After showing off his new marble and gold bathroom in a series of social media posts, Donald Trump turned to more serious matters on Friday night when he explained to the more than 40 million Americans who receive food benefits from the federal government why they may have to go hungry in the coming days.

“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do,” he wrote. “I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”

As with just about everything Trump says or writes, this is utter nonsense.

That is why we decided to break down this post to get to the truth of this matter.

But first, we would be remiss not to mention that it is absolutely outrageous that 42 million Americans require food assistance when the country’s richest 0.1 percent (about 350,000 people) have amassed a combined wealth of $23,000,000,000,000.

By the way, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides these benefits currently costs about $90 billion annually, which means that these uber-rich Americans could fund it if you could pry just 0.4 percent of their wealth from their greedy fingers.

And that price tag will even go down soon because, and this is important to remember, the GOP megabill that Trump signed in July cuts SNAP funding by more than $180 billion over the next decade.

Oh, and while Republicans will have you believe that this money goes to a bunch of lazy freeloaders, the majority of SNAP recipients are children, seniors, and disabled adults.

So, that’s just background to demonstrate how Trump and the GOP feel about this vital food assistance program and how credible the president’s crocodile tears really are.

And that brings us back to his social media post, which also states, “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.”

First of all, let’s look at the legality and those “conflicting” opinions.

One of them ordered the Department of Agriculture to distribute the SNAP money “as soon as possible” while the other merely stated that the administration’s plan not to pay out the benefit was “unlawful” but stopped short of mandating USDA to do so.

That’s not a conflict at all, that’s two federal judges saying that not providing the SNAP benefits is illegal.

So it’s unclear which “government lawyers” believe that Trump does not have the “legal authority” to provide that money to children and the elderly and keep them from starving.

It may be the same hacks who are losing court cases across the country because so many of the president’s actions are indefensible… at least until they get to the Supreme Court, where the right-wing majority will let him get away with anything.

Also, let’s not forget that Trump doesn’t seem to care about whether his actions are lawful or what federal courts say when it doesn’t seem to suit him.

This is an excellent example.

In spite of the government shutdown, the money to fund SNAP (at least for a while) is actually available in a contingency fund for emergencies, and, to us, it seems that millions of Americans going hungry is an emergency.

Conversely, there is no such fund for military pay, and Trump decided to go ahead and pay the troops regardless, which likely is illegal.

In other words, as of now, the president refuses to make available the funds that, by law and court order, he is supposed to provide, while, on the other hand, taking money that he is not allowed to use to pay the troops.

So, what gives?

It’s actually not complicated. Republicans believe that these welfare problems predominantly benefit minorities, who support Democrats, while people serving in the military tend to vote for the GOP.

There you go; mystery solved.

What this shows once again is that Trump only wants to be the president of Americans who voted for him and to punish those who didn’t.

Of course, somebody might explain to him that the majority of SNAP beneficiaries are not “urban welfare queens” (as this guy seems to believe) but rather live in rural areas that heavily supported Trump.

Once he figures that out, maybe he will graciously swoop in and do the thing that the law (and a court order) compels him to do.