If there is one thing you can say as a blanket statement about the Trump cabinet, it’s that you know exactly where each of them is coming from and where they are going. There is none of the previous administration’s gentle pats on concerned heads and assurances of no ill intentions, usually as they were in the process of planning and executing the exact opposite.
No. Trump cabinet members are nothing if not a remarkably unfiltered group of bureaucrats who go about their business and have no problems explaining exactly what it is when asked.
It’s quite refreshing.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has been one of those who dove into her role, as opposed to merely occupying a desk. From jumping into a long-simmering international water dispute, to something as seemingly inconsequential as (successfully) saving a small family farm from eminent domain seizure, Rollins has been popping up and making an impact everywhere.
So it might have behooved the blue states which are deepest into the Trump resistance movement to be a bit more accommodating when the newly sworn-in Secretary of Agriculture sent around an unambiguous request for their state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) data in order to comply with the president’s executive order. The records were due by COB 30 July.
July 9, 2025
Dear SNAP State Agencies,
On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14243, Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos. This Executive Order required agency heads to “take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure the Federal Government has unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs that receive federal funding, including, as appropriate, data generated by those programs but maintained in third-party databases.” The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is committed to effectuating this Executive Order with respect to all programs in its purview.
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at USDA works in partnership with state agencies to provide nutrition assistance to Americans in need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It is imperative that USDA eliminates bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency and enhances the government’s ability not only to have point-in-time information but also to detect overpayments and fraud. As noted in the May 6, 2025, announcement of the Department’s plan to request these data from EBT processors, USDA is committed to ensuring appropriate and lawful participation in SNAP.
On June 23, 2025, pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 and Office of Management and Budget (0MB) Circular No. A-108, USDA published a notice in the Federal Register that the department proposes to create a new system of records (SOR) entitled USDA/FNS-15, “National Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Information Database.” This system is owned, administered, and secured by FNS, and the system’s primary purpose is to strengthen SNAP and government program integrity.
In accordance with 5 USC 552a(e)(4) and (11), this system of records notice becomes effective upon publication in the Federal Register, except for the routine uses, which will become effective on July 23, 2025. To ensure efficient implementation of this system, and to ensure USDA has a complete and accurate database, we are requiring collection of SNAP data from EBT processors or state agencies beginning on July 24, 2025, with submissions to USDA no later than the close of business on July 30, 2025. The required data are listed in the notice section, “Categories of Records in the System.”
Thank you for your continued work to help address the needs of vulnerable Americans and safeguard taxpayer dollars. If you or your staff have any questions, please have your staff contact the FNS Governmental Affairs Team at [email protected].
To date, only 28 states have sent their information to the USDA, most of them red states, and in point of fact, besides refusing, blue states filed suit over the threat of withheld funds.
The bleeding hearts at NPR called Rollins’ request for data on how federal dollars were spent at the state level ‘unprecedented.’
In other words, how dare the federal government politely ask for some accounting of where their (aka our) money went once it hit state coffers.
Of course, the recipient data had to be ‘personal’ because ‘personal’ is how one qualifies for SNAP to begin with, but let’s not let such quibbles ruin a good outrage, shall we?
…Earlier this year, the USDA made an unprecedented demand to states to turn over personal data of SNAP recipients. Most Democratic-led states refused, and a federal judge in San Francisco blocked USDA from withholding funding from states that did not comply and found the federal agency’s data demand was likely unlawful.
But 28 states and Guam did turn over data, according to a USDA spokesperson, and Rollins has been citing statistics from that data in several media appearances in recent weeks as evidence that the food assistance program needs to be overhauled.
The agency sent a letter to states that have not complied with an updated data demand last week.
With what data she’d received, and her department had parsed, Rollins went on a tear about the waste and fraud in those available statistics. It was enough to make one wonder what horrors were hidden in data being purposefully withheld by notoriously lax welfare states like California, Illinois, and Minnesota.
As events concerning the fraud under Governors Tim Walz and Gavin Newsom become more widely exposed, the concern grows, and the impetus to crawl into that fetid blue oubliette of corruption is ever more justified, chorus of ‘BUT HUNGRY CHILDREN‘ be damned.
Rollins’ first shot across the bow came mid-month in November, thanks to the government shutdown. The USDA had had time to crawl through what they’d received and come to a decision. Rollins announced that they were going to ‘deconstruct’ the entire program, rebuild it from the ground up,and SNAP beneficiaries would be required to reapply in person.
