Hello and welcome to the details of ‘They don’t care about us’: Trump food aid cuts leave Americans struggling and angry and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A member of the National Guard packs food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank facility in Los Angeles October 29, 2025. A major budget law championed by President Donald Trump resulted in five million Americans losing access to the food assistance programme known as SNAP. — AFP pic
TUSCON, Oct 29 — Christine, a retired widow in Arizona, placed food staples in her cart at a charity food distribution event — as she’s had to do monthly since the Trump administration slashed federal food assistance programmes.
“It’s just been hard. It’s been really raw,” the 67-year-old told AFP, declining to give her family name so that two children she cares for, ages nine and 13, would not discover how the refrigerator is stocked.
Until last year, Christine relied on the food assistance programme known as SNAP.
The few hundred dollars a month credited to a card she could use at supermarkets allowed her to supplement her modest retirement funds and keep her family afloat.
But in January many people saw this critical support vanish as cuts mandated by a major budget law championed by President Donald Trump went into effect.
The result: Five million Americans lost access to the programme.
“They don’t care about us,” Christine said, her eyes welling with tears. “The Trump administration doesn’t look out for the little people.”
Half of her retirement check goes to her rent.
And persistent inflation — fuelled by the president’s war on Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring — has proven disastrous for her.
Fuelling anger into votes?
At the food bank, Christine filled her cart with beef, tomatoes and zucchini.
Without this resource in the mid-sized city of Tucson, “we wouldn’t be able to eat meat anymore,” she said. “And we’d eat way less vegetables.”
The south-western state of Arizona has been hardest hit by cuts to SNAP. More than 465,000 beneficiaries, including 200,000 children, were stripped of programme access.
The situation has fuelled discontent that could influence midterm elections in the state, including two tight races for the House of Representatives, where the Republican majority is at risk.
“Many people are upset,” said Natalie Jayroe, head of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. “Even people that voted for the Trump administration.”
Her network of food banks in the state’s south is serving 50,000 more people than usual this year, an influx largely driven by the federal cuts.
“If these people come out and vote, it could make a difference here in Arizona,” she said. “But the question is going to be, do they go to vote?”
Standing among crates of vegetables at the warehouse, Oscar Ochoa, 65, fumed.
He too has lost access to food stamps, and is incensed he has had to come out of retirement to work as a bus driver.
The military veteran has already mailed in his ballot, and said he voted “blue all the way” — down the line for Democrats.
‘Let our voice be heard’
Ochoa said Trump’s budget cuts only resulted in more wealth for the already rich, pointing out that the sprawling bill included tax cuts for billionaires.
It did not, he said, “benefit us poor people, or the average American.”
In the district covering part of the Tucson area, Democrat JoAnna Mendoza is campaigning on the issue of affordability, emphasising that she grew up in a family that relied on food stamps.
Her opponent, the incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani, meanwhile is distancing himself from Trump, promising constituents that he’s “not a rubber stamp for anyone.”
“He’s a complete liar,” said Angelica Garcia, a 45-year-old hotel receptionist.
During a brief period of unemployment this past spring, Garcia should have been able to quickly access SNAP benefits.
But due to the stricter eligibility checks, her application took more than two months to process.
During that time, her daughters — aged 14 and 22 — subsisted primarily on rice, beans and pasta.
“I feel the Trump administration has put these walls in place for people to make it more difficult,” she said.
Prior to the policy changes, Garcia leaned left but followed politics only from a distance. She didn’t even know the name of her congressional representative.
Now she urges her neighbours to head to the polls on November 3: “We’ve gotta let our voice be heard.” — AFP
These were the details of the news ‘They don’t care about us’: Trump food aid cuts leave Americans struggling and angry for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
