midpoint of Donald Trump’s first term. As is always the case, the shutdown was a multifaceted mess at the time, but in late 2018 and early 2019, the Republican president continued to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

As the ongoing government shutdown continues and policymakers prepare to break the record for the nation’s longest shutdown, low-income families have confronted an additional hardship: The White House balked at keeping federal food aid going during the political standoff, despite apparent legal requirements.....

As for the related legal fight, it was inevitable that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold food aid would lead to litigation — and the White House’s move did end up in court. It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported:

The Trump administration said in court filings Monday that it would use contingency funds to provide partial SNAP benefits in November after a judge on Friday ordered the Department of Agriculture to disburse funding for the program. The administration said that it would use all $4.65 billion in contingency funds, which will cover about half of each eligible household’s benefits this month.

For struggling families facing scary conditions, the good news is that there will apparently be some relief, though there may be some logistical challenges in reopening the spigot that was closed over the weekend.

The bad news is that the relief will be temporary and meager: SNAP benefits were already modest (roughly 1 in 8 people get an average of $187 a month per person in SNAP), and “partial” payments means additional hardships.

As a New York Times report noted, this means “many low-income families could once again be in dire straits in a matter of days or weeks.” Watch this space.

Washington — President Trump said Tuesday that federal food benefits provided through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will go out only when Democrats vote to end the ongoing government shutdown.

In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote that SNAP benefits "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!"

Mr. Trump's comment comes a day after administration lawyers told a federal court in Rhode Island that it would tap into a contingency fund to issue partial food stamp payments for November. The Justice Department said in a filing that the Department of Agriculture would provide states with information necessary for calculating the benefits due to each eligible household, which would allow states to then begin disbursements.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on X that her agency sent that guidance to states Tuesday morning, but warned it would be a "cumbersome process" that could result in a weeks-long delay in food stamp payments going out recipients.....

More than 42 million Americans rely on SNAP to purchase food each month. The program is funded by the federal government and administered by states, which distribute the nutrition assistance to eligible participants. But the Department of Agriculture said late last month that the food aid would not go out to recipients on Nov. 1 because "the well has run dry" amid the government shutdown.....

Patrick Penn, a Department of Agriculture official who oversees SNAP, said in a declaration that the administration "intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025." He told the court there is roughly $4.6 billion in the reserve for the November payments, which would be used to cover half of eligible households' allotments.

But he warned the aid would likely not go out immediately because of possible "payment errors and significant delays" due to variations among state eligibility systems, which have to be adjusted for the reduced payments.