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The Republican Party and its allies can’t seem to decide whose side it’s on as millions of Americans are set to lose SNAP benefits as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.
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. Republicans, on the other hand, can’t seem to decide whether their message should be that SNAP recipients are the victims of a shutdown they are blaming on the Democrats, or that they are lazy grifters finally getting the harsh wakeup call they deserve.
The Trump administration posted a message on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website blaming Democrats for the shutdown and signaling sympathy for SNAP recipients, saying Democrats should “reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.” (Some legal experts have argued that using of the federal government’s resources for political messaging in this way is a violation of the Hatch Act.)
Recent polling data has shown that a plurality of the country blames Republicans, not Democrats, for the shutdown, and the Trump administration’s claim that it can’t tap billions of dollars in contingency funds set aside for SNAP is undercut by the fact Trump’s first administration tapped those funds for this exact purpose during the 2019 shutdown.
The administration’s performative compassion hasn’t been embraced across the Republican Party or among conservative influencers, however.
Take, for example, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who claimed this week that Democrats are “getting a little bit tight right now” over SNAP funding because “it’s their constituents — a lot of them in some of these inner cities — that’s gonna need SNAP to survive.” (Hundreds of thousands of people in Tuberville’s largely rural state, where he’s running for governor, could be affected by the loss of SNAP benefits, as NBC News affiliate WVTM reported.)
The senator went on to complain about “a lot of young men on SNAP that should be working.” The most recent data available from the USDA, from fiscal 2023, found “39% of SNAP participants were children, 20% were elderly, and 10% were nonelderly individuals with a disability,” and 2020 data from the Government Accountability Office confirmed that millions of SNAP recipients are also working full time.
On the House side, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., posted a rant to X on Thursday in which he faulted SNAP recipients for not having stocked up on groceries ahead of time. He argued that recipients who haven’t used their benefits stockpile at least one month’s worth of food “should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.”
MAGA influencers also were less inclined to paint the Democrats as the heartless ones. Lawyer and Trump ally Mike Davis — who previously clerked for Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch and assisted Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh during their confirmation hearings — said in a social media post that “it’s outrageous 40MM people get food stamps.”
“Get off your fat, ghetto asses,” he wrote. “Get a job. Stop reproducing. Change your s---ty culture.”
Conservative podcaster Adam Carolla mocked the idea of SNAP recipients going hungry during a recent podcast appearance, claiming “nobody could benefit from a nice fast more than the SNAP recipients.”
And Politifact also debunked a viral tweet this week, promoted by several conservative accounts, that misleadingly suggested the bulk of SNAP benefits go to non-white people and immigrants.
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.