WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Trump administration's legal efforts to fight having to fully fund food stamps for millions of vulnerable Americans is creating an opening for Democrats eager to use the longest government shutdown in U.S. history to paint the president as callous and out of touch.
“Donald Trump and his administration have made the decision to weaponize hunger, to withhold SNAP benefits from millions of people, notwithstanding the fact that two lower courts, both the district court and the court of appeals, made clear that those SNAP benefits needed to be paid immediately," House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on CNN Saturday, calling the actions "shameful.”
“Donald Trump is literally fighting in court to ensure Americans starve. HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU,” echoed California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, on X.
The comments come after the Supreme Court late Friday granted the administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order requiring it to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the shutdown. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly those with lower incomes.
A judge had given the administration until Friday to make the payments. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and to move forward with planned partial SNAP payments for the month instead.
The legal wrangling comes after the administration and Republicans endured a bruising Election Day last week. Democrats scored commanding wins up and down the ballot and on ballot measures across the country amid signs that voters’ economic woes are top of mind — a warning sign for the president and his party heading into next year’s higher-stakes midterm elections.
In response, the White House is planning to adjust its messaging strategy to focus on affordability to try to win over voters who are worried about the high cost of living with plans to emphasize new tax breaks and show progress on fighting inflation.
But its efforts around food stamps could complicate that.
Both parties have tried to blame the other for the shutdown as its impact has spread beyond Washington, D.C., including a growing crisis at the nation's airports.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October, as the shutdown stretched into its third week, found that roughly 6 in 10 Americans said Trump and Republicans in Congress bore “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54% said the same about Democrats in Congress. At least three-quarters said both sides deserved at least a “moderate” share of blame.
The White House did not respond to questions Saturday about its rationale for appealing the SNAP orders to the Supreme Court or whether it was concerned about the optics of fighting against making the full payments.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, appearing on Fox News, again blamed Democrats for refusing to vote to reopen the government and made the case that funding had to come from Congress.
“We can’t just create money out of the sky,” she said. “You can’t just create money to fund a program that Congress refuses to fund.”
While hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed and gone over a month without paychecks, the president has gone out of his way to ensure those he favors have been paid.
That includes members of the military after Trump directed the Pentagon to use “all available funds” to pay U.S. troops.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said her department had found a way to pay the U.S. Coast Guard and law enforcement officers within the department, including border patrol agents and immigration officers with funds from the sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Trump signed this summer.
And FBI director Kash Patel has said that FBI special agents are still being paid — though other bureau workers are not. The administration has not said where that money is coming from.
Trump has repeatedly voiced skepticism about SNAP, and he and the White House have offered conflicting messages on what would happen to the program during the shutdown.
In a social media post Tuesday, Trump announced that the administration would not pay out any SNAP benefits until the shutdown was over, and suggested that some who receive benefits are not really in need.
Hours later, however, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would pay out partial SNAP benefits using contingency funding “that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war."
But when asked Thursday about a judge ordering the administration to make the full payment, the president directed Vice President JD Vance, who was sitting next to him, to answer.
Vance called the ruling “absurd," because, he said, “you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown.””
“In the midst of a shutdown, we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation," he said.
Trump added that he believes the country “has to remain very liquid because problems, catastrophes, wars, could be anything. We have to remain liquid. We can’t give everything away.”
The administration has faced lawsuits from Democratic-leaning states, nonprofits and cities since shortly after announcing that SNAP benefits would not be available in November because of the shutdown.
But two judges separately ordered the government to keep the money following, ruling last week that the administration could not skip November’s benefits entirely. In both cases, the judges ordered the government to use an emergency reserve fund containing more than $4.6 billion to make the payments, which cost between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month.
After the administration announced it would cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, one judge ruled that they could not and would need to find the money to fully fund the program for November.
The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal. In its court filings Friday, the administration contended that the judge had usurped both legislative and executive authority. When a higher court refused to nullify the Friday payment deadline, the Trump administration turned quickly to the Supreme Court.
Through an order signed by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the high court agreed to keep the full-payment order on hold until 48 hours after the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson, a frequent dissenter from a series of recent decisions in favor of the administration, is the justice assigned to oversee appeals from Rhode Island, where the case originated.
The legal wrangling has left millions of Americans who depend on food aid in confusing limbo. People in some states have reported receiving their full benefits for November, while others could be waiting until at least next week.
A message from the National Women's Law Center concerning the announcement by the Trump administration of restoring only half funding the SNAP benefits is projected on the U.S. Department of Agriculture building, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
El Recuerdo Market manager Cecilia Benitez sets up a "EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) Accepted Here," banner in Los Angeles, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, after two federal judges ordered President Donald Trump's administration to continue funding SNAP during the government shutdown. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A message from the National Women's Law Center concerning the announcement by the Trump administration of restoring only half funding the SNAP benefits is projected on the U.S. Department of Agriculture building, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
U.S. President Donald Trump said the military could end its Iran offensive in two to three weeks and will shift responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz to countries that rely on it for oil and shipping as the White House announced a prime-time presidential address Wednesday evening on the war.
Trump expressed frustration Tuesday with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the U.S. war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil.” Trump recently has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war.
