Since when did starvation become a political weapon in modern America?

As time runs out, the world watches on as an errant president prepares to starve Americans to force Democrats to open the government.

This is part two of my extended thinking on where we are and what we can do to find our way out of the darkness we find ourselves in. The piece is proving to require far more detail than anticipated, so I’m splitting it into three smaller, bite-sized pieces in line with requests to shorten my posts.

This is the first, about the SNAP crisis. Next will be the required revolution for change within the Democratic Party, and finally, the election takeover—the race to seize control of elections before the midterms. If you haven’t read part one yet, I have linked it below:

The key challenge that those opposing the Trump tyranny face is that this war is being fought on multiple fronts. We are living in an environment where those opposing the administration are denied control of the narrative and are buried under a mountain of disinformation and misdirection by one of the most proficient propaganda operations in modern history.

The political system in America has been struck by a shock-and-awe campaign that has shattered every norm, as the judicial branch struggles to keep up with a tsunami of illegal activity and corruption. This is only worsened by the Supreme Court's complicity in supporting Trump’s acts of constitutional vandalism. Non-compliant judges are being targeted, as are prosecutors who were involved in attempting to hold Trump accountable for his illegal activities during his last term in office. There has never been a more hostile environment for moral decency, truth, and integrity to survive.

In a world where information chaos is the order of the day, incisive, to-the-point analysis has never played a role as crucial as it does today. I’ve become weary of Trump’s deliberate deluge of information chaff being elevated to ‘BREAKING NEWS’ every five minutes. Information overload is their weapon of choice to distract us from the real threats.

Independent reporting has never been more critical than it is in this moment, but over half of what Trump does is meaningless performative political stunts. Giving them oxygen dilutes the news that’s important to share.

There are three priority areas we should focus on, and from these priorities stem a series of concerns that make up the big picture. The number one priority right now is the removal of SNAP benefits on November 1st. I have a gut feeling that what’s going to happen is that at the final hour, Trump will tap into the contingency fund, restore the benefits and claim to have saved the poor from the problem he created. It makes political sense because the Trump economic fairytale is slowly unravelling. I could, of course, be wrong, and then the whole weight of feeding SNAP recipients will fall on food banks, the generosity of the American people, and states with the resources available to chip in.

For those in receipt of SNAP who have credit on their EBT card, it is really important to note that you DO NOT have to use that credit by the end of October. The credit will remain available in November; however, as things stand, no credit will be applied to the card. I realise, of course, that most SNAP recipients have always used up their benefits by the end of the month, so this note may be of little help.

As ever, the right is pushing a false narrative suggesting that only 18.7% of food stamp recipients are American and that US taxpayers are ‘subsidising foreigners on the taxpayers’ dime. This is entirely FALSE. For the record, USDA data shows:

White people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4 % African Americans are next, making up 25.7 % of recipients, then Hispanics account for 15.6 %, Asian people at 3.9 %, Native Americans at 1.3 % and multiracial people at 1%. The race of 17 % of participants is unknown.

If you want to take a closer look at SNAP recipient data in more detail for each state, you can go to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities site, where there is an excellent interactive dataset that you may find helpful.

As for the legality of using the $5 billion contingency fund, the Speaker of the House stood in front of the cameras and stated, and I quote:

The SNAP situation is a unique situation. I’ve got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me. The contingency funds are not legally available to cover the benefits right now.

This is a bare-faced, deliberate lie, not a mistake or a misunderstanding of the analysis, A LIE. You will note the snake he is; he’s setting up the ability to throw the lawyers under the bus who gave him ‘wrong advice’ when proof is presented of his lies. Fear not, though, for this is a ‘man of God’ who has just broken the ninth commandment yet again. You will not be surprised to know that the document containing the clear proof that the fund is available for precisely this type of scenario has been REMOVED from the USDA site overnight.

Now this page gives a 404 Page Not Found message and provides the following statement in a large red box on that page:

Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.

Here at Truth Matters, a little thing like deliberately removing the evidence from the USDA website doesn’t get in our way. Thanks to our friends at The Wayback Machine, who I support each month (and so should anyone who wants to find deleted pages from the web), I’ve managed to link to a snapshot of the page from late September.

Here is the text section from the OBM’s General Counsel from May 23, 2025

‘ … there is a bona fide need to obligate benefits for October – the first month of the fiscal year – during or prior to the month of September, thereby guaranteeing that benefit funds are available for program operations even in the event of a government shutdown at the beginning of a fiscal year.’

You can find the full advice on page 15 of the document entitled Food and Nutrition Service/ FNS Lapse Plan Summary Overview. There is no question that the actions being taken by this government are designed to use the misery of the vulnerable in society and the threat of starvation to force Democrats to reopen the government. This is straight out of the Netanyahu playbook. As stated, I believe Trump will release the funds and claim to be the saviour of the poor at the very last moment. However, this is now a case of prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I am speechless that ANY government would weaponise starvation, but this is America’s new reality.

I am mindful of the words of 15th-century Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian Niccolò Machiavelli, who said, “Whoever controls the people’s fears becomes master of their souls“ The puppet masters who are using Trump as their useful idiot delivery service have mastered the art of fear. It’s worthy of note that Machiavelli also said, “Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself”. How many people have been convicted of crimes to protect Trump?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my thoughts and observations. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TIME WHEN SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT REPORTING HAS BEEN SO IMPORTANT. I deliver a post to my community most days. If you appreciate my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help offset some of the associated costs. It really does make a big difference