President Donald Trump was called out for hypocrisy after he said during the signing of an executive order expanding resources for the foster care system that the Bible instructs society to care for "vulnerable children and orphans"—only for people to point out that he had denied Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to hungry children just days before.
The loss of SNAP is a result of the Trump administration's failure to spend contingency funds to feed people on the program, a decision that is resulting in a nationwide hunger crisis impacting millions of families.
Although SNAP benefits are administered by individual states, the program is funded by the federal government, which was shuttered until the government shutdown was finally resolved last week; the budget impasse kicked off after the GOP refused to negotiate with Democrats over Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that were due to expire.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration, granting its emergency request to temporarily halt a lower court order that required full funding of SNAP food assistance during the shutdown even as some states had already begun issuing the payments.
A federal judge had given the administration until Friday to deliver the full allotments through SNAP. But the White House appealed, asking that courts allow it to avoid spending beyond what remains in a limited contingency fund and to proceed instead with only partial SNAP disbursements for the month.
Despite all of these well-documented facts, Trump said:
"The Bible tells us that one of the measures of any society is how it cares for vulnerable children and orphans—so important and so big in the Bible. As we make America great again, we are going to protect American children in foster care."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump's executive order, titled "Fostering the Future for American Children and Family," brings together federal agencies and public- and private-sector partners to expand opportunities for young people in, and aging out of, the foster care system.
It directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to modernize state child-welfare data systems and publish an annual scorecard evaluating how state foster care programs are performing.
Working with the Office of the First Lady, Kennedy must also launch a new “Fostering the Future” initiative. The program will partner with major companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations to create pathways to education and employment for current and former foster youth.
The initiative is additionally tasked with building an online platform to help foster youth locate local resources, expanding access to Education and Training Vouchers, and broadening educational opportunities overall.
All of that sounds nice on paper—but rings hollow in light of the facts.
Trump was harshly criticized.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Thursday interview with Newsmax that the Trump administration will require millions of recipients to reapply for the SNAP benefits they were denied as part of an effort to crack down on “fraud."
Rollins said she plans to “have everyone reapply for their benefits, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through ... food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”
SNAP fraud can occur when participants intentionally misrepresent their eligibility, when retailers illegally exchange benefits for cash, or when criminals steal benefits by skimming EBT cards, according to USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.
However, anti-hunger advocates say the problem is far smaller than the Trump administration suggests, noting that the average participant receives only about $6 a day in SNAP benefits.
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