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Despite a judge's ruling ordering the administration to fund SNAP benefits, President Donald Trump said that November's payments were likely to be delayed.
By Alexandra Marquez

As the federal government shutdown passes the one-month mark, a new round of impacts will soon hit millions of Americans on Saturday.

A chief concern for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent weeks was the impending lapse in funding for SNAP benefits, colloquially known as food stamps, for which millions of people were set to lose benefits on Saturday.

Over 40 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits to purchase food, leading to concerns from elected officials that millions could go hungry. Governors and other state leaders from dozens of states across the country have said that they will free up emergency funds in their states to temporarily assist families that usually rely on their SNAP benefits to purchase food.

A coalition of municipalities, nonprofit groups and business and union organizations sued earlier this week, requesting that a federal judge in Rhode Island force the Trump administration to use contingency funds in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay out SNAP benefits.

On Friday, U.S District Judge John McConnell did just that, ordering the USDA to distribute money from a contingency fund “as soon as possible,” in time for Nov. 1 SNAP payments to be made.
By STEPHEN GROVES, ALI SWENSON and SUSAN HAIGH

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crises at the heart of the government shutdown fight in Washington were coming to a head Saturday as the federal food assistance program faced delays and millions of Americans were set to see a dramatic rise in their health insurance bills.

The impacts on basic needs — food and medical care — underscored how the impasse is hitting homes across the United States. Plans by the Trump administration to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday were halted by federal judges, but the delay in payouts will still likely leave millions of people short on their grocery bills.

It all added to the strain on the country, with a month of missed paychecks for federal workers and growing air travel delays. The shutdown is already the second longest in history and entered its second month on Saturday, yet there was little urgency in Washington to end it. Lawmakers are away from Capitol Hill and both parties are entrenched in their positions.

The House has not met for legislative business in more than six weeks, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., closed his chamber for the weekend after bipartisan talks failed to achieve significant progress.
CBS News

A federal judge in Tampa has ordered the arrest of a former Green Beret accused of plotting to invade Venezuela in 2020 after he failed to show up to court for a hearing on whether he should be taken back into custody for violating the conditions of his pre-trial release.

Jordan Goudreau, 49, was arrested last year on weapons smuggling charges tied to the failed coup attempt undertaken during the first Trump administration.

He was released after a few weeks in jail when filmmaker Jen Gatien pledged her $2 million Manhattan apartment where the combat veteran was living as collateral for a bond. In testimony this week, Gatien detailed how the three-time Bronze Star recipient turned abusive, alleging he threatened to harm her and others and sent text messages saying he wouldn't go back to jail.

"I believe he intends one day to leave this country," Gatien said, noting that Goudreau previously lived on a sailboat in Mexico.
Sasha RogelbergBy Sasha Rogelberg

Aviation industry leaders are urging Congress to end the shutdown out of concern for the wellbeing of air traffic controllers working without pay, as well as on air travel ahead of a busy holiday season.

“It’s putting stress on people. It’s not fair to those people. It’s also putting stress on the economy,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told reporters outside of the White House on Thursday. “Airlines are a pretty good real-time indicator of the economy, and we start to see, still minor, but steep booking impact. And you see that happening in the economy. We put the whole economy at risk.”

Kirby called for bipartisan agreement on a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. He, as well as industry leaders like Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Chris Sununu, the former Republican governor of New Hampshire and current CEO of industry trade group Airlines for America, met with Vice President JD Vance on Thursday to discuss the impact on the government shutdown on aviation, Bloomberg reported.  
Story by Adam Nichols

In a landmark immunity case last year, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts argued that sweeping presidential immunity was necessary to prevent an executive branch that "cannibalizes" itself. Roberts claimed that without such protection, a president would be "free to prosecute his predecessors, yet unable to boldly and fearlessly carry out his duties for fear that he may be next."

But that sweeping protection might have just been thrown away by President Donald Trump, two experienced federal law experts warned Saturday.

