Trump Administration Demands States ‘Undo’ Their Efforts to Pay Full SNAP Benefits

The Trump administration directed states to “immediately undo” any efforts taken to offer full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November.

“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” said a U.S. Department of Agriculture memo sent to state agencies. “Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”

The department ordered local officials to offer no more than 65% of benefits and threatened that failure to comply could result in canceled federal funds or states being held liable for “overissuances.”

The USDA directive follows an administrative stay granted by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who agreed Friday to lift a deadline imposed by a Rhode Island judge, who ordered federal officials to tap into a separate USDA nutrition account and deliver full SNAP payments in November.

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Nearly 42 million Americans rely on the federally funded food assistance program, which stopped on Nov. 1 for the first time since it was created. Since then, back-and-forth court rulings have left states around the country in a state of confusion, flooded with contradictory messages from Washington.

A coalition of localities and nonprofits first sued the federal government in late October, demanding officials dip into a contingency fund for SNAP, which the Trump administration argued is reserved for emergencies like natural disasters.

Volunteer Cindy Leiva helps load a vehicle during a Texas food distribution event targeting federal employee households affected by the federal shutdown. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

President Donald Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social, directing SNAP benefits not to be funded until the government reopens, but the White House later clarified that it would abide by two separate court orders demanding that the USDA issue at least partial payment.

Administration officials publicly agreed to use the contingency fund to pay partial November benefits, a plan that state and federal officials said could in some places take weeks.

Democrats were quick to condemn the apparent reversal on Sunday.

“UPDATE: Donald Trump is so hellbent on denying people SNAP that he went all the way to the Supreme Court to block benefits,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren posted on X. “Now Trump is trying to bully states into TAKING BACK payments they already made to families. It’s chaos for the sake of cruelty.”

Sen. Patty Murray called the decision “Soulless.”

“In the dead of night, the Trump administration ordered states to stop issuing SNAP benefits,” Murray posted on X. “This president will stop at nothing to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids across America.”

New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat posted on X that “the Trump administration has no interest in following court orders and helping the most vulnerable among us.”

“The admin would rather starve and punish Americans instead of complying with the law,” the post continued.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has made a name for herself speaking out against Trump’s policies, called the decision “shockingly wrong.”

“It’s one thing if the federal government is going to continue its level of appeal … to say this can’t be done,” Murkowski told reporters Sunday. “But when you are telling the states — that have said this is a significant enough issue in our state that we’re going to find resources to backfill, or frontload, whatever term you want, to help our people — those states should not be penalized for doing that. That to me is just shockingly wrong.”

In a filing to the First Circuit Court of Appeals Saturday evening, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers led two dozen other states in arguing against any reversal. In a post on X, Evers said, “Last night, the Trump Administration sent a letter suggesting Wisconsin should return our FoodShare payments. My response ‘No.’”

States have already begun the process of issuing full benefits for November. According to Evers’ filing, “A stay of the district court’s temporary restraining orders would introduce even more chaos to an already chaotic series of events caused by the federal defendants.”

“The States have received no communications from USDA regarding resolution of full benefits that have now been disbursed or are in the process of disbursement by the States’ vendors,” the filing continued. “In many cases, the delta between partial and full benefits is substantial—and States could face demands to return hundreds of millions of dollars in the aggregate.”