John Oliver slams Trump’s ‘Great Gatsby’ party amid SNAP freeze
While many celebrated Halloween, the end of the month also saw SNAP benefits suspended for many Americans amid the government shutdown.
On Sunday’s episode of Last week tonightjohn oliver criticized donald trump for continuing to blame the shutdown on democrats as he headed to a The Great Gatsby– A Halloween-themed party at Mar-a-Lago before his administration froze the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Nov. 1.
“Yes, that’s not just a huge insult,” he said. “I think it also infuriates any stressed-out high school freshman who just wrote a 4,000-word essay about The Great Gatsby As a dark meditation on disillusionment with the American dream, only for CNN to tell them: “You know what?” “It’s really just a book about rich people partying.”
“And for what it’s worth,” Oliver continued, “the actual theme of that event was, and I quote, ‘A Little Party Who Killed Nobody’. And I think that’s true. Although it’s also true that as we’re all finding out now, the ‘Great Old Party’ is capable of killing a great many people, and unfortunately, they don’t seem to care about any of that.”
The Trump administration’s suspension of SNAP benefits to more than 42 million Americans on November 1 has proven to be a political disincentive during a very low-key shutdown. In some of the ugliest examples of the MAGA mentality, the Department of Agriculture decided in October that it could not use billions in emergency funds long allocated to SNAP, due to legal considerations.
That decision has led to a series of court challenges by states, cities and others amid an expected surge in food banks.
Two federal judges ruled this week that the administration must tap the $6 billion available. However, despite Trump’s post late Friday that it would be an “honor to provide funding, just as it did with military and law enforcement pay,” the administration is asking courts to provide guidance on how to pay — a process that would still delay SNAP recipients from receiving benefits for weeks in a best-case scenario.