The Supreme Court's decision has had unintended consequences, wrote ex-acting assistant attorney general for national security, Mary McCord, and Andrew Weissmann, a former general counsel for the F.B.I., in the New York Times. Both have worked under presidents from both parties, including Trump.

Rather than preventing the weaponization of prosecutions, the court has seemingly unleashed a new form of executive power manipulation, they wrote.
Opinion by Kristen Crowell

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned, "Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01," it sounded like the inevitable result of a government shutdown. But the line, plastered atop the department's website, hides a deeper truth: The well didn't dry up naturally. It was drained on purpose.

On November 1, millions of families who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were set to lose their food benefits, leaving parents who plan meals down to the dollar to stare at empty grocery carts.. A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from suspending food aid, noting the "terror" it has caused families, who will continue to live in fear of losing their benefits under President Donald Trump's administration.

The cruelty feels sudden, but it's anything but accidental.

This moment was built, brick by brick, into Republican policy. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill, passed earlier this year, was hailed by Republicans as a model of fiscal responsibility. In reality, it was a Trojan horse packed with provisions designed to quietly sabotage SNAP, one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the nation.

For decades, the USDA has adjusted the Thrifty Food Plan - the formula that determines SNAP benefit levels - to reflect what it actually costs to eat. In 2021, after years of stagnation, the USDA finally modernized the plan, raising benefits by $1.40 per person per day. That small increase helped families keep up with rising grocery costs and better align benefits with real nutrition needs.

Trump and the GOP's new law stopped that progress cold. It restricts USDA updates to once every five years and demands that any future change be cost-neutral. Translation: no more benefit increases, even if food prices skyrocket. As inflation drives grocery bills higher, SNAP recipients will see their purchasing power erode year after year. The result is institutionalized hunger.

The law's cruelty doesn't end with benefit cuts. Beginning in 2027, the federal government will slash its share of SNAP's administrative costs from 50 percent to 25 percent, forcing states to cover the rest. Ten states, including California, New York, and North Carolina, rely on county governments to manage SNAP. Those counties serve 14.6 million people, or roughly one-third of all participants. In Alabama, nearly one in seven residents rely on the SNAP program to help them meet their basic needs.
Story by Tommy Christopher

President Donald Trump attacked Democrats in a rant about being forced to pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown — even as he threw a glitzy Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-lago.

Two federal judges — Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts and Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island — ruled Friday that the White House must continue funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is commonly referred to as Food Stamps.

Shortly after the ruling, Trump posted a lengthy rant on the rulings even as he was preparing to welcome guests to a party modeled on the epitome of obscene wealth. Trump wrote that he would delay paying the benefits until his lawyers could “ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible” and would do so only “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court”:
Story by CK Smith

Just before the election last year, the New York Times Opinion section published a stark, all-caps warning, both online and in print: “DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE WILL PROSECUTE HIS ENEMIES, ORDER MASS DEPORTATIONS, USE SOLDIERS AGAINST CITIZENS, PLAY POLITICS WITH DISASTERS, ABANDON ALLIES. BELIEVE HIM.”

At the time, many dismissed it as hyperbole. Less than a year into Trump’s second term, elements of that warning are already playing out in real policy, from aggressive political prosecutions to deportation plans and disaster response controversies. The prediction wasn’t just provocative — it was prescient.

The warning resurfaced on social media this week, going viral as users grappled with the unnerving reality of the Times’ editorial foresight. Reactions ranged from disbelief to dark humor, with memes, threads, and commentary documenting current events as they unfold. For many, the post is no longer satire; it’s a reflection of policy and political behavior that directly impacts Americans’ lives.

U.S. has admitted to killing unidentified civilians in a series of illegal extrajudicial boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean under orders from the Trump administration. Officials conceded they did not know the identities of the victims and lacked evidence to prosecute any survivors, acknowledging that at least 62 civilians were killed. While Washington has defended the strikes as part of a “non-international armed conflict,” both Democratic and Republican lawmakers — including Sara Jacobs and Rand Paul — condemned them as unlawful extrajudicial killings. UN experts have also denounced the attacks as violations of international law.
Story by Jordan Green, Investigative Reporter

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf’s appearance before a Senate hearing on political violence this week resurfaced inconvenient remarks for a witness called by Republicans intent on painting rising political violence as a left-wing problem.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) read back Wolf’s Senate testimony from five years ago.

