Poverty
2012
2012-01-01 Rush Limbaugh mocked the idea that poor families deserved high-quality food, saying, “Now it has to be the best”. According to AI in 2013, he called compassion for the poor a “part of a partisan agenda”.
2024
2024-07-10 During a National Conservatism convention, JD Vance stated, “…look, the thing on immigration is that no one can avoid that it has made our societies poorer, less safe, less prosperous, and less advanced.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-debate-immigration-housing-prices-real-estate-federal-reserve
https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-4-2024/presenters/sen-jd-vance/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXH1p8_jhc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2025 May
2025-05-06 During an interview with Meet the Press, Trump told the interviewer that girls don’t need to have 30 dolls, they can have two or three. Most children don’t have any dolls and can’t afford to take one more for the team.
2025-05-20 (for context – because most low wage workers are near, at or below the poverty line) The Trump administration announced plans to pass a lackluster “No Tax For Tips” bill. The bill ended up being temporary in nature, featured an income cap up to an unlivable $25,000 per year, and excluded payroll and state taxes. Altogether the bill offered little or no benefit to low-wage workers.
https://www.epi.org/publication/everything-you-need-to-know-about-no-tax-on-tips/
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/how-does-no-tax-on-tips-work-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/
https://itep.org/conforming-to-the-no-tax-on-tips-gimmick-just-got-riskier-and-costlier-for-states/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_tax_on_tips
2025 June
2025-06-30 DeSantis vetoed funding on several projects intended to help Floridians including stormwater funding, homeless housing, and $200,000 for a Samaritan Resource Center program to help homeless people get job training and assistance with housing.
2025 July
2025-07-04 The Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law. Part of the bill’s agenda is to sharply reduce the number of Americans receiving food stamps or other programs designed to help struggling families.
2025 August
2025-08-10 Trump posted on social media, “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY…FAR from the Capital….It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border….This will be easier - Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK…”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115005075016157889
2025-08-11 In contrast to his social media post, Trump told the press he wanted to house the homeless DC population. No follow up was made as to the whereabouts or welfare of those individuals removed off the streets of DC.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1kzz4m3ll1o
2025-08-12 The National Alliance to End Homelessness issued a statement, “Homelessness is not a criminal issue. It is an economic issue”. In their statement they outlined that rhetoric only furthers inaccurate stereotypes. They explained that the use of military force makes it significantly harder for outreach and service workers to provide critical assistance.
2025-08-14 More reports showed wholesale inflation surges and tariff costs being passed down to consumers.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/14/economy/us-ppi-wholesale-inflation-july
2025 September
2025-09-03 Utah unveiled a 1300-bed homeless camp near Rose Park.
https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/09/03/utah-homeless-campus-site-unveiled-after-secretive-search/
https://homelesslaw.org/trumpdceo/
2025-09-08 As outlined on page 299 of Project 2025, cuts to SNAP benefits began. This includes school food programs, energy and internet assistance, and funding to the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-ED), to name a few.
https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/08/trumps-spending-bill-cuts-billions-in-snap-benefits.html
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/obbb-implementation
2025-09-14 During an airing of Fox News on September 10th, commentator Brian Kilmeade suggested euthanizing the homeless, further stating “Just kill them”. On September 14th he reasserted his sentiment that many homeless people are criminals or mentally ill and only then briefly apologized. Despite his remarks, he was able to keep his job.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/14/business/brian-kilmeade-fox-news-apology-homeless
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/15/brian-kilmeade-fox-news-lethal-injection-homeless
https://x.com/kilmeade/status/1967219726456959138
2025-09-17 Before the shutdown, Democrats proposed a bill to keep government funding going through October 31st, reverse Medicaid cuts, and extend the affordable care act subsidies. Unfortunately, they didn’t get enough votes for the bill to pass.
https://nlihc.org/resource/government-shutdown-extends-third-week-after-failed-cr-votes-senate
2025-09-20 The USDA stopped tracking food insecurity and issued a press release stating the annual Household Food Security Report would be terminated.
