What Happens When 1 in 8 Americans Can't Buy Food?
The countdown to America's hunger crisis has begun. Plus: Inside Trump's Asia tour. Billionaire Pentagon donor revealed. Venezuela claims it caught CIA operatives. And News That Doesn't Suck.
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The timing is brutal. Just as we look ahead to Thanksgiving, the Trump administration announced it’s cutting off supplemental food support — called SNAP benefits — starting November 1. The politics of this are transparent: long bread lines ahead of the holiday are meant to pressure Democrats into voting to reopen government, without any negotiation to extend health care subsidies. The party in power is offering zero compromise or concessions.
Today we look at the human impact of these cuts, and what they mean for the nation.
We also report on President Trump and Steve Bannon’s increasingly loud claims that Trump will get a third term. Historian Timothy Snyder reminds us that aspiring autocrats portray events like this as inevitable to numb the public and immobilize opposition. It’s a tactic, not a fact.
Also in today’s newsletter: Trump’s Asia swing, a gilded age heir wants to pay US troops, a big early turnout in New York City, and some celestial bright lights in News That Doesn’t Suck.
Finally, subscribers please consider sharing with us your favorite food bank or service to donate or receive food. We are gathering resources to share with everyone.
Bread Lines
Going Hungry: The Trump administration plans to cut off SNAP food benefits starting November 1. This will be the first time in modern history SNAP benefits will lapse. The Trump administration has decided the USDA will not use emergency funds to pay for the program, commonly known as food stamps. An anonymous House Republican told Politico it’s “hard to believe a department with so many slush funds can’t find the money for a month of SNAP benefits.”
What This Means: Roughly 42 million people — about one-eighth of the country and several million children — could soon go hungry. Many Trump-voting areas will be particularly hard hit. About two-thirds of SNAP participants are children, elderly, or disabled. Over one-third are under 18.
Who Receives SNAP Benefits: To qualify for SNAP, you usually need to be living at or near the poverty level. For example, in 2023, a family of four would have qualified for SNAP benefits if they made roughly $3,000 per month gross income or less.
Red and Blue: Almost 80% of US counties where SNAP participation has risen since 2010 voted for Trump in 2020. About one-quarter of the US live in a household with a current or former recipient of food stamps. Women are more likely to have received them. (We break down which states are more reliant on SNAP at the bottom of this newsletter.)
Get a Job? If you watch Fox News, you’d think SNAP recipients are able-bodied adults who choose not to work. The majority of recipients are children or seniors – so Fox would like 9-year-olds or 99-year-olds to work to avoid hunger. Other participants generally are forced to work; the vast majority do, albeit not always in stable full-time roles, and many of those who don’t are busy being caregivers or are suffering from injuries or illness.
Immigrants: What about the claims immigrants are draining the system? 87.8% of SNAP recipients were born in the US. That figure rises to 97% for children recipients. And about 44% of recipients are non-hispanic white people.
How Much Do Participants Get? SNAP is a crucial lifeline, but it’s not a huge amount per family. On average, a beneficiary receives $125.80 per month. That’s $1.40 per meal — not enough to cover all your nutritional needs. Benefits are legally only valid for household food items. Hot food, luxury items (liquor, cigarettes, etc.), supplements, pet food, and non-food items (even necessary things, like tampons or cleaners) are not covered.
Knock On Effects: SNAP’s impact goes far, far beyond hunger. In part, that’s because food insecurity has long-lasting effects, so decreasing it brings lifelong benefits. SNAP benefits also allow recipients to spend their (very limited) funds on other essentials, like medication. Let’s break down some of the program’s many benefits, all proven by scientific studies.
Children: SNAP has been shown to lift children out of poverty and food insecurity. They’re less likely to have chronic health issues like obesity, heart conditions, or diabetes as adults. Research shows every dollar spent on SNAP benefits for kids generates $62 in the long-term because they have fewer health conditions and demands on the system.
Adults: Adults on SNAP are less likely to get sick; they miss fewer days of work, visit the doctor less, and report better mental health. SNAP users spend almost 25% less on healthcare than non-participants, on average. Pregnant mothers who receive SNAP benefits are less likely to give birth to low-weight babies.
Elderly: Older adults who participate in SNAP are more likely to take the full dose of prescribed medications. They’re less likely to enter nursing homes or be hospitalized than those who don’t. One study even found that SNAP benefits helped slow memory decline in the elderly; participants experienced two fewer years of cognitive aging over a decade, compared to non-participants.
In Numbers: Research suggests that every dollar in SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity. That means $1 billion in SNAP benefits would increase GDP by $1.54 billion — and support over 13,500 new jobs.
The Less You Know: Since the 1990s, the USDA has published an annual report on food insecurity, which has provided most of the data we have on the topic. Not anymore. The Trump administration cancelled the report this year, dismissing it as “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.” The last report, covering 2024, was meant to be published October 22, but is nowhere to be seen. The previous report, for 2023, showed a worrying rise in food insecurity, with 47 million Americans (7.2 million children) living in some degree of food insecurity that year. Experts warned that the GOP’s SNAP cuts earlier this year would further worsen this growing crisis.