“White supremacist extremists, from a lethality standpoint over the last two years … are certainly the most persistent and lethal threat, when we talk about domestic violent extremists,” Wolf said at the time.

On Tuesday, before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Wolff offered a strikingly different assessment.

“The increase in politically motivated violence over the last several years has been driven largely by radical, left-wing extremist groups and individuals that believe violence is a legitimate means to achieve political goals,” Wolf testified.

Wolf is now executive vice president of the America First Policy Institute. Founded in 2021 and closely aligned with Trump, former leaders include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

A federal court ordered the Trump administration to use contingency funds to prop up the SNAP food program as millions of Americans who rely on government assistance wonder if they’ll lose access to food this weekend. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) joins Christina Ruffini to discuss the alarming situation and more.

During his remarks in a press gaggle in August, President Trump pouted about receiving criticism. Trump complained, "I've been treated very unfairly."

Donald Trump promised his supporters he would be their "retribution" if re-elected. Now, he's making good on that promise with his DOJ putting two prosecutors on leave for they signed court documents describing the "mob of rioters" on January 6th. ABC News' Jonathan Karl joins The Weekend: Primetime to discuss this as well as Trump's focus on revenge in his new book, "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America."
Story by David McAfee

Donald Trump on Saturday declared a late-night TV host was "probably" breaking the law by criticizing him, leading a senator to sound the alarm.

Trump over the weekend targeted host Seth Meyers, saying, "Seth Meyers of NBC may be the least talented person to 'perform' live in the history of television."

"I watched his show the other night for the first time in years. In it he talked endlessly about electric catapults on aircraft carriers which I complain about as not being as good as much less expensive steam catapults. On and on he went, a truly deranged lunatic," Trump claimed, adding, "NO TALENT, NO RATINGS, 100% ANTI TRUMP, WHICH IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL!!!"
Story by Y. Kyles

On Oct. 30, the president took to his Truth Social platform to focus on the Nobel Prize in Physics by claiming victory in the category that three physicists won.

President Donald Trump is taking credit for winning a Nobel Prize presented to three other people.

Trump, 79, has been consumed with the idea that the Nobel Foundation should award him the prestigious honor. He has particularly been obsessed with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump appeared to cite Chris Wright, the 60-year-old former Liberty Energy CEO who currently serves as the U. S. Secretary of Energy, in the social media post.

“Chris Wright: ‘A former Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist won the Nobel Prize in physics for work in Quantum physics,’” Trump wrote on Wednesday afternoon.

The billionaire businessman resumed, “‘Quantum computing, along with AI and Fusion, are the three signature Trump science efforts. Trump 47 racks up his first Nobel Prize!’”

Obviously, Trump was not named a 2025 Nobel laureate. British scientist John Clarke was actually among the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics this year.

Election Day is just 2 days away and the Governor races in New Jersey and Virginia mark the first major electoral tests of President Trump’s agenda. President and CEO of Voto Latino Maria Teresa Kumar and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh join The Weekend to discuss the busy week ahead.
Story by Frank Yemi

President Donald Trump issued a fiery warning to Republicans on Saturday, telling his party not to be “weak and stupid” and urging them to fight to make sure Democrats “never again have the chance” to govern the United States. In a string of Truth Social posts, the president railed against Democrats over the ongoing government shutdown and accused them of trying to destroy the country, while pressing Republicans to hold the line.

“Remember, Republicans, regardless of the Schumer Shutdown, the Democrats will terminate the Filibuster the first chance they get,” Trump wrote. “They will Pack the Supreme Court, pick up two States, and add at least 8 Electoral Votes.” He continued, “Their two objectors are gone!!! Don’t be WEAK AND STUPID. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! WIN, WIN, WIN!”

