White House says it will partially fund SNAP benefits after Trump threatens to withhold them until shutdown ends

By Adam Cancryn, Tami Luhby, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The White House said Tuesday it would follow through on plans to partially fund critical food aid during the government shutdown, despite President Donald Trump’s threat just hours earlier that he would withhold the federal assistance.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that she had spoken with Trump and that the administration would be “fully complying” with a court order to keep some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits flowing.

“We’re getting that partial payment out the door as much as we can and as quickly as we can,” Leavitt said of the program, which is more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps.

Trump sparked widespread confusion earlier Tuesday when he appeared to abruptly reverse course on the administration’s funding plan, writing on Truth Social that SNAP “will be given only when those Radical Left Democrats open up the government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

That move would have left millions of people without the monthly federal assistance they rely on to purchase food and sparked a fresh legal showdown. More than two dozen states and a coalition of cities, nonprofits, unions and small businesses sued in separate cases last week to force the administration to keep at least some of the aid flowing.

“This is immoral. See you in court,” Skye Perryman, the CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal organization involved in the coalition’s lawsuit that also sought continuation of the SNAP benefits, wrote on X in response to Trump’s post.

The administration is tapping into a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to support partial benefits into November. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, issued guidance earlier Tuesday to states for distributing the partial payments.

Nearly 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits, which amount to roughly $350 per household per month on average when paid out in full.

The USDA last month said it could not pay November’s benefits, citing concerns over whether it could legally use the contingency fund or move money from other accounts. But the courts ultimately ruled that the government must tap into the contingency fund to pay partial benefits and could shift other money to enable it to fully pay the more than $8 billion in benefits, as well as other costs. And Trump himself previously indicated he had instructed the administration’s lawyers to ask the courts how it could legally fund the benefits as quickly as possible.

“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay,” he wrote Friday.

The administration ultimately opted to use the contingency fund to pay out partial benefits.

A federal judge in Rhode Island, meanwhile, scheduled a Thursday hearing to consider a fresh request for an order requiring the Trump administration to provide full food stamp benefits for November.

The hearing before US District Judge John McConnell will be the latest episode in a dramatic showdown over the benefits that is playing out in two federal courts.

After the government notified McConnell of its plans on Monday that it would provide only partial SNAP benefits, the coalition that brought the legal challenge pressed the judge to intervene yet again, arguing USDA’s choice did not comport with the requirements of his order last week.

The plaintiffs are asking the judge to issue a new order that would tap into unused tariff funds meant for child nutrition programs to provide SNAP benefits for November. As part of that bid, they seized on Trump’s social media post in their lawsuit challenging the decision not to fully fund SNAP.

“In addition to threatening defiance of the Court’s order, the post makes plain what Plaintiffs explained in their motion to enforce: Defendants are withholding SNAP benefits from individuals and families who need vital food assistance for partisan political gain,” attorneys for the coalition wrote in court papers.

But the USDA told the court Monday that it would not utilize the tariff revenue because it would endanger the nation’s free and reduced-price school meals program, which serves about 29 million children a day. (The agency has transferred $750 million in tariff revenue to the WIC food assistance program for pregnant women, new moms and young children.)

Thursday’s hearing is set for 3:30 p.m. ET.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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