In an interview with pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. He insisted, however, that there were no direct negotiations and said Iran has no faith that talks with the U.S. could yield any results, saying “the trust level is at zero.”
Trump said the U.S. “will not have anything to do with” what happens next in the vital waterway that has been closed by the Islamic Republic. Instead, he told reporters, the responsibility for keeping the strait open will rest with countries that rely on it. Gulf states rely on the waterway for both exports and imports, including food, and 20 percent of the world's oil supply flows through it.
U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war continues to push fuel prices higher worldwide. Analysts say those high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses’ transportation and packaging costs pile up.
Here is the latest:
The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen said Wednesday they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles toward Israel.
Air raid sirens went off in southern Israel in the early morning, from Beersheba to the Mediterranean coast following the launch. There were no immediate reports of impacts.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, said in a prerecorded statement that they fired at “sensitive targets” in southern Israel.
The attack is the third since the Houthis joined the war on Friday when they fired their first missile towards Israel since the U.S. and Israel launched massive airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
Their entry has raised concerns that they could resume attacks on vessels in the Red Sea further disrupting the global shipping industry and sending oil prices much higher
A drone attack has killed a citizen of Bangladesh in Fujairah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, authorities said.
He was killed Wednesday when Emirati air defense systems intercepted a drone, and shrapnel landed in a farm, the Fujairah media office said.
The fatality has brought the death toll in the UAE to nine civilians and two soldiers. A Moroccan contractor with the UAE army was also killed in Bahrain.
Earlier Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed two Iranian drones.
Emergency personnel said an 11-year-old girl was severely wounded in central Israel in the latest missile attack from Iran.
Two more people suffered moderate injuries including a 13-year-old boy and a 36-year-old woman, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services.
Iran’s foreign minister has acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
The comments by Abbas Araghchi came in an interview with pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera aired late Tuesday. He insisted that the messages didn’t constitute negotiations.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly described Iran and America has having talks over the war, while Pakistan has been a key intermediary along with Egypt and Turkey during the conflict.
“I receive messages from Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations,” he said.
He added: “We do not have any faith that negotiations with the U.S. will yield any results. The trust level is at zero.”
Asked about a possible ground offensive by the U.S., Araghchi said “we are waiting for them.”
“We know very well how to defend ourselves,” Araghchi reportedly told the Qatar-based broadcaster. “In a ground war, we can do it even better. We are completely ready to confront any sort of ground attack. We hope they do not make such a mistake.”
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a preliminary count early Wednesday 21 people were also wounded in the strike in Jnah.
The strike came without warning, and Israel did not declare the target. When it does, it often says it is targeting operatives from the Hezbollah militant group.
Emergency workers rushed to the scene to search for victims.
Israel’s military warned the public Wednesday a missile was incoming from Yemen, yet another attack from the country’s Houthi rebels who have just entered the war on Iran’s side.
Air raid sirens went off in southern Israel, from Beersheba to the Mediterranean coast.
The warning, just around dawn, broke a long lull, more than 19 hours since the last time Israel’s military warned of an incoming missile launch from Iran, and more than six hours from the last alarms in the northern part of Israel, which in past days received near-constant fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A drone attack by Iran and its allies hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire, authorities said.
The state-run KUNA news agency said the attack early Wednesday sparked a “large fire” at the airport.
It said there were no immediate injuries from the attack and firefighters were working to control the blaze.
Kuwait International Airport has been attacked before by Iran during the war. The KUNA report suggested the attack may have been launched by Iranian-supported militias in Iraq with Tehran’s support.
In another strike, Bahrain said early on Wednesday morning that it was working to extinguish a fire at a business facility that resulted from an Iranian attack.
Israel said early Wednesday it struck a plant supplying Iran’s theocracy with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, to allegedly use in a chemical weapons program. Iran acknowledged the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, but insisted it only supplied “hospital drugs” used in medical operations.
The strike happened Tuesday, both the Israelis and the Iranians said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a picture of the factory in Tehran, writing on X: “The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.”
Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug can be fatal.
Both Israel and the United States have warned in recent years Iran was experimenting with fentanyl in munitions. The U.S. previously pointed to Iranian academic research studying how Russia likely used a fentanyl derivative during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage seizure by Chechen militants.
Israel alleged Tofigh Daru supplied fentanyl to an advanced research institute in Tehran, known by its acronym SPND. The U.S alleges SPND has conducted research and testing that could be applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices and other weapons.
The United Arab Emirates has barred Iranians from entering or transiting the country as the war rages, three major airlines said Wednesday.
Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, as well as the lower-cost airline FlyDubai, made the announcements on their websites.
Entry rules can sometimes be opaque in the autocratic United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, the three airlines agreed on the order. It said holders of 10-year Golden Visa residency permits could still enter the country.
Authorities have offered no official comment. But Dubai has already shut down the city-state’s Iranian Hospital and Iranian Club, institutions that date back to the time of the shah.
Members of civic groups hold signs against the U.S. and Israel attacks on Iran near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People stand near a damaged van beside scattered debris following an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Residents and Israeli security forces inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A man inspect the wreckage of an Iranian missile that landed near the West Bank village of Marda, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hits a building near the airport road in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A family who fled Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon warm themselves by a bonfire next to tents used as shelters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
