Trump Condemns Food Stamps
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But, of course, he has no actual policy position and it’s unclear what he would do.
When Trump raised the issue of food stamps at a rally in Worcester, Massachusetts, much of his message was lost when an irate protestor was thrown out and Trump mocked the man for his weight.
“We have 43 million and now it’s actually probably gonna be closer to 50. 50 million people on food stamps,” Trump said before the interruption, according to ABC News. Trump also said that he believed that the number of people enrolled in SNAP needed to be reduced.
Trump wasn’t correct. According to the Food Research and Action Center, as of September 2015, there were 45,415,445 people using SNAP, a decrease of almost a million people from a year prior. The number is set to decrease even more in 2016 – due to the program’s changing requirements, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates one million unemployed and childless people will lose their benefits.
Some advocates believe Trump’s statistics may be more rooted in fear than reality. “Since the time of Reagan, it’s been Republicans that have demonized this program even as many of their supporters have benefited from them,” Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, told the International Business Times. “The fact of the matter is that food stamp enrollment went up heavily during (President George W.) Bush.”
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