The remarks landed as the shutdown dragged into another week, with talks frozen over a continuing resolution to fund federal operations. Democrats are pushing to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, Republicans have balked, and the White House has framed the dispute as a historic test of political resolve. Trump argued that Republicans are “very unified” and “want to do what’s right for the country,” while accusing Democrats of reckless spending and lax border policies.

In another post, Trump broadened the message beyond the immediate crisis. “We will immediately END the Extortionist Shutdown, get ALL of our agenda passed, and make life so good for Americans that these DERANGED DEMOCRAT politicians will never again have the chance to DESTROY AMERICA!” he declared. He added, “This is much bigger than the Shutdown, this is the survival of our Country!”
Story by Jonathan Limehouse, USA TODAY

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Nov. 1 to announce that he has instructed "our Department of War to prepare for possible action" against the Nigerian government over "the killing of Christians."

In addition to immediately stopping all aid and assistance to Nigeria, per Trump's post, he said the U.S. military may go into Nigeria with "guns-a-blazing" to "completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities."

"If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!" Trump concluded his post.

Trump's warning comes after he on Oct. 31 accused Nigeria of religious freedom violations, saying that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria," subsequently designating the nation as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act, CNN and The Associated Press reported.
During a press briefing several months ago in May, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. revealed that President Trump received $100 million from pharmaceuticals. Trump nodded his head in agreement, confirming RFK Jr.'s statement.
During a press event in the Oval Office with FBI Director Kash Patel several days ago, Donald Trump bragged about terminating the Hudson Tunnel project in New York and personally called out Chuck Schumer. "Tell him it's terminated, Jennifer," he told a reporter.
A top Justice Department official admitted that if Donald Trump were anyone else, he would already face arrest. The statement highlights concerns over accountability and the perception of unequal treatment under the law.
Story by Joe Wilkins

Last week, shared we reported on a huge wave of AI-generated slop videos pedaling misinformation about people who receive Supplemental Nutritional Assistant Program, otherwise known as SNAP or food stamps.

One of the most popular clips making the rounds appeared to show a man-on-the-street style news interview in which a Black woman explained how she bartered her SNAP aid for cash. The entire thing was AI — generated by OpenAI’s Sora 2, complete with the platform’s obvious watermark.

While many quickly identified the video as racist AI propaganda, Fox News apparently missed the clues. Over the weekend, the network ran a story treating the digital SNAP fraudster and other AI characters as real people, using the malicious fiction to stir up anger against the aid program which primarily benefits children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

In addition to fake SNAP fraud, the Fox story referenced other videos showing AI-generated women complain that their children are taxpayer’s responsibilities, playing right into the biases of publication’s right-wing audience, complete with ludicrously stereotypical details clearly meant to whip racist viewers into a frenzy.

“I have seven different baby daddies and none of ’em no good for me,” the Fox story quoted one of the nonexistent women as saying.

Fox‘s story has since been rewritten almost entirely to acknowledge that the videos are fake, along with adding an extraordinary editor’s note acknowledging that that it “previously reported on some videos that appear to have been generated by AI without noting that.” Amazingly, it still tries to argue that poor and working class welfare recipients are spoiled by SNAP, which provides a cold food stipend averaging just $177 per recipient per month.
Story by Tom Latchem

A federal judge humiliated a Justice Department attorney after he tried to shut down questions about Stephen Miller’s role in Chicago’s ICE crackdown.

Government lawyer Sarmad Khojasteh stumbled through objections to a demand from plaintiffs to hand over details of communications between Miller and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.

The argument came during Bovino’s deposition as part of a lawsuit about immigration agents’ aggressive tactics during the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, prompting an intervention from U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis.

During the testy exchange, Khojasteh repeatedly cut across the bench and even continually misnamed the operation “Midway Drift.” He also had to apologize for being new to the case, according to a transcript reported on by the Chicago Tribune.

