Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Panics and Scrambles to Save Himself from Devastating Court Losses

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Trump would rather starve 42 million Americans and is asking an appellate court to let him do that, than comply with an emergency injunction requiring him to care about the least fortunate in America, and make $8 billion in SNAP anti-hunger payments to Americans below the poverty line, including 16 million babies and children. Michael Popok reports on Trump’s DOJ filing an emergency motion to allow Trump to let people die of starvation, as he tries to fast track the case to the friendly confines of the US Supreme Court on a fast track. Subscribe: ⁠ @LegalAFMTN ⁠ Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Trump administration is defiant and is refusing to make $8 billion worth of payments for the SNAP anti-hunger monthly payments in November that 42 million people rely on, including 18 million children. Rather than make the payments as ordered with an order from Judge McConnell that just came out late yesterday, the Trump administration has instead run to the First Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion for stay. They asked to stay or block Judge McConnell's order yesterday.

That was denied by Judge McConnell. Right now, as of this recording, the Trump administration is openly defying an order because until you get the actual stay from the First Circuit, which I doubt is coming, you must make the payments. Or you'll be dragged back into court with Judge McConnell to answer for it, including to be found in contempt.

But let's forget all the legality. Let's forget all the procedural hurdles and agency action. We're talking about human beings. We're talking about Americans. We're talking about 42 million of the most underprivileged people below the poverty line that are being starved to death by this administration to make a cheap political point against the Democrats about getting the government reopened. A government that's only shut by a president who controls effectively the three branch. of government. He controls the Supreme Court. He controls the executive branch and the legislative

branch. And Americans are dying as a result. I'm going to read to you from Judge McConnell's order, written order. We just got our hands on. Came out late on yesterday, 27 pages. Then I'll give you an update. And I just did an interview with Sky Perryman who runs democracy forward. That's the entity and its lawyers that are there in front of Judge McConnell for the American people trying to make sure that they don't they aren't starved to death and made a political hostage by Donald Trump. In fact, Judge McConnell, and I'll read it to you in a minute, he said in his order, this is just a, this whole administrative's red tape argument that the government is raising. Oh, it's very hard to make half payments because it'll take us months to come up with new tables and

give it to the states. He said, well, don't make half payments. That's never been. done before. And never in the history of the program. Has it ever been cut off during a shutdown? Make full payments. And this argument that you have about administrative hassles is just pretext because you're cutting the funding because Donald Trump wants to cut the funding because he wants to make political hostages of other Americans. Here's what Judge McConnell said in his written order that we just got our hands on. It's up on LegalAF substack right now. It is estimated that 42 million individuals, approximately one in eight Americans, rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP.

This includes 14 million children, 8 million elderly people, and 1.2 million veterans. A core mission of the United States Department of Agriculture is to ensure that Americans' children are properly nourished, yet their decision to not feed hungry Americans through SNAP leaves this court to address the issues the agency has failed to resolve. While the President of the United States professes a commitment to helping those that serves the government's actions tell a different story. Faced with a choice between advancing relief and entrenching delay, it chose the latter, an outcome that predictably magnifies harm and undermines the very purpose of the program and administer. Such conduct is more than poor

judgment. It is arbitrary and capricious. One cannot champion the public interest while simultaneously adopting policies that frustrated. Here's what he says on page 14 of his order. The defendants overlook the fundamental point that compliance is achieved when Americans are fed, not when the federal government shifts the administrative burden of dispersing funds onto the states, especially when there is still no clear disbursement date in sight. By doing so, the defendants have undermined both the intent and the effectiveness of this court's October 31st order and November 1st written order. The court is not inclined to excuse the noncompliance, particularly where the obstacles the defendants now invoke are the foreseeable result of their own choices to do partial funding.

This is what he said on page 23. One final point here, the judge says. Contrary to what the defendants claim, 29 million children who participate in the child nutrition program are not at risk of immediately going hungry. In other words, take the money from other funds that you have. to top up because there's only a partial amount left, apparently 4.65 million of the 8 million necessary for November payments is still available. But there are other payment accounts that the USDA can use to top this up to make a full SNAP payment. And they're saying, well, we don't want to take it for the child nutrition program. You can because that's not going to make people go hungry. And many of these children are also covered by SNAP. You can take it

from Section 32 receipts, which come from customs duties. So the judge says, instead, SNAP recipients, 16 million of whom our children will go hungry if they do not receive their SNAP benefits this month. And then he goes after Donald Trump. And he says on pages 23 and 24 that this agency in action is just a pretext. It is arbitrary and capricious.

Here's what he says about that. Defendants stated desire to conserve funding for child nutrition programs seems entirely pretextual given the numerous statements made in recent weeks by Trump administration officials, who make clear that SNAP benefits are being withheld for political reasons. First, the defendant's claim is undercut by the banner on the USDA's website, which provides that the well has run dry because of Senate Democrats. The well is run dry cannot be so if as recent as 2019, the Trump administration's Agricultural Department acknowledged that contingency funds could be used to fund snap during

the government shutdown. Second, and most notably, the defendant's claim is further undermined by President Trump's recent statements on social media. Initially, he said, if we're given the appropriate legal direction, it will be my honor to provide the funding, despite the clear legal direction from this court and despite the defendant's indication in a filing of their intent to comply with the order, the president nevertheless threatened to withhold SNAP payments on election day until the end of the government shutdown. Snap benefits will be given only when the radical

left Democrats open up government and not before. And the judge is not too pleased with that. So he has ordered that the payments get made by Friday, today, November 7th, 2025, and that it'd be topped up to the full $8 million. Now, what did Trump do when he got that order? He asked in court to have the order stayed. The judge said, no. They ran to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. They filed a notice of appeal, and now they have filed a motion to stay these actions by

the First Circuit. I don't think the First Circuit is going to grant that motion, not with $8 billion and 42 million people and their hunger at risk. So if they lose there, the only thing they can do is then file, and that'll be over the weekend, and we'll keep a close eye on it, an emergency application to the United States Supreme Court. Now, we know they've done pretty well there. They're winning about 80% of the time with emergency applications. They just won on a transgender passport issue of all things. So we'll have to see.

When it comes to funding, the United States Supreme Court has not been in favor of the American people and has, allowed Donald Trump to cut off funding in other areas like the Department of Education and for women's groups. We'll have to see what they're going to do with 42 million starving Americans. And we'll continue to follow it all right here. You're on the Midas Touch Network. Come over to Legal AF, the Substack, hit the paid membership for Substack. I think it's $6.77 a month. You'll get copies of all these motions. You'll get live reporting and updating only on Legal A.F. Substack and then come over to LegalAF YouTube as we approach our one million subscriber base, be a part of that one million, that one million March over on LegalAF YouTube.

So until my next report, I'm Michael Popock. Can't get your fill of Legal AF. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, morning a. F. What else? All the other contributors from LegalAF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal A.F on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.