{"id":136531,"date":"2025-11-07T15:58:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-defends-sacred-right-to-starve-kids-for-separation-of-powers\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T15:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T23:58:14","slug":"trump-defends-sacred-right-to-starve-kids-for-separation-of-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-defends-sacred-right-to-starve-kids-for-separation-of-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Defends Sacred Right To Starve Kids For Separation Of Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Halloween, President Trump announced that, if ordered to by a court, \u201cit will BE MY HONOR\u201d to fund SNAP benefits and feed the 41 million Americans who rely on them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Turns out \u2026 not so much. Instead the Trump administration opted to defy an order by Judge John McConnell, Jr. in Rhode Island to get the money out to hungry Americans. <\/p>\n

Specifically, on November 1, the court directed<\/a> the Department of Agriculture to either tap into a $23 billion reserve fund for Child Nutrition Programs and fully fund November SNAP entitlements, or use $4.6 billion in SNAP reserves to make an immediate partial payment to the states.<\/p>\n

The USDA opted to do neither, instead docketing a declaration<\/a> claiming to have transmitted \u201crevised issuance tables to State agencies,\u201d transferring the obligation to individual states to rejigger and resubmit their own funding requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is required by Federal law, after receiving notice from FNS, State agencies must recode their eligibility systems to adjust for the reduced maximum allotments,\u201d the government wrote, adding that \u201cFor at least some States, USDA\u2019s understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge McConnell hit the roof. At a hearing<\/a> on Thursday, he scoffed at the DOJ\u2019s suggestion that it couldn\u2019t possibly tap the Child Nutrition Programs, which are fully funded through June, without starving children. He called the DOJ\u2019s protests \u201centirely pretextual given the numerous statements made in recent weeks by the president and his administration officials who admit to withholding full SNAP benefits for political reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He followed up the oral order with a written TRO<\/a> instructing the USDA to tap the emergency funds immediately. Instead, the administration raced to the First Circuit and demanded<\/a> immediate relief from \u201cthis unprecedented injunction [that] makes a mockery of the separation of powers.\u201d The government requested a ruling by 4 p.m., teeing up yet another request for \u201cemergency relief\u201d at SCOTUS. The states submitted their response<\/a>, arguing that the trial court did not<\/em> abuse its discretion when it ordered the government to feed people.<\/p>\n

So now it\u2019s on the First Circuit to decide if allowing 41 million people to go hungry is arbitrary and capricious or simply a president virtuously guarding his prerogatives and the federal fisc.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Trump on SNAP: “Our country has to remain very liquid because problems, catastrophes, wars \u2014 it could be anything. We have to remain liquid. We can’t give everything away.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)<\/a> 2025-11-07T01:05:27.493Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

And then it\u2019s on to SCOTUS to see if there are five votes for the theory that separation of powers requires courts to let the president starve people as a tool to bludgeon his political enemies. <\/p>\n

As the Founders intended!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Trump Defends Sacred Right To Starve Kids For Separation Of Powers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Halloween, President Trump announced that, if ordered to by a court, \u201cit will BE MY HONOR\u201d to fund SNAP benefits and feed the 41 million Americans who rely on them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Turns out \u2026 not so much. Instead the Trump administration opted to defy an order by Judge John McConnell, Jr. in Rhode Island to get the money out to hungry Americans. <\/p>\n

Specifically, on November 1, the court directed<\/a> the Department of Agriculture to either tap into a $23 billion reserve fund for Child Nutrition Programs and fully fund November SNAP entitlements, or use $4.6 billion in SNAP reserves to make an immediate partial payment to the states.<\/p>\n

The USDA opted to do neither, instead docketing a declaration<\/a> claiming to have transmitted \u201crevised issuance tables to State agencies,\u201d transferring the obligation to individual states to rejigger and resubmit their own funding requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is required by Federal law, after receiving notice from FNS, State agencies must recode their eligibility systems to adjust for the reduced maximum allotments,\u201d the government wrote, adding that \u201cFor at least some States, USDA\u2019s understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge McConnell hit the roof. At a hearing<\/a> on Thursday, he scoffed at the DOJ\u2019s suggestion that it couldn\u2019t possibly tap the Child Nutrition Programs, which are fully funded through June, without starving children. He called the DOJ\u2019s protests \u201centirely pretextual given the numerous statements made in recent weeks by the president and his administration officials who admit to withholding full SNAP benefits for political reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He followed up the oral order with a written TRO<\/a> instructing the USDA to tap the emergency funds immediately. Instead, the administration raced to the First Circuit and demanded<\/a> immediate relief from \u201cthis unprecedented injunction [that] makes a mockery of the separation of powers.\u201d The government requested a ruling by 4 p.m., teeing up yet another request for \u201cemergency relief\u201d at SCOTUS. The states submitted their response<\/a>, arguing that the trial court did not<\/em> abuse its discretion when it ordered the government to feed people.<\/p>\n

So now it\u2019s on the First Circuit to decide if allowing 41 million people to go hungry is arbitrary and capricious or simply a president virtuously guarding his prerogatives and the federal fisc.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Trump on SNAP: “Our country has to remain very liquid because problems, catastrophes, wars \u2014 it could be anything. We have to remain liquid. We can’t give everything away.”<\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)<\/a> 2025-11-07T01:05:27.493Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

And then it\u2019s on to SCOTUS to see if there are five votes for the theory that separation of powers requires courts to let the president starve people as a tool to bludgeon his political enemies. <\/p>\n

As the Founders intended!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Trump Defends Sacred Right To Starve Kids For Separation Of Powers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Halloween, President Trump announced that, if ordered to by a court, \u201cit will BE MY HONOR\u201d to fund SNAP benefits and feed the 41 million Americans who rely on them. Turns out \u2026 not so much. Instead the Trump administration opted to defy an order by Judge John McConnell, Jr. in Rhode Island to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-07-at-1.25.32-PM-1024x602-PWaYDS.png?fit=1024%2C602&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}