The Politics: The USDA posted a wildly political and grossly inaccurate statement on its website claiming that “the well has run dry” because “Senate Democrats” are prolonging the shutdown “for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures.” This is all wrong. The GOP has yet to propose a compromise with Democrats to reopen government, breaking with the approach of the party in power in past shutdowns. Lawmakers have introduced bills to the House and Senate to fund SNAP during the shutdown. They’re a no-go in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that $5 billion sitting in a SNAP contingency fund isn’t “legally available to cover benefits.”
Grapes of Wrath: Anyone who’s read history knows that people who are hungry will resort to desperate measures. Fortunately states and private organizations are scrambling to fill at least some of the gap. Virginia declared a state of emergency and plans to use state funds to temporarily cover the lapse. California has set aside $80 million and deployed the National Guard to assist food banks. Hawaii is using $100 million in state funds to help low-income families. New York will use $30 million to fund meals. Doordash launched a food drive. World Central Kitchen, famous for bringing desperately needed food to disaster-struck communities, has provided over 100,000 meals for federal workers going without pay. Food banks nationwide, already stretched thin with rising grocery prices, are bracing themselves for a surge in demand — one they know they won’t be able to meet. “When that social safety net breaks above us, we will be there to do as much as we can,” the president of Oregon Food Bank said. “And it will not be enough.”
Here Are Your Headlines
World Tour: Trump received a warm welcome in Japan today, the latest stop on his five-day tour of Asia, where he met with the Emperor and Japan’s new Prime Minister. The trip will culminate in a major summit of Southeast Asian nations, where Trump will hold a high-stakes meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping. The two countries are poised to strike a deal that should reduce tariffs on China in exchange for access to more rare earth minerals, an agreement to restart soybean purchases from US farmers, and finalizing plans to let Trump supporters buy TikTok — which determines what 170 million Americans see and how 20% of the country gets its news.
Dealmaker: The US signed deals covering trade and rare earth minerals with Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand on Sunday.
Peacemaker? In his ongoing quest to win the Nobel Peace Prize Trump celebrated — and took credit for — a peace agreement signed between Thailand and Cambodia on Sunday. Longstanding tensions over the neighbors’ shared border flared up in July, with dozens killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. Trump recalled he was playing golf in Scotland at the time: “I said, ‘This is much more important than playing a round of golf, so we sat there all day long, making phone calls.… This is much more fun for me than anything,” he said. “You’re saving people and saving countries.” It’s unclear how big a role Trump actually played; Thailand insists the negotiations were bilateral and only facilitated by the US and Malaysia. And while the agreement contains concrete moves toward peace — like the repatriation of several prisoners of war and removal of heavy weapons from the border — experts warn it does little to solve the root of the issue: Both sides still disagree where the border actually lies.
Always Strings Attached: The mysterious donor who gave the US government $130 million to (supposedly) pay troops during the shutdown has been identified as Timothy Mellon. If the entire sum was evenly distributed, it would mean about $100 per service member. But it’s unclear whether the money will actually go to troops. For one thing, the donation is likely illegal. While the public can give a gift to the federal government through the Treasury Department, they must be unconditional. You can’t designate funds to individual federal agencies — such as the Department of Defense. You too can make a direct deposit gift to the Treasury Department here.
Donor Profile: Mellon, the reclusive heir of a gilded age industrialist’s fortune, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump and his allies over the last few years. He was the largest private donor in the 2024 election cycle. He also happens to have some, erm, controversial views. In his 2015 self-published autobiography, he called welfare programs the “contemporary counterpart” to “slavery” that had turned Americans into “slaves of a new Master, Uncle Sam.” He accused Black Americans of becoming “even more belligerent” thanks to social programs, “delivering their votes” to be “awarded with yet more and more freebies,” which are “funded by the hardworking folks … who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass.” Clearly, the 42 million SNAP recipients just need to work harder, ideally by traveling back in time to choose wealthier parents.
Here We Go: In the two days since early voting in New York City’s mayoral election began on Saturday, a record-breaking 164,000 residents cast their ballots — over five times the number of early votes in the previous election in 2021. That enthusiasm is likely good news for the frontrunner, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who took to the stage in front of thousands of people at a packed rally in Queens on Sunday. He was joined by progressive allies Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), as well as establishment Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Not Playing Fair: Republican lawmakers are pushing Trump’s DOJ to investigate Mamdani’s US citizenship. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said “there’s a lot of us that are very, very concerned about the enemy within — people who have come to this country to become citizens, to destroy it.” Mamdani slammed the effort as Islamophobic and said the GOP’s “only agenda … is that of cruelty and punishment.”
Not Inevitable: Trump said today he “would love” a third term. That’s unconstitutional, but a pro-Trump group called the Third Term Project has drafted ways Trump might manage it. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon similarly claimed there is “a plan” to keep Trump in office beyond 2028. “Trump is going to be president in ’28,” Bannon said, “and people ought to just get accommodated with that.” Oh, and Trump’s official site offers Trump 2028 merch. Small reminder that Trump is already the oldest person to be elected US president.
Health Issues: Trump made his latest third-term comments after being asked about a mysterious MRI exam he underwent earlier in October. He refused to say why he’d undergone the scan, though claimed the results were “perfect.”
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