Khojasteh complained to Ellis that he had prepped Bovino for a narrow set of issues saying, “I mean, they asked today about communications with Stephen Miller. They asked today about body cam [footage] from the Los Angeles [immigration operation]. I feel sandbagged right now.”
Story by David Edwards

President Donald Trump announced that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits would not be disbursed until the government shutdown ends after attorneys for his administration promised a federal judge that at least half of the payments would be sent out in November.
Abbott’s announcement came as New Yorkers head to the polls in a heated mayoral race
Louis Casiano By Louis Casiano Fox News

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he will impose a steep tariff on New Yorkers moving to his state after voting on Election Day ends.

Abbott, a Republican, made the announcement Monday, a day before New Yorkers headed to the polls to choose a new mayor in what has been a closely watched race between Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a socialist, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"After the polls close tomorrow night, I will impose a 100% tariff on anyone moving to Texas from NYC," Abbott posted on X.
Dick Cheney warns about the dangers of Donald Trump in resurfaced clip following former vice president’s death
Story by S.V. Date

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s justification for summarily killing alleged drug smugglers, rather than arrest, try and convict them in court, appears to be based on a massive lie: that they were in the process of bringing to the United States the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

“You can see it, the boats get hit, and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean,” Trump said at an Oct. 15 news conference, the day after after the fifth of what are now 15 lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed 65. “It’s, like, floating in bags. It’s all over the place.”

“Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives,” Trump also told reporters.

“U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” he wrote in a social media post three days later about yet another missile strike on Oct. 16.

However, the claim that the missile attacks on small boats — in most cases far too small to have been en route to the United States without requiring multiple stops for refueling — are disrupting fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. are belied by what Pentagon officials have told members of Congress in recent briefings.

“They’ve not recovered fentanyl in any of these cases. It’s all been cocaine,” said one congressional source familiar with the content of one of the briefings.

“They argued that cocaine is a facilitating drug of fentanyl, but that was not a satisfactory answer for most of us,” California Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs told reporters after a briefing she attended last week for members of the House Armed Services Committee.

The mounting frustration over the lack of clear information is bipartisan. Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker, took the unusual step of posting twoletters demanding details of how the military is conducting the boat strikes on its website.

“I’m not getting follow-up. We’re not getting the information. How do they choose this boat?” added Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Story by Abha Bhattarai, Andrew Tran

A majority of Americans say they are spending more on groceries and utilities than they were a year ago, and they blame President Trump for the rising prices, a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll finds.

About 7 in 10 Americans say their grocery costs have risen in the past year, while about 6 in 10 say their utility costs have edged higher, according to the poll, conducted in late October. Roughly 4 in 10 say the same about health care, gas and housing. The findings reflect angst about the cost of living, which has emerged as a key issue in the off-year elections across the country on Tuesday.

“Even as inflation has gone down, people are still struggling with very high price levels for food, energy and health care,” said Sophie Mitra, an economics professor at Fordham University. “The rate of increases has slowed, but things are still very difficult, especially for low- and middle-income households.”

Americans’ discontent reflects government data showing that inflation is slowly worsening. Utility costs, in particular, have jumped 12 percent in the past year, according to data from September. Grocery prices have risen by 3 percent, though some categories have recorded more dramatic increases. Meat prices, for example, have climbed more than 8 percent since last year, while canned fruits and vegetables are up 5 percent. Coffee has gone up by nearly 19 percent.

Roughly 6 in 10 Americans blame Trump “a great deal” or “a good amount” for the current rate of inflation and rising prices, the Post-ABC-Ipsos survey found. About two-thirds of independents (66 percent) and 92 percent of Democrats blame him, compared with 20 percent of Republicans.
Opinion by Ja'han Jones

The Trump administration’s newly announced policy of minimizing refugee admissions — from around 125,000 to 7,500 — while giving priority to white Afrikaners from South Africa has prompted a rebuke from the kinds of evangelical groups one might expect to see among the MAGA faithful.

