Trump Signs Largest Cut To Food Stamps In Program's History, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That 40 Million Low-Income Americans Were Receiving Help Affording Groceries

WASHINGTON. Surrounded by allies on the South Lawn during an Independence Day signing ceremony, President Donald J. Trump on Friday enacted the largest reduction to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in its six-decade history, resolving a long-standing concern that roughly 40 million low-income Americans were continuing to receive federal help affording groceries.

The cut, folded into the sprawling tax-and-spending package the President has called the "One Big Beautiful Bill," tightens work requirements on food assistance, raises the age at which recipients must document employment to qualify, extends those requirements to parents of older children, and for the first time shifts a portion of benefit costs onto state budgets. The Congressional Budget Office projected that millions of Americans would lose food assistance or see their monthly benefits reduced.

Administration officials characterized the change as a correction rather than a loss. "For too long, the federal government has been quietly purchasing food for people simply because they could not otherwise afford it," said one source within the administration, describing the practice as "a dependency the President felt strongly about ending." The official added that recipients who lose coverage "retain every existing freedom to locate food through other means."

The savings generated by removing groceries from the budgets of low-income households will help offset the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts, the bulk of whose benefits flow to the highest earners, a group that includes the President. Supporters described this as a return to fiscal discipline, noting that the overall bill is nonetheless projected to add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

Trump, who has repeatedly praised the legislation as "big" and "beautiful," signed it before a crowd assembled to mark the nation's founding. Aides confirmed that the new work requirements would apply to able-bodied adults up to age 64, an age at which many Americans are themselves preparing to rely on federal programs.

At press time, the White House had clarified that no American would go hungry under the new law, provided each one secured a job, retained it, documented it monthly, and did not live in a state that declined to absorb its share of the cost.