2025 October
2025-10-01 The government was shut down while Democrats fought to keep Medicare alive for millions of Americans and stop healthcare from skyrocketing. Republicans falsely claimed Democrats were trying to give millions of illegal immigrants Medicare. Medicare is not a program which immigrants were ever eligible for.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/government-shutdown-clock/
https://www.healthinsurance.org/glossary/american-rescue-plan/
2025-10-12 The Trump Administration bailed Argentina out with $20 BILLION in American taxpayer dollars. Some news outlets later reported the amount was actually $40B, and in November the Senate refused to vote for a takeback of those funds during the shutdown while millions of American families went hungry.
https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413878
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3mdvle78o
2025-10-21 Americans begin receiving letters stating they should expect their health insurance prices to soar, double, and even quadruple.
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/12/nx-s1-5570849/shutdown-aca-health-care-tax-credits
2025-10-28 Rob Schmitt commented on Newsmax that there should be a weight limit for receiving SNAP benefits, asked why the people are subsidizing food for people that “weigh 300 pounds”, and claimed that people were “selling their benefits to get their nails done and buy weaves”. He even posted the bit about 300 pounds on his X account.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/newsmax-anchor-claims-americans-using-160133829.html
https://x.com/SchmittNYC/status/1983284055996047650
2025-10-31 Just hours before SNAP benefits were set to expire, Trump hosted a lavish Great Gatsby Halloween party at the White House.
2025-10-31 Trump posted 6 times about renovating a White House bathroom completely in marble amidst a government shutdown and hunger crisis.
https://deadline.com/2025/10/trump-lincoln-bathroom-white-house-1236604245/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/31/trump-bathroom-white-house-remodel-shutdown.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/31/politics/white-house-lincoln-bedroom-bathroom-renovation
2025 November
2025-11-02 Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins weighed in on SNAP benefits in an X post, spinning rhetoric of SNAP fraud, attacking blue states, and calling Trump the “new sheriff in town”.
https://x.com/SecRollins/status/1985007736896053318
2025-11-03 Against judge orders, Trump refused to release contingency funds for SNAP benefits. He also refused to dip into other pots to fund the $8B needed to continue benefits through November, stating he would only release partial funds but that it “could take months”. Unrelated but for context on the US economy at this time, we had just paid $20B in bailouts to Argentina, meanwhile the US reached a record high in national debt, and the president had just thrown a massive Great Gatsby party for his billionaire friends.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-defies-court-snap-ruling
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/g-s1-96296/trump-deadline-contingency-funds-snap
2025-11-03 Despite judge rulings, the Trump administration announced they will restart SNAP benefits but will only pay out half the amount people normally get.
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5596121/snap-food-benefits-trump-government-shutdown
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-administration-partially-fund-snap-months/story?id=127138175
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/04/trump-snap-funding-shutdown-food-aid-00635141
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/07/politics/trump-administration-supreme-court-snap-benefits
2025-11-04 Trump posted on social media that he would not release ANY part of the SNAP funding until the “Radical Left Democrats open up government”, thereby weaponizing hunger of 40 million Americans in a retaliatory move against Democrats.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115492285081397189
2025-11-04 News outlets report that the Trump administration is planning to make it harder to get Social Security Disability assistance or housing.
https://www.propublica.org/article/dhs-social-security-data-voter-citizenship-trump
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26090916-eligible-status-rule/#document/p1
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-housing-reforms-aid-hud-immigration-homelessness
2025-11-06 Trump removed the Direct File tool which allowed Americans to file their federal income taxes for free.
https://meritalk.com/articles/irs-officially-suspends-free-direct-file-service/
https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/11/12/trump-kills-irs-direct-file-what-now
2025-11-10 News outlets reported that the Trump Administration Agriculture Department threatened to penalize states that don’t “undo” steps to fully fund SNAP.
https://factkeepers.com/trump-administration-threatens-states-that-dont-undo-full-snap-payments/
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/09/nx-s1-5603417/full-snap-benefits-trump-states-order
2025-11-10 Eight Democratic senators joined Republicans in a vote to reopen the government without any concessions like saving affordable health care. During the shutdown, Trump leveraged SNAP benefits for politics and defied judge orders to release them to feed millions of starving Americans, so maybe this is what broke Democrats to cave. This was also when Trump forked over $40B in American taxpayer dollars to help Argentina out while our food pantries were overrun with needy citizens, and nobody voted to take the funds back from that either.
