Five Senate Republicans joined with Democrats on Tuesday in a vote denouncing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina sided with Senate Democrats in a 52 to 48 vote against the president’s trade policy, exposing a small rift in the GOP between the president and some lawmakers. “Protectionists eagerly celebrate the revenue from tariff duties. But they don’t talk nearly as much about how much of that revenue they’ll spend protecting American growers and producers from the avoidable harm of their policies,” McConnell said in a statement defending his vote. “Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule. And no cross-eyed reading of Reagan will reveal otherwise,” he continued, referencing the late President Ronald Reagan, whose support for free trade became news recently because of an anti-tariff advertisement purchased by the Ontario government. The Senate’s Tuesday resolution against Trump’s Brazil tariffs is symbolic, and it is not expected to receive a vote – much less pass – in the House. Additional resolutions on Trump’s tariffs are expected to receive votes in the Senate this week. Vice President JD Vance warned Republicans ahead of the vote not to side against the president in the symbolic gesture, calling a move to buck to White House on tariffs a “big mistake,” according to The Washington Examiner. Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now. “The point that I made to my Republican colleagues, recognizing there’s a diversity of opinions about it, is that the tariffs give us the ability to put American workers first,” said Vance after meeting with GOP senators on Tuesday. “They force American industry to reinvest in the United States of America instead of a foreign country.” Prior to Trump’s trade wars, U.S. tariffs on Brazil were roughly 3% in line with its status as a Most Favored Nation for U.S. trade. Brazil’s tariffs on U.S. goods were higher at around 11%, according to the White House. In April, Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs, placing a minimum 10% levy on all nations, with some receiving a much higher tariff. In July, Trump threatened to hike tariffs on goods from Brazil up to 50% because of its treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison after Brazil’s left-wing government accused him of attempting to overthrow democracy. Since coming into office in January, Trump has aggressively sought to remake the world’s trade lines, levying relatively exorbitant tariffs on enemies and allies. Through unilateral action on tariffs, Trump has sought to eliminate U.S. trade deficits and to establish leverage for action on drug trafficking and ending international conflicts. Trump has cited emergency authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to issue most of his tariffs. The president’s tariff authority under the act is currently under review at the Supreme Court. The president has said if his administration loses the case, the United States “will be a weakened, troubled, financial mess for many, many years to come.”

Vice President JD Vance tamped down concerns about renewed warfare in Gaza on Tuesday after an attack on Israel Defense Forces in the Israeli-controlled territory of the enclave. The IDF reported that Hamas had launched an attack on Israeli forces behind the so-called “yellow line,” or the line behind which Israel agreed to station its troops as part of a ceasefire with Hamas earlier this month. The attack, which was a breach of the ceasefire agreement, reportedly killed one Israeli soldier. Vance said during a visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday that the ceasefire will hold despite the violent flare up. “The president achieved a historic peace in the Middle East, the ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” said Vance. “We know that Hamas, or somebody else within Gaza, attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite it.” JD Vance on Hamas Ceasefire Violation: “The ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes.” “We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond but I think the… pic.twitter.com/rhV9HB0CzO — Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 28, 2025 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced airstrikes on Gaza shortly after the attack in retaliation. “Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu has directed the military to immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” an announcement from the prime minister’s office read. Hospitals in Gaza reported that at least 20 people were killed in the Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday. It is unclear how reliable the numbers are after Hamas’ data on the war has repeatedly been found to be flawed. Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now. The violence came after an earlier ceasefire violation from Hamas in which the terror group buried the remains of an Israeli hostage before calling the Red Cross to come and “discover” the body. Israel released drone footage capturing Hamas terrorists hiding the hostage remains. The footage appears to show members of the Red Cross standing by as dirt is dumped over a white sheet. The IDF said in a statement that the terror group is “is attempting to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies,” according to CNN. The Red Cross also denounced the act in a statement: “It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged, when so much depends on this agreement being upheld and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.”

