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While local media report on people losing access to food assistance, right-wing media mock SNAP recipients

Written by Pete Tsipis

Published

Local news reporting across the country has highlighted the dire situation SNAP recipients have been facing as their benefits expired. Meanwhile, right-wing media figures attacked SNAP recipients, calling them “overweight,” “lazy,” and undeserving of food assistance.

On November 1, almost 42 million people who rely on SNAP for food assistance lost their benefits due to the ongoing government shutdown. In response to a federal ruling, the Trump administration said that it would partially fund the program on November 3. On November 4, Trump said that SNAP benefits would be given only once the shutdown ends. 

  • 42 million people — 1 in 5 residents or more in some states — were poised to lose their SNAP benefits as the Trump administration refused to provide contingency shutdown funding

    • Nearly 42 million people rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to afford food. The program replaced food stamps, and provides low-income Americans with funds to buy groceries. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/21/25]
    • President Donald Trump's administration let SNAP benefits lapse on November 1, despite a court order to use contingency funds during the government shutdown, and then agreed to partially fund the program two days later. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said it would “take several weeks to execute partial payments.” The USDA had initially said that there were contingency funds available for SNAP in the event of a shutdown but later declined to use them. [NBC News, 11/2/25; Axios, 10/27/25] 
    • The next day, Trump asserted that SNAP benefits would not be paid out until the shutdown ends, despite the court order. On Truth Social, Trump posted that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” [Truth Social, 11/4/25]
    • As many as 1 in 5 people rely on SNAP in several states including Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, around 1 in 5 people in both New Mexico and Louisiana receive SNAP benefits. About 1 in 6 people in both Oklahoma and West Virginia rely on SNAP. In Kentucky, 1 in 8 people are enrolled in SNAP. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/21/25]

  • Local news in states with high numbers of SNAP recipients highlighted the impacts of food assistance being withheld

    • KWTV News 9 in Oklahoma highlighted that nearly 700,000 Oklahomans rely on SNAP benefits and 1 in 4 Oklahoma children are affected by hunger. The segment featured a clip from the president of a local nonprofit who stated, “The number of children who will lose SNAP on November 1 is equivalent to around 3.3 OU [University of Oklahoma] stadiums full of kids.” [KWTV, 10/27/25]
    • KOCO News 5 in Oklahoma City spoke with a mother from Edmond, Oklahoma, who relies on SNAP and said, “We have a lot of people who are about to go hungry.” The mother told reporter Meghan Mosley, “Not everybody has the amenities to just go. Not everybody has a car. Not everybody has a home. Not everybody has a refrigerator to bring those things home to.” [KOCO, 10/29/25]
    • KOCO News 5 also spoke with a school counselor who said families were expressing concerns about food insecurity as SNAP benefits were set to expire. A local elementary school counselor told KOCO, “Our families are just struggling to make ends meet. With the thought of SNAP going away, I think there’s a little bit of a panic.” [KOCO, 10/27/25]
    • WSAZ NewsChannel 3 in West Virginia spoke with a mother who said, “I’ve already skipped meals to try to save what food I have left so that my kids can eat.” [WSAZ, 10/27/25]
    • WSAZ NewsChannel 3 also spoke with staff from a local food pantry who said they were seeing high numbers of SNAP recipients using their services. One staff member recounted people arriving at the pantry: “I asked, 'How many of you are here because you’re worried about your SNAP benefits and worried where your next meal is coming from?' And all of those hands went up. I couldn’t speak. I broke down.” [WSAZ, 11/2/25]
    • WOWK 13 News in West Virginia highlighted that 227,400 West Virginians (16% of the state) receive SNAP benefits and over half are in families with children. [WOWK, 10/28/25]
    • WOWK 13 News spoke with a West Virginia woman who created a food resource database to make it easier for people to find help without having to ask, citing the “negative comments” directed at people in need. Crystal Coyler told reporter Blake DeJarnatt, “The whole 'get a job' thing. The whole 'how does it feel to struggle.' It’s just the negative comments that people make because it is so taboo for people to ask for food.” [WOWK, 10/28/25]
    • WAVE News in Kentucky spoke with mothers at a Louisville food bank about the struggles they would face if they lost their SNAP benefits. One mother told reporter David Mattingly, “My babies, they get fed at school, but they come home and they rely on meals to fill their bellies at home. So, it’s stressful.” [WAVE, 10/28/25]
    • WAVE News also highlighted that over $100 million in SNAP benefits are spent at local grocery stores. A representative from a grocery union said that workers’ paychecks will be hurt due to fewer people being able to buy food at local grocery stores. [WAVE, 10/31/25]
    • WAVE News reported on a Louisville food bank that saw a 40% increase in food distribution even before the shutdown. Reporter Fernando Garcia-Franceschini said the pantry is used to giving out over 25,000 pounds of food a month and recently posted a photo of depleted shelves. [WAVE, 10/30/25]
    • WLEX Lex 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky, spoke with a mother who relies on SNAP benefits to feed her family. The mother said, “How many bills can you neglect paying to buy food?” [WLEX, 10/28/25]
    • KSLA News 12 in Shreveport, Louisiana, spoke with the director of a local food bank, highlighting that nearly 800,000 people in Louisiana were at risk of losing food assistance. [KSLA, 10/29/25]
    • WGNO in New Orleans went to a local food bank that said it would have to distribute a year's worth of food to cover one month of missing SNAP benefits. Second Harvest Food Bank’s John Sillars told reporter Mallory Smith, “We’re talking on a scale of, what we would distribute in a year, SNAP covers in a month.” Sillars added, “We anticipate we’re going to receive close to 5 million meals worth of food less than we did last year.” [WGNO, 10/28/25]
    • KOAT Action News 7 in New Mexico highlighted the roughly 20% of New Mexico’s population who rely on SNAP. A representative from a food bank in Santa Fe told KOAT, “These are people just like you and me who need to put food on the table, who have children to feed, who have elders that they are taking care of, and they are relying on that support to be one part of their food budget.” [KOAT, 10/22/25]

