The clarification comes after the president threatened on Truth Social to withhold federal food aid funding until Democrats agree to reopen the government.
The Trump administration is still sending partial food aid benefits for nearly 42 million Americans this month, despite the president’s recent threat to withhold federal funding until the shutdown ends.
“The administration is fully complying with the court order. I just spoke to the president about it. The recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand it’s going to take time to receive this money because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified in remarks to reporters Tuesday.
The clarification comes just hours after President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.”
The post seemingly contradicted his own administration’s actions to abide by a federal judge’s decision requiring officials to use emergency money to pay for at least some SNAP benefits. USDA earlier on Tuesday had delivered guidance to states on how to fund half of November benefits.
Trump’s announcement quickly sent lawmakers and administration officials scrambling to clarify next steps for the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter, who were granted anonymity to share private details.
“We are getting the payments out the door as quickly as we can. USDA sent the guidance to the states,” Leavitt added. “The president is referring to future SNAP payments. He does not want to have to keep tapping into an emergency fund and depleting it in the case of a catastrophe in this country.”
Republicans have urged Democrats to sign onto the GOP’s stopgap funding bill to reopen the government and restore all benefits under SNAP as the shutdown enters its sixth week. Democrats, however, are looking for new ways to force the Trump administration to pay up now.
Several cities and nonprofits that previously sued the administration over its refusal to use emergency funds for SNAP filed a new motion on Tuesday demanding that the court force USDA to send the full $8 billion needed for November benefits. U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. scheduled a new hearing in the case for Thursday afternoon.
“[The Trump administration’s] decision not to provide full SNAP benefits — even though they have funds available to do so and even though switching to partial payments at this late date will cause devastating delay — is arbitrary and capricious,” the plaintiffs argued in their latest filing, adding that families “will suffer immediate and irreparable harm.”
SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in history last weekend, revealing just how divided Washington has become on previously bipartisan topics like food aid and health care.
Several Democrats, including some who were part of a private conversation Monday night about finding an offramp to the shutdown, said Trump’s Truth Social post Tuesday had an immediate effect on the dynamic of their negotiations.
“We’re discussing all of the different parameters of a possible deal,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in an interview before the White House clarification. “It certainly makes it more complicated when the President basically ignores the law.”