Trump Administration Restrictions Push 13 Percent of Americans Off Food Stamps

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States has fallen significantly over the past year. Stakeholders say restrictions imposed by the Trump administration have forced more people to seek help from food banks or go hungry.

According to the latest data from the US Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, 41.6 million people received food stamps in July 2025, before the One Big Beautiful Act took effect; by June 2026 that figure had fallen to 36.5 million — a decrease of 13 percent.

Donald Trump and other Republicans say the changes incentivize people to find jobs. But elected officials, non-profit leaders and people experiencing food insecurity say the changes simply make it harder for families to feed themselves.

Rhona Kamar, founder and executive director of Feed Louisville, a non-profit that aims to reduce hunger and food waste, said there will always be a percentage of communities who need help, and once that is accepted, it is easy to do the right thing — provide resources to people who need them.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Trump administration's SNAP changes will reduce spending by about $187 billion over 10 years.

Previously, only able-bodied people aged 18 to 54 without dependents under 18 had to work at least 20 hours a week or receive benefits for a maximum of three months over three years. Under the new rules, people aged 18 to 64 without a dependent under 14 must perform paid or volunteer work for at least 20 hours weekly.

The One Big Beautiful Act also requires states, from October, to cover 75 percent of SNAP administrative costs, whereas before they covered half. The impact has varied by state: enrollment fell 50 percent in Arizona between July 2025 and June 2026, while Kentucky saw a 6 percent decrease.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat leading a predominantly Republican state, wrote this month to US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins saying he was concerned more people were going hungry in his state because of the SNAP changes, affecting children and the elderly. Trump and Rollins, however, have described the reduction as positive.

At a farming festival in Minnesota in August, Rollins said Democrats did not love the decrease, but for those who love and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, moving 5 million people off food stamps was a pretty big win.

Critics point out that despite Trump's promises, grocery and gas prices have increased during his second term, making necessities harder to afford. Gina Plata-Nino, director of SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center, said if people were paid enough, they would not be on the SNAP program.

The effects are also being felt at food banks and schools. The Food Bank Council of Michigan's helpline has received more than three times as many calls daily since the changes took effect and had to suspend the service temporarily this week. At Feed Louisville, shelves are now empty at the end of every day. And with fewer students enrolled in SNAP, 26 schools in the Houston independent school district are no longer eligible for the Community Eligibility Provision program that provided free meals to all students.

Anti-hunger advocates say employment data does not support the argument that more people have found jobs or higher wages and so no longer need food stamps. The United States added 776,000 non-farm jobs between January 2025 and September 2026, compared with 2.6 million added in the last 20 months of Joe Biden's presidency. A USDA spokesperson downplayed the effect, saying the number of people receiving benefits is constantly changing and is not representative of any one policy.

It could become even harder. From October 2027, states whose payment error rate is above 6 percent will also have to pay for some benefit costs, while already paying more in administrative costs. Joseph Llobrera of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said states had been set up to fail. Sandra Scott, 58, of Louisville, who was homeless for most of her life and has received SNAP for four years, asked members of the administration why they did not walk in the shoes of people in the community who have nothing.