  • Right-wing media figures attacked and mocked SNAP recipients

    • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh called for “drug testing and weight testing for anyone receiving SNAP.” Walsh added, “If the food stamp program is going to continue to exist at all, which I'm not convinced it should, it needs to have standards, strict standards. It needs to have a reason to exist.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 10/29/25]
    • Walsh said many SNAP recipients are “entitled, lazy, barely literate” and said “some of them are just frankly bad people.” Walsh stated, “If you look at what food stamp recipients are saying in their own words, you come away with the distinct impression that, like, almost none of these people actually need the food stamps. Instead, you come away with the impression that many of these people are simply entitled, lazy, barely literate, and, like, some of them are just frankly bad people.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 10/28/25]
    • Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt called food insecurity “an illusion,” saying, “My Twitter feed is full of some of the heaviest people I have ever seen screaming about SNAP benefits.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 10/28/25]
    • Schmitt said that “dramatically overweight” people shouldn’t be allowed to receive food assistance. Schmitt stated, “Why are people who weigh 300 pounds on SNAP? Is there no weight limit for a free food program in this country? Are you kidding me? Free food? You shouldn't be allowed to get food stamps if you're dramatically overweight.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 10/29/25]
    • Newsmax’s Carl Higbe described receiving SNAP benefits as “a lifestyle” and said the program “should definitely sunset.” Higbie stated, “It’s a safety net, but it was never meant to be a lifestyle. And I’ll tell you why. Because, one, people begin to feel that they are entitled to it. These programs should definitely sunset. And two, it’s not guaranteed, as they’re learning now in a government shutdown.” [Newsmax, Carl Higbie Frontline, 10/27/25]
    • Conservative host Steven Crowder claimed SNAP recipients “spend TWICE what the average worker does on groceries,” arguing the program is “rewarding people who abuse the system.” [Twitter/X, 10/28/25]
    • Newsmax host Rob Finnerty commented on the weight of a woman who spoke out against food insecurity. Finnerty said she looks like she “has enough food to put on the table,” adding, “We’re not trying to be mean.” [Newsmax, Finnerty, 10/27/25]
    • Conservative podcaster Adam Carolla said, “Nobody could benefit from a nice fast more than the SNAP recipients.” Carolla stated, “Those 40 million people average an extra 40 pounds on them over the average working American. If you took the average person that’s on SNAP getting free food and the average person who gets no free food from the government, the average female who gets no free food from the government is 146 pounds. The average SNAP recipient is 211 pounds. … We talk about going hungry — nobody could benefit from a nice fast more than the SNAP recipients.” [Twitter/X, 10/29/25]