MAZON Statements

In the last two weeks, President Trump and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have issued relentless onslaughts against SNAP and other basic needs and food assistance programs, with the bulk of these attacks targeting Minnesota and other states led by Democrats. In response, the national advocacy group MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger spoke out against these cruel and harmful cuts, stating clearly that food is the most basic of human needs and must be treated as such.

MAZON President & CEO Abby J. Leibman stated:

“Until 2025, the very idea of our federal government weaponizing food assistance to punish political enemies was completely unthinkable and something out of a dystopian novel. Now, we’ve seen the Trump administration take that step multiple times over the course of several months. This latest attack by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins against the people of Minnesota is cruel, vindictive, and unconscionable. To cut off SNAP to an entire state based on nothing more than political animosity to its governor is not just wrong — it is blatantly illegal.

“The hostility towards food assistance programs from every corner of the Trump administration, from the President to Secretary Rollins to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on down, is transparent and wholly unsupportable as a basis for policy decisions. They have and will take every opportunity to slash these programs to the bone without a thought, let alone concern, for the millions of Americans they will leave devastated and without access to food. This is what leads to widespread hunger, unlike anything this country has seen since the Great Depression. 

“Repeatedly spouting baseless allegations of fraud is horrifying, especially when it’s used to justify wiping away decades of effective programs and putting more money in the pockets of billionaires. We must all stand up to put a stop to this now before anyone else is needlessly harmed by this administration’s cruelty.”