US President Donald Trump expressed his readiness to continue funding the main food assistance program for the poor just hours before suspending it due to the ongoing government shutdown, which has now lasted a month with no signs of ending. After more than four weeks of the shutdown, the temporary furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, air travel disruptions, and the closure of national parks, the shutdown's effects are expected to impact 42 million Americans who rely on the SNAP (food stamps) program. The federal government's funding for SNAP was set to run out from Friday to Saturday. Following a federal judge's order, issued in response to a lawsuit by civil rights groups, the government to use emergency financial credits to fund SNAP, President Trump confirmed his openness to such a solution. The US President wrote on his Truth Social page: "I don't want Americans to go hungry. If we get the proper legal direction from the court, it would be my honor to secure the funding for the (SNAP) program." Earlier, House Speaker Republican Mike Johnson had said: "There are real people, real families, there are children who will start going hungry at the end of this week," accusing the opposition, the Democratic Party, of "continuing their political games in Washington." US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated that SNAP funding would run out a month into the government shutdown. With the possibility of food assistance stopping, some Americans have begun organizing chains of solidarity. In a comment to the France Press agency, Keri Chosmer, a resident of the Washington suburbs, who plans to help two families pay for groceries if government aid is cut, said: "I am simply appalled by the way our country is treating families and children." The announcement of new health insurance costs is expected for over 24 million Americans covered by the federal "Obamacare" program. As government funding for this program ends at the end of the year, costs are expected to rise significantly, according to the KFF research center. President Trump's party proposes extending the current budget, while Democrats seek to extend support for health insurance programs for low-income families. Although Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, ending the shutdown and passing the budget requires some Democratic votes. Most recent polls indicate that Americans hold the president's party primarily responsible for the government shutdown. Despite the payment of military salaries in October based on Trump's decision, it is uncertain whether this measure can be applied in November, and more than 1.3 million Americans in the armed forces may join the 1.4 million federal employees whose salaries have been frozen for the past month. The issue of funding for "Obamacare" has become the focal point of the confrontation in Congress between Republicans and Democrats, who have failed to agree on a new budget.
