In MAGA Stronghold, Fury over SNAP but Little Blame for Trump in Shutdown

The Washington Post

11:16 JST, November 8, 2025

BOSSIER CITY, La. – Liz Hill has braced for the worst in the southern tip of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s district, working to stretch her disabled older brother’s food assistance benefits as the longest government shutdown in history pushes into a second month.

She drives two hours to a cheaper grocery store, armed with a fist full of coupons. She can’t remember the last time she cooked meat that wasn’t on sale. And she’s become a regular at a nearby food pantry – a circumstance that Hill, 58, a college graduate and the director of 911 for nearby Evangeline Parish, never expected for herself.

She lays the blame for the uncertainty on Washington politics, but she is more reserved when talking about two of the most influential politicians at the center of the impasse:

“Mike Johnson and Trump – I like them. I like some of the things they’re doing now. I think they have good ideas. But I just think the fighting that’s going on with the government shutdown is ridiculous.”

Johnson’s district – a reliably red slice of western Louisiana – has one of the highest usage rates of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the nation, with nearly 1 in 5 households here depending on benefits. But in interviews, several people who rely on SNAP and voted for Johnson and President Donald Trump did not fault the Republican leaders, even as Trump waited until payments were set to lapse for 42 million Americans before publicly pressuring the GOP to end the shutdown.

Trump has long viewed entitlements like SNAP as a political third rail – at points urging fellow Republicans not to cut popular initiatives such as Social Security and Medicaid. But his distrust of government has helped fuel a dismantling of agencies and programs cheered on by an equally skeptical base, even among some beneficiaries.

A federal judge has ordered the government to step in and pay benefits this month – first in part, then in full. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling, and it remains unclear when the money will arrive or whether recipients will find themselves again facing food insecurity in December.

The appeal has opened up Republicans to Democratic attacks that the GOP is being inhumane, fighting to make it harder for hungry people to eat, despite the judge’s order. “I have never seen an American President so desperate to force children and seniors to go hungry,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) said on X. “This is as ugly and cruel as it gets.”

It was only after Democrats swept elections across the nation Tuesday that Trump budged on the government shutdown, blaming the GOP’s bruising losses on the funding gridlock and directing Republicans at a White House meeting to “get the country open.” Vice President JD Vance followed on social media, saying Republicans need to work harder to make a “decent life affordable.”

Americans are divided over whom to blame for the government closure and its cascading impacts, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released last week, but more U.S. adults fault Republicans than Democrats. More than 4 in 10 – 45 percent – say Trump and the GOP are mainly responsible.

In MAGA strongholds, loyalty to Trump and his GOP has helped the president elude political consequences for felony convictions and impeachments. Now many of his supporters have extended similar grace during a government shutdown that is emptying the pantries and refrigerators of the most vulnerable Americans.

“‘Stressful’ is not a strong enough word,” said Mary Little, an 80-year-old retired nurse and the widow of a Vietnam veteran, as she loaded cornbread mix, coffee and cereal into her car outside First United Methodist Church of Bossier City, just four miles from one of Johnson’s district offices.

She said she retained pride for Johnson and Trump but was outraged at pretty much everyone in Washington who didn’t show enough empathy for the most vulnerable.

“There are people up there that have never been hungry, that have never had food stamps, that have never gone to a food bank. Your people are hungry. There’s nothing worse than that. … I personally feel vulnerable – and I have a college education, my husband was a Vietnam vet, and God knows I paid my taxes before I was retired.”

The government shutdown has hurt vulnerable people in red and blue states alike. Nationally, 53 percent of SNAP recipients reside in congressional districts represented by Democrats, while 47 percent live in districts represented by Republicans, according to a Washington Post analysis of census data.

Out of the households on SNAP in Johnson’s district, nearly half have at least one child, and 46 percent of households, like Hill’s, have at least one person with a disability.

In a statement to The Post, Johnson reiterated points he’s made throughout the shutdown: that Republicans have brought the issue to a vote 15 times and Democrats have refused to come to the table.

“As elected representatives, we are duty bound to ensure that our constituents are not hurt by unnecessary, pointless Democrat infighting,” Johnson stated. “That’s why Republicans in Congress have supported a funding bill 15 separate times to ensure nutritional assistance is fully funded, and it’s why Republicans in the Louisiana Legislature stepped up to allocate emergency funds to ensure SNAP benefits continue uninterrupted to Louisiana families.”

Democrats have demanded that Republicans work with them to extend pandemic-era health care subsidies; premiums would rise, in some cases sharply, if the subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year.

Faith groups and nonprofits in Johnson’s district working to help fill the gaps of SNAP interruption say the shutdown has only accelerated problems facing the poor. In March, the Trump administration axed a local food purchase assistance program as part of its effort to slash government spending. The now-discontinued Agriculture Department program allowed food banks and schools to buy food from local farmers. Charities across the nation, meanwhile, have seen their buying power diminished by the effects of post-pandemic inflation.

“We already have less resources to feed more people,” said Lindsay Hendrix, chief impact officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. “Our neighbors are panicked about losing SNAP. A lot of them have already run out of SNAP benefits. Our partners are running out of food.” Her organization is preparing volunteers for long, tense lines full of hungry people with few places to turn.

“I worry about the desperation,” she said. “Our food pantry partners are looking panicked people in the eye and saying, ‘I have nothing to give you.’”

Rachel Brown, a 47-year-old student and mother of three from Bossier City, was feeling that desperation Monday morning. Her benefits are scheduled to be deposited on Nov. 17, but she said there is blank space on the SNAP website where she’d normally see indications of a pending payment.

Her problems had to wait. She’d spent the morning driving around to several food banks on behalf of a neighbor who is disabled and typically gets about $300 in SNAP benefits on the first of each month. This time, she received $34.

“It’s not enough. Thirty-four dollars is not enough,” Brown said. “She only had one meal yesterday.” Her neighbor declined to be interviewed but sat in the passenger seat as Brown spoke, nodding and crying.

At the food bank where Brown ended up, Pastor Donnie Wilkinson had been thinking about the story of loaves and fishes, where Jesus feeds a crowd of more than 5,000 from five loaves of bread and a few small fish.

Wilkinson, a pastor at First United Methodist Church, just outside Shreveport, said he has seen a spike in need. On a typical Wednesday, one or two families stop by the pantry at the rear of the church’s parking lot. This Wednesday, 14 families visited – and all mentioned reduced benefits, he said.

The pantry can help only so much. Wilkinson said he feared that a miracle would not be forthcoming.

“The people that Jesus told to feed the 5,000, all he asked them to do was see what they do have,” he said. “We’re trusting that God is still in the multiplication.”

Little, the retired nurse, is preparing to weather a storm. She likened the SNAP disruption to a hurricane, and stocked up on staples first and scrimped where she could.

After thanking the food pantry’s volunteers and offering up a prayer on Monday, she ticked through the things she would bring her neighbors in greatest need, and a few she’d keep for herself: toilet paper, cornbread mix, coffee, cereal, a pack of ramen noodles.

“I know she put me some meat in here,” she said, holding up a seasoned pork roast destined for her freezer.

“That’s a serious piece of meat for someone who lives alone. I looked at the price of turkeys. And if you don’t have $25, well you just can’t do it,” she said. The food bank “even gave me cake mix. So between this pork and that cake, that’s what I’m going to make for Thanksgiving.”