To slash refugee resettlement to historic lows while granting privilege to white South Africans, all while peddling bigoted lies about anti-white oppression in their home country, is an unmistakably racist move by the administration. It also creates problems for churches that welcome new members from around the world, including refugees from places where Christians may be facing persecution.

Many faith groups appear alarmed by the new policy. Christianity Today quoted Matthew Soerens, an executive for the Christian humanitarian organization World Relief, saying the new policy “is slamming the door on persecuted Christians, along with those persecuted for other reasons.”

Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, issued a critical statement, urging the administration to grant “due consideration for all those who have long awaited their opportunity for relief.” He continued:
Story by Ankush Khardori

The Supreme Court has been a crucial ally to President Donald Trump as he’s sought to ram his agenda through in his second term. He’s asking for backup yet again on Wednesday, when the court considers whether the bulk of his tariffs are legal — a historic question that will have vast consequences for the American public, Trump’s economic program and nations all over the world that have been subjected to the administration’s erratic and punitive tariff framework.

Trump’s effort has been panned by legal analysts across the ideological spectrum, including by many members of the conservative legal establishment who note Trump is relying on a law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), that makes no mention of tariffs, taxes or anything of the like, and that no prior president has ever used to impose tariffs.

The schism among conservative lawyers is one of several warning signs for the administration. If all three of the Democratic appointees on the court oppose the Trump administration’s effort, the government can afford to lose only one of the six Republican appointees. If two defect, that would be the whole ball game.
By Caitlin Yilek, Joe Walsh

What to know about Election Day 2025
Democrats scored victories in the four major races of the night: the New York City mayoral race, the governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia and Prop 50, California's redistricting ballot measure. Exit polling showed voters went to the polls with worries about the economy on their minds, coupled with broader discontent with the state of the country right now.

The night saw two kinds of Democrats win, hailing from opposite sides of the party. Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, both moderates, won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, while on the far left, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani prevailed in his race for New York mayor over the state's moderate ex-governor, Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after Mamdani beat him in the primary.

The first person Mamdani quoted in his victory speech was socialist Eugene Debs, and he offered withering criticism of Cuomo, declaring, "Let tonight be the final time I utter his name, as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few."
His grotesque food stamp politicking exposes the truth about right-wing ‘populism.’
By Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor

As the government shutdown drags on, the food insecurity of roughly 40 million Americans is being used as a political bargaining chip — and emerging as an appalling example of right-wing “populism.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, colloquially known as food stamps, has been in the news for days as funding for the program expired and the deadline for benefits to be paid out loomed.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that “millions of low-income Americans will see staggering cuts and delays to their food stamps this month — with some receiving potentially nothing at all — because of the way that the White House has chosen to pay partial benefits during the government shutdown.”

Initially, the Trump administration took the position that it would not pay anything at all. In mid-October, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters that the shutdown meant the program was going to “run out of money” at the end of the month. The Trump administration, attempting to win a political battle with Democrats over the federal shutdown, said it could not pay any benefits for November. But SNAP has a contingency fund of about $6 billion, more than $5 billion of which could be used toward SNAP benefits. That sum would cover a good chunk of the roughly $8 billion in November payments.
Opinion by Thom Hartmann

Democrats won big in last night’s election, and it’s a great sign for the future of American democracy. Voters rejected racism, fear, and cruelty. They said in a loud and singular voice — overwhelmingly voting for moderate Democrats, progressive Democrats, and even a ballot initiative without a single person on the ballot — that they want their democracy back.

Nonetheless, Mike Johnson is still keeping the House on vacation and John Thune is still refusing to break a Senate filibuster and reopen the government. And, crucially, Trump is still refusing to fully fund SNAP/food stamps, even though he can easily put his hands on the money.

Yesterday’s New York Times’ podcast The Daily interviewed a group of West Virginians who’d lined up at a food bank because Trump had cut off their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds. Many of them told their interviewer that they worked full-time jobs but still didn’t make enough money to feed their families.