Thanks to valiant efforts from on-air personalities Kasie Hunt and Kaitlan Collins, CNN managed to deliver two acts of actual journalism in the same 24-hour period — on two different topics. The first came on Monday evening from Collins, who was discussing the political hot topics of the day with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) on “The Source” and took a moment to fact-check the Texas Democrat when she played fast and loose with the context of a statement made earlier in the day by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. WATCH: Jasmine Crockett immediately runs the debunked “Trump’s main priority is the ballroom” hoax on her CNN hit. The lie is so egregious, she actually gets fact-checked by Kaitlan Collins. https://t.co/HRfeoTZ3ys pic.twitter.com/lvdp4gkuGu — Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 28, 2025 When asked whether she thought the ongoing government shutdown was likely to end any time soon, Crockett attempted to make it look like President Donald Trump was going out of his way to prioritize other things. “The president has time to do everything but what he needs to focus on. In fact, we heard the press secretary say his main priority is the ballroom — the ballroom that no one asked for. The ballroom that requires him to destroy historic pieces of the White House. And so it doesn’t seem like he’s interested [in the shutdown],” Crockett claimed. Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now. Collins pushed back immediately, noting that Leavitt had said the ballroom was the president’s top priority — but that she had been specifically referring to construction and renovation projects at the White House. “Yeah, and that context of the comment from Karoline Leavitt, she was asked if the president was working on any other renovations when it came to the White House, and she was saying his focus was the ballroom,” Collins said. WATCH: Karoline Leavitt was asked if “the president is looking at any other renovations” at the White House? Karoline answered: “At this moment in time of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.” This is how easily Democrats lie about stupid stuff. https://t.co/qGuZkvYYPV pic.twitter.com/1fBzh8sdRN — Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) October 23, 2025 Less than 24 hours later, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined host Kasie Hunt to discuss the ongoing shutdown — and she pressed him repeatedly on his party’s evolving position on keeping the government shuttered in order to leverage political gains. WATCH: Ruben Gallego just got wrecked on CNN for his hypocritical stance on shutdowns reverting to a “BUT TRUMP” response: Host: “Why is it suddenly right to do it this way?” Gallego: “It’s DONALD TRUMP … it’s all out the window Casey.” There is nothing that Democrats have aside… pic.twitter.com/sZKARGLRKA — Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) October 28, 2025 “So I think my question is this, I mean, I take your point about these millions of people, the cost of living is incredibly high, but also Republicans control the White House, they control the Senate, they control the House, and in the past, Democrats, when Republicans have tried to do something like this, Democrats have argued that the norms of our government should be that you negotiate policy outside of a government shutdown,” Hunt confronted Gallego right from the start. “I mean, over many years covering Washington, people have said that over and over and over again.” “Now I have neighbors in the D.C. area who are both employed by the federal government who are having to use food banks. We are heading into Thanksgiving. Why is it suddenly right to do it this way and to do it for this long when it didn’t used to be the right way in Democrats’ view?” Hunt asked directly. “Oh, that’s an easy answer. It’s Donald Trump,” Gallego replied, spinning quickly to change the topic. “You’re talking about norms in the time of Donald Trump? It’s also normal not for you to tear down the East Wing.” Hunt did not budge: “Right, but Democrats have spent so much time arguing about how maintaining those norms is actually incredibly important in the face of Donald Trump.” “It doesn’t. It’s all out the window. It is all out of the window, Kasie,” Gallego insisted, arguing that because he and Democrats did not like what Trump was doing, they were justified in breaking rules in order to level the playing field. “No. When you’re doing this time with Donald Trump, this is the man that is extorting people. He’s literally breaking every rule. We’re not going to go back and play by the norms when we know that’s what’s on the line. What’s on the line is 24 million people are going to have their insurance rates premiums doubled. That’s a new thing, by the way. And the fact is the president and everyone expects us to play by these old norms.” “But didn’t Democrats kind of set that up in the bill that you passed, though, that these subsidies were going to expire?” Hunt was clearly not convinced. Gallego admitted that Hunt was, in fact, correct — but once again attempted to spin, blaming Republicans for not wanting to pony up billions of taxpayer dollars to fund endless subsidies, all just to rescue the Affordable Care Act they hadn’t supported in the first place. “When we passed the bills and back in the day, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, of course we were trying to maybe hope for the best that this country and our Republican colleagues would understand that raising insurance rates on people is a bad thing. I’m sorry they don’t see it that way, but it’s also not my job to make their job easier,” he said. “My job is to make sure that the premiums of 24 million Americans does not double overnight. And if it makes it harder on the Republicans that we’re putting them in a very difficult position, then they have to answer for that … But I’m not gonna abide by old norms, especially when you’re dealing with this presidency, this administration, and how the Republicans themselves have been acting.”

