California Governor Gavin Newsom tore into Donald Trump for partying like it’s 1922 given that nearly an eighth of the U.S. population is about to go hungry.
“Donald Trump hosted a Great Gatsby party while SNAP benefits were about to disappear for 42 million Americans,” the top Democrat raged on X early Saturday. “He does not give a damn about you.”
Trump’s opulent Friday night Halloween bash—themed around F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Prohibition-era critique of the wealth, excess, and moral emptiness of privilege built atop societal inequality—came the night before funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program expired due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Footage from the Mar-a-Lago soirée shows Trump seated at a lavish banquet table, chatting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio while his officials and allies mingle with celebrities and loyal supporters of the MAGA movement, all decked out in glitzy Jazz Age costumes.
Roughly 42 million Americans rely on the food stamp program, which had already suffered cuts worth an estimated $186 billion under the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” spending measures earlier in July. One Republican Congressman told affected constituents earlier this week they might minimize impact if they chose to “stop smoking crack.”
There was little hope this week of a last-minute breakthrough amid the funding deadlock, expected to surpass the previous record for overall duration come Wednesday, which was set at 35 days during a partial shutdown under the first Trump administration in 2019.
The earlier shutdown primarily stemmed from disputes about border wall funding. The current impasse concerns a far wider set of bitter disagreements that cut to the heart of Trump’s agenda, ranging from healthcare and food subsidies to climate programs and federal spending caps.
Amid inflation and uncertainty caused by the president’s ongoing trade war with much of the rest of the planet, economic losses are thought to range from $7 billion to $15 billion, or a 0.1-2 percent drop in GDP, for each week the shutdown has lasted so far.
Since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the Trump administration has been at pains to frame the funding lapse as a result of unreasonable Democratic demands for increased healthcare spending.
Many federal agency websites currently display banners faulting the “radical left” for the suspension to their operations, despite a ban on federal employees engaging in political messaging under the 1939 Hatch Act.
Those efforts may not have gained the traction hoped for by the MAGA White House. Latest polls suggest that with more than 75 percent of voters concerned about the ongoing hiatus, just under half lay the blame squarely at Trump and the GOP’s feet.
