Trump Administration Demands States ‘Immediately Undo’ Any Steps Taken to Issue SNAP Benefits

(Photo by Steve Sanchez/Sipa USA).(Sipa via AP Images)

The Trump administration is demanding states “immediately undo” any steps they’ve taken to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for the month of November.

Some 42 million Americans rely on food assistance to make ends meet, but that ended on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown. Although the Trump administration has a $4 billion emergency fund for SNAP, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency order pausing a lower court ruling to restore the benefits.

In a letter to Regional SNAP directors across the country this weekend, a USDA memo warned them to essentially cease and desist distributing any food benefits they called “unauthorized.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture an administrative stay of the orders issued by the District Court of Rhode Island…Pending any explicit direction to the contrary from Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), States must not transmit full benefits insurance files to EBT processors.”

The memo continued:

To the extend States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025. Please advise the appropriate FNS Regional Office representative of steps taken to correct any action taken that do not comply with this memorandum.

The end of SNAP has led to huge lines at food banks across the country just before Thanksgiving. Yet Trump has claimed that the idea there is an “affordability” crisis is really just a “con job” set up by the Democrats.

When an NBC News reporter asked, in an Oval Office presser Friday, “why do you think there is such a disconnect between the economy that you’re describing day-to-day, and the way that many Americans say they’re feeling and are concerned about?” Trump responded by denying Americans were hurting, claiming that Americans “feel better about our country” than they did under former President Joe Biden.

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