Last week, two federal judges ruled that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would have to use a $4.65 billion contingency fund to keep the program, which costs more than $8 billion per month, running.

On Monday, USDA declared that it would tap into that fund to provide partial benefits to the more than 40 million Americans who rely on SNAP benefits to put food on their tables.

Trump, however, seems to feel differently about the need to comply with the court orders.

In a social media post, the president noted that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

On Monday, Senate Republicans had blocked a Democratic resolution calling on USDA to fully fund SNAP benefits.

Of course, even if that measure had passed, it would not have gone anywhere since Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has sent the House of Representatives on a month-long vacation to avoid having to vote on legislation forcing the Trump administration to release all documents related to the president’s former pal Jeffrey Epstein.

In theory, however, it would be very simple to pass legislation that would keep millions of Americans from going hungry, or from making sure that furloughed government workers don’t miss a paycheck, which is another measure Senate Republicans blocked.

In addition, it would also be easy for the president to shift some funds around to cover the cost of the SNAP benefits.

During past shutdowns, including one during Trump’s first term, that is exactly what happened to ensure that American families didn’t have to go without this vital aid. In fact, this will be the first time in the program’s 60-year history that the full benefits aren’t made available.

Predictably, Democrats were livid.

“The president is not a king. He is not free to disregard the rule of law whenever it becomes politically inconvenient for him. The Trump administration must comply with recent court orders to fund SNAP in November for millions of hungry seniors, children, veterans and the disabled,” said Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. “If he had an ounce of compassion, he would instruct his agriculture secretary to use her transfer authority to fully fund the rest of this critical food assistance program, too.”

In his post, Trump also complained about the number of people who qualify for the food assistance program and asserted that many of them don’t deserve SNAP benefits.

He stated that the benefits increased “many fold” under President Joe Biden and claimed that they “were haphazardly ‘handed’ to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!”

For what it’s worth, more than half of the people eligible for SNAP are children, the elderly, and Americans with disabilities.

Of course, Republicans like to claim that government assistance programs like SNAP or Medicaid are routinely abused by “welfare queens” or lazy adult children living in their parents’ basements and playing video games.

However, it bears noting that most of the beneficiaries live in rural areas that overwhelmingly vote for the GOP, so there is a good chance that the cuts to these programs that were included in the Republican megabill that Trump signed in July will hurt their own constituents the most.

The president concluded his social media post announcing his intention of weaponizing the SNAP benefits to pressure Democrats to reopen the government with his trademark phrase, “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” and we can only hope that voters, especially those about to go hungry, are indeed paying close attention.