While Trump and the ghouls in his administration tried to cut off SNAP benefits (and are now threatening to cut off unemployment benefits if Democrats don’t relent and let them gut Obamacare), what this entire drama is really revealing is how what started out as programs to help the unemployed or disabled people have now become billion dollar subsidies for morbidly rich employers and their massive corporations.
Opinion by Adelita Grijalva

Six weeks ago, I was elected to Congress. I'm still waiting to be sworn in.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s recess of the U.S. House of Representatives during a time of grave national crises is shockingly irresponsible. House Republicans have been on vacation for six weeks while our economy crumbles, federal workers go without paychecks, health care premiums skyrocket and funding for food stamps dwindles. This is negligent and cruel.

Millions of Americans will suffer if these issues are not immediately addressed, and thanks to Speaker Johnson, the House remains in recess. While Republicans refuse to do their job:
Story by Sanchari Ghosh

A resurfaced audio interaction between Piers Morgan and Mark Epstein, the brother of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is currently going viral on social media. In the clip, Mark acknowledges that his brother Jeffrey cut ties with current United States President Donald Trump after realising he was a “crook” while they were still friends back in the day.

Mark Epstein’s comments about the friendship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump have garnered significant attention from the public, resulting in multiple conversations surrounding the topic. On X (formerly Twitter), where the clips are most concentrated, the discussions are also quite brief. One user, while highlighting how even Jeffrey Epstein, a multiple offender, considers Trump to be a miscreant wrote:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared to accidentally admit that the Trump Administration is lining his pockets during a press conference on the Everglades today.
Story by Adam Lynch

“Daily Blast” podcast host Greg Sargent said President Donald Trump is “unraveling” over Tuesday’s election losses and blaming his own party for losing seats.

“President Trump’s excuses for his party’s losses are getting stranger,” said Sargent, citing Trump’s quote that “I tell Republicans, you want to win elections, you got to talk about these facts,” which includes Trump’s own accomplishments since returning to office.

Trump even claimed “it’s really easy to win elections when you talk about the facts.”

“That strikes me as pretty deep denial,” Sargent told guest Jessica Post, a Democratic strategist. “It seems to me that, in just about every conceivable way, these elections were a repudiation of his record — particularly on the economy.”

Now, desperate and flailing, Sargent and Post said Trump is “openly” responding “to his losses by rigging the 2026 midterms” with “pernicious gerrymandering schemes”

“He actually came out and said it in another quote right after Election Day this week,” said Sargent. “He said this of Democrats: ‘Now, if we do what I’m saying, they’ll most likely never obtain power.’”
Story by Moupriya

Recently, Donald Trump urged his fellow Republicans to add a “new word” to their vocabulary. “They have this new word called ‘affordability’. And they don’t talk about it enough,” he said, despite the rising living costs, that has been making it difficult for many Americans. Now, he has made another “delusional” claim that might have just given Democrats their best material for the upcoming midterm election campaigns.

Experts and critics alike have been linking the Republicans’ election losses to the rising grocery and utility bills in the country. However, Trump seems to believe otherwise and asked people to stop talking about it. Just after a day of urging the GOP to use the word “affordability,”  he seemed to have changed his statement. “I don’t want to hear about the affordability, because right now, we’re much less,” the POTUS said on Thursday.
Donald Trump signed a memorandum deploying troops to Memphis several weeks ago from the Oval Office. During Q&A with the press, Trump complained about flag burners being protected by their First Amendment rights. "Don't use freedom of speech, use the incitement of violence," Trump bemoaned.
Opinion by Mark Weisbrot

A deeply entrenched partisan divide has shut down the federal government of the United States, for what is now the longest duration in our history. The Republican leadership has claimed repeatedly that it was easy for the Congress — in their view, the Democrats — to avoid this, and also is easy to end it.

John Thune, Senate majority leader, said on the Senate floor: “Republicans remain united around a clean, nonpartisan funding extension … simple and clean.”