🚨 BREAKING: Sec. Brooke Rollins CONFIRMS they are fully deconstructing the SNAP program due 186,000 dead people and 500,000 others getting benefits twice.
Americans will now have to reapply. AWESOME!
“An unintended consequence of the Democrats shutting the government down for… pic.twitter.com/f9luPFe55q
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 18, 2025
…”An unintended consequence of the Democrats shutting the government down for 43 days, is it shined this very bright light on one of their pet programs and now has given us a platform to completely deconstruct the program, make sure those vulnerable Americans who really need that benefit are going to get it.”
“And for all the rest of the fraudsters and the people who are corrupt and taking advantage of it, we’re going to protect the taxpayer too.”
Howls of outrage followed, naturally. These were only made louder and longer by the looming SNAP changes that were passed in the Big, Beautiful Bill, and which were mandated to come into effect on 1 November but delayed due to the shutdown.
…At the same time as the government shutdown disrupted the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, states began implementing an expansion of the program’s work requirements as mandated in the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill,” which was signed into law by President Donald Trump this summer.
Under the GOP package, more food stamp enrollees will have to work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month or they will only be able to receive benefits for three months out of every three years.
The expanded work requirements will result in 2.4 million fewer Americans receiving food stamp benefits in an average month over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. This includes 300,000 families with children.
More former beneficiaries are now subject to the new requirements, too.
…The GOP spending bill further broadened the work requirement to include recipients through age 64 and parents of children ages 14 through 17. Veterans, homeless people and former foster youth are now also subject to the mandate.
Plus, the legislation made it harder for states to seek waivers during poor economic conditions. Previously, states could obtain waivers in areas they identified as having a lack of sufficient jobs. Now, only areas with unemployment rates over 10% qualify.
Yesterday, Sec Rollins was at that marathon cabinet meeting with the other Trump officials, and when it was time for her update, she dropped her bombshell.
She announced that, due to the intransigence of the blue states in providing the data demanded. the USDA would be moving to cut off the SNAP funds, starting next week.
She’s not playing around anymore.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday threatened to cut off federal funding to Democratic-leaning states over what she alleged is their refusal to share SNAP program data with the Trump administration.
The administration “will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states” starting next week “until they comply,” Rollins told President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
🚨 BREAKING: USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says she will be moving to HALT federal funding to states who refuse to turn over SNAP data to help root out fraud
“21 states including California, New York, and Minnesota, blue states continue to say no. As of next week, we have begun… pic.twitter.com/I4w8kBxrb8
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 2, 2025
…“21 states including California, New York, and Minnesota, blue states continue to say no. As of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply.”
What are they hiding, or, seriously, are they so jacked up they can’t send answers? That is a distinct possibility, too.
Consider who we’re talking about here. You can tell just by the classic progressive reaction.
HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL TO THE CHILDRENS!
…A USDA spokesperson later specified in a statement to CNBC, “28 States and Guam joined us in this fight; but states like California, New York, and Minnesota, among 19 other blue States, keep fighting us.”
The department had “established a SNAP integrity team” to analyze state data and “end indiscriminate welfare fraud,” the spokesperson said.
“We have sent Democrat States yet another request for data, and if they fail to comply, they will be provided with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds.”
Massachusetts has not yet received any notice from the Trump administration about withheld federal funds, Gov. Maura Healy’s office told CNBC.
But Healey nevertheless called Rollins’ threat “truly appalling and cruel.”
BUT THE HUNGRY PEOPLES!!!
Instead of addressing the actual issue of states refusing to turn over data (that will show food stamp money going to illegal aliens), one of the worst abusers of Hatecraft propaganda reframes it to Trump being “hellbent on people going hungry”😵💫🌊
There is no limiting principle
— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) December 2, 2025
Which fools no one.
Good for Rollins and shame on the Hochuls, Healeys, Walzs, and the rest of the gang of blue thieves who have been looting the store with impunity forever.
Assuredly, this threat will immediately be tied up by yet another federal judge in Hawaii or somewhere, but the threat is there. It’s been laid on the table, and these governors have to know that this administration follows through, both in appealing these activist judges’ orders and laying the hammers down when they win.
And the administration has routinely prevailed in these cases.
The Trump cabinet plays smashmouth ball, and I don’t think any of them ever hear a whistle.
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