https://time.com/7332610/8-senators-broke-with-democrats-to-end-government-shutdown/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-democrats-vote-end-government-shutdown/
https://meidasnews.com/news/republicans-vote-no-on-using-argentina-bailout-money-for-aca-subsidies
2025-11-12 News outlets report that permanent housing solutions for the homeless will be negatively affected. The Trump administration made plans to cut Continuum of Care funding that supports permanent housing from 87% down to 30% across the country. Some outlets reported that the funds would be redirected from current housing to temporary transitional housing that requires the tenant to already have a job and get addiction treatment. The proposed plan would redirect $3.9 billion away from current programs and instead to policing encampments and making arrests.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/13/trump-cuts-homeless-housing-program-00650758
https://endhomelessness.org/action/stophudnofo/
2025 December
2025-12-16 Obamacare subsidies were set to expire with four Republicans joining the Democrats to force a vote to stop this from happening. Congress sent lawmakers home form the holiday before the vote could happen.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/23/expiring-aca-subsidies-most-affected.html
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/19/politics/congress-obamacare-subsidies-expiring
2026 February
2026-02-02 Trump announced the Kennedy center would be shut down for two years for “renovations”. Renovations would include marble, furniture, gold inlay and gold trim. Trump said the renovations would not come from taxpayer money at all, stating quote, “zero taxpayer”. Meanwhile, a Gallup survey showed that millions of Americans were skipping meals in order to pay for their healthcare. The Gallup poll said, “In a nationally and state-representative survey of nearly 20,000 US adults conducted from June through August 2025, roughly one-third of respondents – the equivalent of more than 82 million Americans – said they have made at least one trade-off with daily living expenses to afford healthcare. Americans are also postponing retirement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi0AWU60RxE&list=WL&index=1&t=69s
https://news.gallup.com/poll/702596/one-third-americans-cut-back-cover-healthcare-expenses.aspx
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5696489/kennedy-center-renovation-trump-questions
2026 March
2026-03-09 On the Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, Texas District 27 Congressman Michael Cloud said, “I’ve been in a number of these hearings, and you often see Matthew 25 thrown about – never in context. Uh, sometimes it seems to be the only – I would say – scripture, but it’s not even a full scripture that, the only half scripture that the left would seem to know. Uh, and they use it to justify all kinds of spending…uh, in Corinthians – it talks about that charity is something that’s given of a free will and not by compulsion. Uh, and taxes certainly by compulsion. And so, you know, we believe in, ah, generosity. Certainly we should be giving, taking care of our neighbor. Uh, that should be extension of how – who – we are, but we’re almost $40TR in debt. Uh, and so, we’ve got to prioritize. And the federal government has a specific constitutional – uh – duty and priority. Uh, and, and, scripture talks about the role of what a federal government is supposed to be doing or a government’s supposed to be doing. It’s a different role than the family. It’s a different role than the church, uh…and, and the community. And so, you know, it’s important that we kind of put all these things in context as we begin to weigh scripture, especially in the context of government policy…”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2LhGaW2C44&list=WL&index=4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMI-jsOUDQk
2026-03-10 News agencies reported that Pete Hegseth went on a spending spree with taxpayer money from September 2025 on, spending $9M on crab legs, $6.9M on lobster tail, $98,000 for a grand piano, $5.3M on Apple devices, $15.1M for steak, $124,000 on ice cream machines, $139,000 on doughnut orders, $225M on furniture, $12,000 for fruit basket stands, and $50.1B on grants and contracts. This all came just before the Trump administration decided to withhold SNAP benefits for American families and their children.
https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab
https://mashable.com/video/jimmy-kimmel-pete-hegseth-spending-93-billion
2026-03-29 Trump touted more plans for his ballroom to include bulletproof glass and drone-proof construction. This during a war in Iran, the lowest job-market in decades, surging inflation, unaffordable healthcare, increasing poverty, and a shutdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz6x2Y50Egs&list=WL&index=1&t=10s
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5807115-donald-trump-military-complex-white-house-ballroom/