Pritzker questions Trump's priorities as SNAP cuts hit more than 770,000 children

In a fresh critique of the Trump administration's policies, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker questioned cuts made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Taking to X, Pritzker shared a post by FactPost that reported that over 700,000 children had been affected by the decision. "No money to feed hungry kids, and yet Trump can somehow find the money for a UFC Arena, a $600 million ballroom, and a $50 billion war in Iran," Pritzker wrote.

After President Donald Trump signed a domestic policy bill, cutting SNAP benefits, the number of children in America receiving food benefits dropped by approximately 776,000, according to ProPublica. The data was taken from 12 states, which showed that a total of more than 1.6 million people were not receiving the benefits, 46% of them being children.

Apart from directly impacting these children, the policy also affects their access to other government programs. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), losing SNAP makes it harder for children to gain access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and free school meals. The report states that this could be a major problem for short and long-term health, education, and the economic benefits of nutrition programs for children and society. 

When questioned about the number of children who were losing SNAP benefits recently, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said that the data was incorrect and that the people who were being kicked off SNAP were "fraudulent." She said that it was not a non-partisan group that came up with that number. GOP Congressman Derrick Van Orden praised Rollins for her part in ensuring that fraudulent activities were not being performed under the guise of the program.

"Every single dollar that we allocate for a hungry child needs to go to a hungry child," he said. "The SNAP program is not an international food aid program. It is for needy Americans, and I benefited from this. So, I want to commend you for making sure that we remove the billions and billions of dollars worth of fraud so that the hungry child gets fed." However, not everyone has accepted the Agriculture Secretary's arguments.

Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib claimed that it was criminal that so many children were not receiving SNAP benefits. "Trump and Republicans claimed SNAP cuts wouldn't impact our children. They lied. More than 770,000 children have already lost food assistance. All to fund tax breaks for the wealthy. It's criminal," she wrote on X.

Pritzker had raised concerns about SNAP cuts in relation to his state earlier this month, claiming that the Trump administration had removed 120,000 Illinois residents from the program. To counter it, Pritzker said that he would sign food support for families living in poverty in the state budget. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, in Illinois should go hungry because of a cruel political decision made in Washington," he had said.