But it turns out that this resolution is actually quite dirty. And it’s gotten even dirtier as the shutdown has dragged on. Saturday marked a new milestone in callous disregard for a large portion of the electorate when benefits from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP, or food stamps — were cut off from millions of people.

This came on top of an estimated 700,000 federal employees furloughed, the loss of key federal services including economic data collections, and billions of dollars of losses to state and local governments.

It is heartbreaking to hear the stories of people who lost their main source of payment for food. This is an unforgivable thing to do to people who already could not get enough food with an average of $187 per person a month, and have been relying on food banks to try to meet their minimum nutritional needs. Many cannot get enough food for their children. There are 16 million children among the 42 million people receiving food aid under SNAP.
Opinion by Opinion Forum

A year after the president election, I feel completely swindled.

I am a Libertarian who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, the first time I ever voted for a Republican for president, because he made efforts to listen and address our concerns. He came to our national convention, promised to stay out of wars and slash government spending and useless programs with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

But none of it happened.

The only thing Trump did do was pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, which I am very grateful for, but he has fallen completely flat on his face on all of his other promises. Now he is going after libertarians like Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, both representing Kentucky. A complete betrayal.
Opinion by Adam Serwer

The Sunday before the New York City mayoral race, President Donald Trump told New Yorkers he might withhold federal funding if Zohran Mamdani won.

“It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes. Mamdani responded to Trump’s threat of extortion—vote for my preferred candidate or else—by pointing out that said federal funding was not Trump’s to give. “This funding is not something that Donald Trump is giving us here in New York City,” Mamdani said. “This is something that we are, in fact, owed in New York.”

It was not the first time Trump treated federal funds as his personal property that he could use to extort political opponents or reward political allies. Trump has approved disaster aid for red states and denied it to blue states. In the midst of the government-shutdown fight with Democrats, he is refusing to disburse rainy-day funds for food stamps, saying (falsely) that the lapse will hurt “largely Democrats.” The Trump administration has cut funding for projects in states with Democratic majorities. It is withholding federal funding from colleges and universities that do not submit to ideological control by the federal government over whom they hire, what they teach, and what sort of students they admit, and rewarding those that comply.

Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the election on Trump’s behalf have received pardons, as have Republican officeholders convicted on corruption charges. Wealthy donors who funneled money to Trump’s family businesses have also been pardoned, such as Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 2023. Trump’s selective pardons are balanced out by his selective persecutions. His political opponents, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, have been slapped with flimsy indictments. Cities and states that Trump sees as bastions of his political opposition are subject to occupation by masked federal agents. As soon as Mamdani won, many New Yorkers began bracing for Trump’s retaliation.
Story by Alex Woodward

Officials at President Donald Trump’s Department of Education violated the First Amendment rights of furloughed federal workers by “commandeering” their email accounts to “broadcast partisan messages,” according to a federal judge.

The ruling follows a lawsuit accusing the agency of illegally taking control of employees’ emails to send automatic out-of-office replies that blamed Democratic members of Congress for the government shutdown without their consent.

The messages followed a wave of partisan attacks from Trump administration websites that explicitly blamed Democratic officials and the “radical left” for the federal shutdown, which have drawn several complaints alleging violations of federal ethics laws.

“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians,” District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote Friday.

“But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation,” he added. “Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The First Amendment stands in their way.”
Story by Matthew Chapman

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from forcing federal workers to set their email auto-replies to messages blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown.

From the outset of the shutdown weeks ago, multiple executive branch departments have directed employees who are out of the office due to the shutdown to put partisan political messages in their automatic responses.

For example, the Department of Health and Human Services ordered workers to set their auto-reply to, “Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democratic senators are blocking its passage in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to this lapse, I am currently in furlough status and unable to respond to emails. I will reply once government operations resume.”

The American Federation of Government Employees sued, arguing orders of this sort violate the First Amendment by compelling government employees to make a partisan political statement they may not agree with.
During his remarks in the Oval Office this month, President Trump openly displayed his corruption. Trump stated, "You should give us a piece of the company."
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