Trump threatens to withhold Snap food aid until US shutdown ends

US President Donald Trump further muddied the fate of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme with a social media post on Tuesday suggesting he would not provide benefits until after the government reopened.

The aid, which reaches 42 million Americans, “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before”, Trump posted.

For the past two days, the administration has said in public statements and court filings that it will at least partially fund the programme this month after being ordered to do so by a federal judge.

Trump’s post did not explicitly say he was reversing that position, but a White House official refused to clarify the matter, referring back to the president’s social media post. Officials for the Office of Management and Budget and the Agriculture Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The president’s comments came a day after the Justice Department said in a court filing the administration was working “diligently” to comply with a ruling last week from a Rhode Island judge requiring officials to at least partially fund the programme.

The Agriculture Department, the filing said, planned to “deplete” US$4.65 billion in contingency money and provide recipients with 50 per cent of the amount eligible households normally receive in November. It also warned that recalculating benefits would be time-consuming.