Hunger, Bribes and Sociopathy
As food assistance runs out and a billionaire offers money for troops, Trump dances in Malaysia
Some 42 million Americans rely on federal food stamp benefits to stave off hunger, including millions of children. At the end of this week on Nov. 1—that will be 31 days into the government shutdown—those benefits will stop.
The Trump regime, more than willing to gamble with the lives of struggling Americans, coldly asserts that it will not free up available contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It’s getting away with this by exploiting technicalities in the law to continue its agenda of cruelty.
“SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits,” states a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) memo. “The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists.”
The USDA’s website asserts the regime’s cruel political game more bluntly: “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program…Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”
The Trump regime and its Republican enablers may think they’re playing a clever game to force Democrats to surrender to the GOP’s spending package that harms everyday Americans, including by ending enhanced healthcare subsidies. But their actions illustrate not only Republican indifference to the shutdown’s human cost, they also display their hypocrisy as they adhere to laws that serve their interests and ignore the ones that don’t.
Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, calls the claim that the USDA cannot continue benefits after Nov. 1 “unequivocally false.” A former Office of Management and Budget official, Parrott said in a statement, “In fact, the Administration is legally required to use contingency reserves—billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate that remain available during the shutdown.”
The so-called administration was aware of this coming cliff for at-risk Americans dealing with hunger. “The Administration itself admits these reserves are available for use,” Parrott noted. “It could have, and should have, taken steps weeks ago to be ready to use these funds. Instead, it may choose not to use them in an effort to gain political advantage.”
Meanwhile, you’ve probably seen that the regime has proudly taken $130 million in private money from Timothy Mellon, a Trump donor from one of the country’s wealthiest families, ostensibly to help cover wages for the troops. Mellon previously gave Trump $75 million for his 2024 campaign and donated $50 million to the super PAC Make America Great Again a day after Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records.
Of course, Trump supporters are praising this as a great act of patriotism rather than another bribe like the “donations” made by three dozen wealthy Americans and corporations to build Trump’s White House ballroom. Trump himself, who had refused to name the source of the funds when he announced it Thursday, called him “a great American citizen” and “a substantial man." He also called Mellon “a friend of mine” who “doesn’t want publicity.” On Saturday, New York Times reporter Tyler Pager learned who was this Trump friend from “two people familiar with the matter.”
A Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the money was accepted “under its general gift acceptance authority” and “made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits.” Yet according to Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, “In general, you may not spend money that has been donated because the Constitution and the Anti-Deficiency Act say that you can’t spend money unless you have an appropriation to make it happen.”
Not that Trump cares about the constraints of the Constitution when they get in the way of his interests.
Yes, we should hope our approximately 1.3 million troops will be paid for working to keep our country safe. But consider what’s going on here.
The Department of Defense spends about $7.5 billion every two weeks to pay soldiers. Mellon’s $130 million represents less than two percent of the needed funds or about $100 per military member. Do you really think that amount of money funds is actually intended to help get our troops through the shutdown?
Even if we were to take Trump at his word, why would we cheer private military funding? Imagine if the Mellon contribution triggered a trend. Next thing you know, other billionaires who want to stay in Trump’s good graces could be funding National Guard troops sent to occupy Democratic-led American cities. And in return—in addition to avoiding Trump’s vengeance—once proud soldiers could be wearing tech or crypto companies’ logos on their uniforms.
In a sane world, America’s electorate would not usher into office sociopaths, that is, people with anti-social personality disorders. Sociopaths lack empathy and are indifferent to the pain and suffering of others.
Trump’s sociopathy was on full display when—as the most vulnerable Americans wait to see if they’ll go hungry in a few days—he went off to Malaysia for a week and the GOP-controlled Congress remained out of session refusing to negotiate an end to the suffering.
While Trump could be seen dancing like a fool on a red carpet in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend, actual patriots at food banks and other grassroots organizations were bracing to serve large populations in need. As one food bank advocate in New York worried, “The charitable food system was not designed to sustain the scope of services SNAP provides.”
I look forward to the day when not only has Trump been removed from office, but also when he and others in his sociopathic regime are held accountable for their cruelty, corruption and criminality. Without this needed pursuit of justice, our beloved country will fail to repair itself.
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This is happening in the richest country in the world. Performative cruelty as the main course, accompanied by a toxic side salad of despair and hunger. There are not really any words for how awful this regime is.
The corrupt and the venal: what a nasty brew. In my view the funders and bribers are as sociopathic as Trump. All of them, from their high towers sneer at the hapless and the poor. While Trump has a get out of jail free card, the others do not. I will jostle among the onlookers for a seat at the depraved ones’ trials.