani gave the administration until Monday to let her know whether it will use the contingency fund to provide at least reduced benefits for November, or to fully pay for SNAP “using both contingency funds and additional available funds.”
The administration had been crying that since SNAP costs about $8 billion a month, the contingency fund’s $5.5 billion wouldn’t be enough to even cover all of November. Those darn Democrats had to go and point out the existence of the additional pool of funding, even if it isn’t labeled “SNAP contingency fund.”
The Great Man Promises … Nothing
Trump hasn’t yet indicated whether he’ll appeal, but he definitely isn’t jumping to restore funding for SNAP, because he’s suddenly decided to be very, very careful about following the law, mmm-hmm. On his fake Twitter Friday, Trump groused that it’s all Democrats’ fault anyway, and claimed that “government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do.”
This is of course bullshit. There’s no real conflict at all since both judges said SNAP must be funded. The main difference was that McConnell ordered immediate action while Talwani wants the administration to tell her by Monday which of two options it will take to fund SNAP.
Trump made clear that he’s choosing delay, if not an actual appeal to a higher court, adding, “I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.” Then he blamed Democrats some more and said any SNAP funding delays were their fault, before insisting, “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”
Somehow, he managed not to even mention the beautiful Lincoln Bathroom in that post.
The Rollins-Johnson Sideshow
Before all that happened, there was that House presser, where Johnson insisted that Americans had to go hungry to punish the Democrats, and Rollins joined in, alternately calling SNAP a huge corrupt ripoff of taxpayers, full of fraud, and excoriating Democrats for forcing the administration to shut down payments.
Rollins actually acknowledged that not keeping SNAP going was going to hurt American families, saying, “Your government is failing you right now. That poverty line is not red or blue, it is not a Republican or Democrat issue, doesn’t matter who you voted for or even if you voted. That if you are in a position where you can’t feed your family and you’re relying on that $187 a month for an average family in the SNAP program, we have failed you.”
She then insisted that Republicans really really wanted to reopen the government and evil Democrats don’t, and then Mike Johnson stepped in to do some damage control, adding, “To clarify, when she says ‘We have failed you,’ she means ‘We, the Democrats.’” Because when Republicans say “we,” they always mean someone else.
Earlier in the week, Rollins “joked” on CNN that maybe George Soros could “step up and write a $9.2 billion check to keep those benefits moving for the month of November,” just to prove she is a serious MAGA intellectual.
Rollins also offered some incredible doublespeak at Friday’s presser, claiming with a straight face that the contingency fund can only be used if SNAP is already fully funded, and even then, it can only be used for, like, a natural disaster, yeah, that’s it.
“It’s called a contingency fund, and by law, contingency funds can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing,” she repeated. “That’s the contingency fund that we would use to send more money into the vulnerable communities that are harmed by a specific event, like a hurricane.”
Of course, that kind of ignores that during the last government shutdown, in December 2018 to January 2019 — also under Trump, of course — the administration used the contingency fund and other sources to keep SNAP payments going out. In fact, until a few weeks ago, the USDA website included a “Lapse of Funding Plan” that explained benefits would, by law, continue during a government shutdown. But that document isn’t on the site anymore, so never mind.
Funny how that keeps happening!
What Next? More Fuckery, Of Course!
It’s not clear whether the administration will comply with Judge McConnell’s order in the Rhode Island case, or how it will respond to Judge Talani’s order to inform her how it plans to comply with the law. So far, Trump seems happy to pretend the two judges are demanding totally different things, even though both said SNAP must be funded using the available funding that’s there for that purpose.
Look, the President is a very busy man and he’s not about to go rushing to feed poor people when he has greater priorities, like building a grand ballroom, cramming as much marble and gold fixtures as possible into White House Bathrooms, and last night, holding a “Great Gatsby” themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago so he could have dinner with folks dressed as flappers and high rollers while parents in the rest of the country worried about feeding their kids.
The White House announced that the theme of the gathering was “A little party never killed nobody,” according to CNN. At least as long as you don’t let Daisy Buchanan drive.
We’ll just close with a line from The Great Gatsby that has been applied to Trump and his cronies before, and still fits:
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Good luck, America.
[AP / WaPo (gift link) / NBC News / NOTUS /
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That line from Gatsby is one of the best in any American novel, and as a sentence offering insight into U.S. political culture is right up there with "Follow the money."
Good Lord! That has to be one of the most hideous Bathroom remodel jobs I've ever seen