Trump Action Archive

Supporting reports

• USDA removes contingency funding plan from website and denies legal authority to use emergency reserves for SNAP — The USDA removed its late-September contingency funding plan from its website while simultaneously issuing a memo claiming emergency reserve funds are "not legally available" to cover SNAP benefits during the shutdown. The removed plan had previously stated Congress's "evident" intent was for SNAP operations to continue during closures and identified "multi-year contingency funds" available for that purpose. The agency's current position contradicts its own earlier legal analysis and denies access to approximately $6 billion in reserves despite having authority to use them.
• USDA removes guidance authorizing contingency funds for SNAP benefits — The USDA issued guidance on September 30, 2025, explicitly stating that multi-year contingency funds could be used to fund SNAP participant benefits during a lapse in appropriations. The guidance cited Congressional intent and the plain language of appropriations bills (2024 and 2025) reserving funds "to carry out program operations." The Trump administration has since removed this guidance from the USDA website, now asserting that the $6 billion contingency reserve "are not legally available to cover regular benefits" and can only be used for disaster response. The removal occurred after the administration determined that withholding funds was "politically advantageous."

Supporting reports

• USDA posts partisan messaging on food assistance homepage blaming Democrats for shutdown — The USDA's food and nutrition homepage displays a banner with a "strikingly partisan message" falsely accusing Senate Democrats of shutting down the government to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants and transgender Americans. The notice states "the well has run dry" and announces no benefits will be issued November 1. The messaging conflates the shutdown with unrelated policy disputes and uses federal infrastructure to spread misinformation about the cause of the fiscal crisis.
• USDA falsely claims SNAP will run out of funding on November 1 — The USDA's official website asserts that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will exhaust funding on November 1, 2025, and attributes the shortfall to Democratic opposition to funding for "health care for illegal immigrants" and "gender mutilation procedures." According to Popular Information's investigation, both claims are false. SNAP has a $6 billion contingency reserve sufficient to fund the program for several additional weeks. The USDA previously issued guidance (September 30) explicitly authorizing use of contingency funds for regular benefits, but has since removed that guidance from its website. Democrats are not blocking SNAP funding over immigration or transgender healthcare; they are seeking extension of health insurance subsidies for U.S. citizens.
• Government websites display partisan political content blaming vulnerable groups — Multiple U.S. government websites, including those of the USDA and Department of Homeland Security, published content attributing the government shutdown to transgender people and undocumented immigrants rather than to policy decisions. The websites functioned as platforms for partisan messaging rather than neutral information dissemination.