President Donald Trump invoked the Bible in remarks at the White House Thursday as reminded the assembled crowd and row of press in front of him that the measure of any society is how it cares for its children.
“The Bible tells us that one of the measures of any society is how it cares for vulnerable children and orphans,” Trump said. “So important and it is so big in the Bible.”
Trump’s remarks were met instantly with a wave of ridicule on social media and from his chief critics, who in turn reminded the president that his administration spent the last several weeks fighting in court to stop payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which prevents millions of children from going hungry.
“You literally fought in court to strip families of food assistance,” wrote California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee also told the president that his federal officers “pepper sprayed a baby,” referring to reports that a 1-year-old girl was hospitalized after agents sprayed her during a recent immigration raid near Chicago.
“He literally just defunded food for children this week,” wrote House Minority Whip Katherine Clark.
“Was this the argument he used when he begged the Supreme Court to let him starve them?” asked Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“He tried to withhold funding for SNAP benefits,” wrote Democratic Rep. Mary Gary Scanlon. “16 million American children rely on SNAP for food.”
Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration abandoned a legal challenge at the Supreme Court after two federal lawsuits urged the federal government to swiftly restart payments to the program, which helps feed millions of Americans — including more than 16 million children, or roughly one quarter of all children in the United States.
The end of the historically long government shutdown Wednesday night effectively ended the weeks-long legal battle over billions of dollars in SNAP funds, which are administered to states to disperse to nearly 42 million people.
Until federal courts intervened, the Trump administration intended to freeze funding for the program altogether during the government shutdown, warning that the “well has run dry” and no benefits were to be delivered November 1.
Under court orders, the administration agreed to tap into $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover roughly 65 percent of benefits.
But the USDA then said those partial payments would “take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months” for all recipients to start seeing benefits. The agency later ordered states to “undo” any steps taken to ensure those payments were going to beneficiaries, adding more confusion to a bureaucratic maze that has left millions of low-income families scrambling over the last several weeks.
Last week, after a federal judge ordered the government to fully fund the program, the administration swiftly appealed to the Supreme Court to block the order.
That appeal was granted. The administration asked the Supreme Court to freeze the order a second time after it expired. That was also granted.
The Supreme Court’s freeze of the lower-court order was set to end at midnight Thursday, but the administration dropped its case hours earlier, thanks to “a bill that put an end to the government shutdown” and “fully funds SNAP through the end of the fiscal year,” according to a letter to the justices from U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
After Trump signed the temporary funding bill Wednesday night, the USDA directed states to take “immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told CNN that most beneficiaries will see assistance by Monday.
“Keep in mind, the SNAP program is funded by the federal government, but it is the 50 states and 50 different infrastructures that move that money out, which is what made it so complicated, the patchwork,” she said. “But it’s moving. It’s coming.”
