A store displays a sign accepting Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food purchases on October 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump on Tuesday backtracked on his administration’s pledge in court filings to partially fund food aid in November during the government shutdown, posting on social media that the benefits “will only be provided when the radical left Democrats open the government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said later Tuesday that Trump was referring to future utilize of an emergency food aid fund and that the administration had complied with the court order, although that description did not match Trump’s post.
Trump’s statement appeared to have little impact on the federal court case over food aid. The U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote in a court filing overdue Tuesday that it would continue its plan to provide partial payments in November.
The benefits are typically provided to about 42 million Americans and are currently suspended until partial payment is made.
Before Trump’s post on Tuesday, a coalition of cities and nonprofits suing the USDA said the delayed partial payments were not enough.
The coalition, which filed suit led by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, asked a federal court in Rhode Island to force the government to pay full benefits shortly before Trump’s social media post on Tuesday.
The USDAs promised Monday That it would make partial payments to households using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from a roughly $4.5 billion emergency fund was an inadequate response to a court order, the groups said.
USDA officials said Monday that they would not be able to complete partial payments for the November benefits by Wednesday’s deadline set by Superior District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., warning that it could take several months for beneficiaries to receive the funds because of administrative difficulties in recalculating and processing the partial benefits.
The plaintiff groups said Tuesday that if paying partial benefits would cause such delays, McConnell should force the government to pay full benefits instead.
“If defendants cannot comply with the court’s order to expeditiously remove barriers to timely payment of partial payments, then this is a problem of their own making,” the groups wrote.
“They chose – unlawfully and contrary to previous agency precedents and guidance – to withhold all funding for SNAP,” they continued. “That this unlawful decision may have made it impossible for them to overcome the administrative hurdles now is no excuse. They still have a direct path to complying with the guidelines of the court order.”
The department could legally and relatively easily access a separate child nutrition program account containing $23 billion, the groups said. That would more than cover the $9 billion needed for one month of SNAP benefits, they said.
McConnell ordered the administration to respond to the challengers’ request and scheduled a hearing on the issue for Thursday afternoon.
Trump is changing course
Within an hour of the groups filing the paperwork, Trump, who has said he was committed to restoring SNAP benefits, said replied on social media with his defiant message that he would not release SNAP funds until Democrats in Congress agreed to end the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Trump said Friday that he had told government lawyers to look into how the government could legally provide benefits during the shutdown, adding that he didn’t want Americans to go hungry.
“If the court gives us the appropriate legal direction, I will be honored to provide the funding,” he said wrote October 31, at McConnell’s verbal orders.
McConnell a written order issued the next day that the services will be provided either fully by Monday or partially by Wednesday.
The USDA responded on Monday it would bring some advantages from the emergency fund that contained about half a month’s worth of benefits, but that the process could take weeks or even months before states could recalibrate the amount each beneficiary would receive and process those payments.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins reiterated that commitment shortly before challengers filed their motion to enforce full payments.
“This morning @USDA sent SNAP guidance to states,” Rollins wrote on X. “My team stands ready to provide immediate technical assistance. This will be a cumbersome process, including revised eligibility systems, state notification procedures and ultimately weeks of delayed benefits, but we will help states overcome these challenges.”
USDA spokespeople did not respond to messages seeking an explanation for the policy change Tuesday morning.
At the White House press conference Tuesday afternoon, Leavitt said she had just spoken with Trump and tried to clarify his statement.
“We’re digging into an emergency fund,” she said. “The president doesn’t want to tap that fund in the future, and that’s what he meant.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, an advocacy group that represents the groups challenging the government, said in a Tuesday social media post that Trump’s post was “immoral” and that the group would exploit it.
“See you in court,” Perryman said.
The shutdown continues
The dispute over SNAP benefits stems from the loss of federal funding that began when Congress failed to appropriate money for federal programs by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.
The USDA said in a plan released shortly before the shutdown: and has since been deleted — that it would utilize the emergency fund, then $6 billion, to cover SNAP benefits if needed.
But the department has reversed Within weeks, he told states in an Oct. 10 letter that benefits would not be paid in November if the government remained closed on the first day of the month.
Members of both parties have blamed each other for the lack of SNAP benefits.
Democrats called on the government to reallocate resources to fund the program, as it did with other federal funding during the shutdown, while Republicans called on Democrats to pass an emergency budget bill to reopen the government at fiscal 2025 spending levels.
Democrats in Congress have blocked Republicans’ “clean” ongoing government reopening resolution to force negotiations over expiring tax credits for people who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.
Away Tuesdaythe parties showed little sign of weakening their positions.
Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.
