On the very day in which a
health-care company’s executive collapsed in the Oval Office, with U.S.
President Trump being the only person in the group standing and looking away in
what looks like callous disregard instead of compassion or empathy, that
president directed his Administration to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that
the U.S. Government had to fund food-assistance, or SNAP (formerly “food stamps”)
completely for the month in spite of the "government shutdown." On the next day, the Trump Administration demanded
that the member-states that had just paid out full November benefits to SNAP recipients
“’undo’ full SNAP benefits paid out under judges’ orders” because the U.S.
Supreme Court “stayed those rulings.”[1]
The photo of Trump literally looking the other way while everyone else in the
Oval Office is bending over the collapsed man out of concern perfectly aligns
with his lack of concern for Americans going without food due to the sudden stoppage
of money for food without notice. That many employees of the U.S. Government who
had been laid off without pay since earlier that November would be especially
reliant on food-assistance money precisely because they were no longer obtaining
income (or else they were receiving unemployment compensation at less than full
pay) could be understood to be a matter of callousness rather than moral
sentiments from Trump simply by looking at the photo.
1. Scott Bauer and Nicholas Riccardi, “Trump
Administration Demands States ‘Undo’ Full SNAP Payouts as States Warn of ‘Catastrophic
Impact,’” The Associated Press, November 9, 2025.