The Trump administration has already deported more than 527,000 illegal immigrants from the country, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday. At the current pace, federal authorities could deport 600,000 illegal immigrants by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office. However, it still falls short of the Trump administration’s lofty goal of deporting one million illegal immigrants each year. Last month, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told The Daily Wire that the agency can still make that happen with its push for illegal immigrants to “self-deport.” The Trump administration is offering a $1,000 bonus and free flights home to those who choose to leave on their own. Roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants have already self-deported, according to DHS. “I think we’re going to see our number, definitely with the CBP Home app and those that decided to leave on their own,” Lyons said. Assistant Homeland Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said it’s “just the beginning.” “President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years,” McLaughlin said. “In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges and threats to law enforcement, DHS, ICE and CBP, have not just closed the border, but made historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country,” McLaughlin said. “Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence: Migrants are now turning back before they even reach our borders. Migration through Panama’s Darien Gap is down 99.99%.” The latest deportation numbers come amid a major leadership change at ICE, led by Homeland Security senior adviser Corey Lewandowski, sources recently told The Daily Wire. Several ICE offices across the country will now be led by officials poached from Border Patrol. The shake-up exposed an internal skirmish between DHS senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons over the mass deportation targets, sources said. Homan and Lyons want more criminals arrested, while Lewandowski is only concerned with increasing numbers.

Ever since the government shutdown began a month ago, it’s been a challenge to identify anyone in real life — outside of government employees — who has noticed or cared in any meaningful way. Even Democrats don’t seem particularly bothered by the shutdown. They’ve been spending most of their time lately complaining about the renovations that are underway in the East Wing of the White House — which is the kind of thing you complain about when you desperately need to find something to complain about, but you have absolutely no other options whatsoever. Even if you normally don’t care much about how the government spends your money, this is the kind of development that might make you sit up and take notice. There are road closures and potholes that have probably caused you more inconvenience this month than the shutdown of the entire federal government. And as a result, for millions of Americans, it’s now impossible to ignore the fact that the government you’re forced to pay for — all of the salaries and all of the pensions and so on — doesn’t actually do very much. In the vast majority of cases, the federal government has zero impact on your day-to-day life, or your week-to-week life. They are not “public servants” in the sense that they serve you — in reality, you serve them. Of course, that’s not to say that your money only goes to federal government bureaucrats. Most of it goes to welfare programs. And it’s the people who receive money from those welfare programs — particularly food stamps, otherwise known as SNAP benefits — who are now speaking up, extremely loudly, to complain about the federal government shutdown.  Yes, we’ve finally found a large group of people who are legitimately upset about the fact that the government is no longer fully operational. The search is over.  And these people are upset because, in a matter of days, federal funding for food stamps is going to run out. Watch: Ohh my god…. Mainstream media CBS reporting 1 in 8 Americans are on SNAP food stamps That’s 43.1 million people The working class is paying to provide EBT for 43 MILLION PEOPLE Approximately 54% of immigrant households participate in at least one major welfare program pic.twitter.com/QeDL4JUMFe — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 27, 2025 Credit: @WallStreetApes/X.com Notice the flagrant inversion of reality here. If you stop subsidizing someone else’s grocery bill, even for a second, then according to the governor of Massachusetts, you’re “taking away” their food. It’s just like you robbed them. Of course, the actual robbery occurs when you’re forced, against your will, to pay for other people’s groceries every month. That’s the point where the government is taking something away. But the really striking aspect of that CBS Report was the beginning of the segment, when they casually mentioned that one in eight Americans are on food stamps. That’s roughly 43 million people who are receiving taxpayer money to buy groceries, costing more than $100 billion a year, in a country of 340 million. In a moment we’ll get into who exactly is receiving this money, and what they’re threatening to do in the next few days. (It’s important information, particularly if you plan on going to a grocery store in the near future without a firearm.) But first, you have to ask yourself: Did you have any idea that 43 million of the 340 million people in this country — again, one in eight — were receiving taxpayer-funded financial assistance to buy groceries? The sheer scale of this program guarantees that, if we eliminated the food stamp program entirely, then prices at the grocery store would plummet. This is by far the number-one everyday issue that most Americans care about — the rising price of groceries. And it has a very obvious solution. When the government spends a massive amount of money subsidizing the purchase of a particular product, in any context, then the price of that product will go up. It was true for college tuition. And it’s true for groceries. The subsidy creates increased demand, but it doesn’t increase the supply. And therefore, the cost goes up, under the basic principle of supply and demand. Take a look at this data from the Department of Agriculture: Source: Department of Agriculture Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture Monthly food stamp spending was just $4.5 billion in December of 2019. By December 2022, thanks to a massive expansion by the Biden administration, food stamp spending was $11 billion per month. That’s a lot of new, artificially subsidized demand. And guess what? In that same period, grocery prices went up. By some estimates, food prices go up by 1% for every 12% increase in food stamp spending. In this case, we’re looking at a percentage increase of nearly 150%. So you can do the math on that. It’s more than a 10% increase in your grocery bill, every single month. This means that if you’re a working American and you aren’t on food stamps, you are actually paying — against your will — for other people’s groceries twice. You’re paying when the government takes the money out of your paycheck. You’re paying again every time you buy groceries for yourself. So who exactly is benefiting from food stamps? And how much of this spending is actually necessary? Put another way: How many people would starve to death, on the streets, if food stamps were abolished? We all know that number is much, much less than the total number of food stamp recipients in this country. But how much lower is it? 90%? 100%? If food stamps were abolished tomorrow, how many people, exactly, would end up lying on the sidewalk, rib cages protruding, starving to death? Of the 40 million people on food stamps, how many actually depend on it to live? These are questions we should probably answer, now that we know the enormous cost of these programs, thanks to the government shutdown. And while we’re at it, we should answer this question: Has anyone ever starved to death in the modern history of this country because they haven’t had access to food? Has a single sane person, through no fault of his own, shriveled and died because he couldn’t afford to buy anything to eat? Has there been a single example of someone with no family, no friends, no other forms of state or federal welfare he can tap into, no food banks or churches he can visit, no panhandling he can perform, no job, no soup kitchens near by, no charity food drives in his area, nothing at all? If something like that were ever to happen in the United States, then I’d be the first in line to say, get that person a taxpayer-funded hotdog. But I don’t actually think that’s ever happened in my lifetime. And no one has demonstrated to me otherwise. In fact, if you look at what food stamp recipients are saying — in their own words — you come away with the distinct impression that none of these people actually need food stamps. Instead, you come away with the impression that many of these people are simply entitled, lazy, barely literate, and frankly just very bad people. I’m not saying that describes every adult on food stamps, but it does seem to describe a lot of them. People who, rather than get a job, would prefer to rob grocery stores (and the people shopping inside them). Here’s just a sampling of the response from food stamp recipients on TikTok. Watch: Credit to multiple sources: (@AmiriKing/X.com, @iAnonPatriot/X.com, @smcroasters/X.com, @ImMeme0/X.com, @not_rekt_11/X.com, @AmiriKing/X.com) Among other things, if you are going to shop for groceries during this government shutdown, you have to keep these videos in mind. There are many, many threats like this. Many people receiving food stamps would rather rob you — and even kill you and eat you, apparently — than have to pay for their own groceries, for once in their lives. I’ll highlight a couple more of these clips, mainly because they’re so over-the-top that it’s hard to believe they’re real. But they are. Watch: EBT recipient says that she’ll be going to jail for a THIRD time, if she doesn’t get her food stamps in November.. ? pic.twitter.com/0bnkrjD4V3 — American AF ?? (@iAnonPatriot) October 27, 2025 Credit: @iAnonPatriot/X.com As best I could decipher, this individual — who doesn’t appear to be an American — is threatening to go to prison for the third time, if her — or maybe his, I can’t tell — food stamps don’t come through in November. And for good measure, you can hear a smoke alarm chirp, mid-rant. In case you missed it, it went like this: “I don’t gibba fugg, i’m not in da mood, my birthday in decembah,” then there’s the chirp, and then there’s the statement that, “thanksgibbin comin’ up.” You are actively suffering, money is being taken out of your paycheck, and food off of your children’s plate, for the sake of this person. Remember that. One question, right off the bat, is why someone who’s been to prison is allowed to receive food stamps in the first place. Why is this something we’re tolerating? You can commit multiple crimes, resulting in your incarceration, and then when you get out, you can force taxpayers to buy your groceries? That seems like a privilege we should rescind, immediately. And while we’re at it, we should implement drug testing as a requirement for SNAP benefits, as this video makes clear. Watch:   Credit: @iAnonPatriot/X.com Can you imagine the horror of having to tap into your weed budget to buy food? It’s just unthinkable, really. No one should have to endure a humiliation like that. Surely, we should just steal the money from people who are actually working for a living. You can look at the saddest of sob stories, and it doesn’t get any better. Here’s a report, for example, that aired on a local Fox affiliate this week. Watch: “I would’ve never thought in a million years that I would’ve been in this position—to have to go to a food bank.” “I don’t want my daughter to see me crying.” Democrats have cut off our workers’ paychecks to try to get free healthcare for illegals. It’s disgusting. pic.twitter.com/secqt81bkE — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 27, 2025 Credit: @RapidResponse47/X.com So we’re supposed to feel really sorry for Denise, a federal worker at the Department of Defense. She had to go to a food bank, and barely got any food, all because of the government shutdown. If you look up Denise online, you find that she’s drawn a taxpayer-funded salary since 2015. Her lowest salary was more than $60,000 a year. Last year, Denise made more than $87,000. That’s a decade’s worth of income — and each year, she earned well above the median personal income in this country. She presumably has access to a credit card, given this income. To put this into further perspective, when I first got married, my salary was a quarter of Denise’s. I earned in a year what Denise makes in about four months. And I was never even close to starving. And I wasn’t on food stamps. There is no conceivable way that Denise is going to starve to death, either. Even if she’s been financially reckless to the point of comic-book level absurdity, she doesn’t need handouts to buy food. She can put it on credit, or tap into her savings account (which she should have been growing for many years). To be clear, I’m not saying she’s going to live a life of luxury. I’m not saying this won’t be stressful. I’m not even faulting her for trying to find free food. But I am saying that taxpayers have no obligation, in any universe, to buy her groceries. We’ve already been paying her bills for a decade and frankly, if we’re being honest, she probably wasn’t doing anything for those ten years anyway. But Denise, for all I’ve dumped on her, is ten thousand times more sympathetic than other alleged “victims” of this government shutdown. For example, this is a real video that was posted by Senator Amy Klobuchar, after recent testimony in Congress. Here’s the caption that the senator posted. Today, we heard from Felecia, a single mom of four who works up to three jobs at a time to make ends meet. She counts on SNAP to help put food on the table. This is who Republicans in Congress are trying to take food away from. Listen to her story. So here it is. This is Felecia, who drives students for the school district. Let’s listen to her story: Today, we heard from Felecia, a single mom of four who works up to three jobs at a time to make ends meet. She counts on SNAP to help put food on the table. This is who Republicans in Congress are trying to take food away from. Listen to her story. pic.twitter.com/jEBo2fRPQc — Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) June 12, 2025 Credit: @amyklobuchar/X.com Let’s just say that this woman could survive for a very, very long time without food. This woman is well over 300 pounds, probably pushing 400. It is the height of absurdity for a U.S. senator to present this woman as someone who urgently needs taxpayers to fund her grocery bill. She can clearly afford major cutbacks to her food spending. Not only that — it would clearly be beneficial to her health. It would be the humane thing to do, to force this woman to think before she spends money on muffins, soda, candy, various slabs of meat and so on. Again, this is the most sympathetic witness that Democrats could find. It only gets worse from here.  Illegal aliens are some of the main recipients of food stamps for example. Here’s a recent admission from the administration of Maine Governor Janet Mills. Credit: State of Maine, Department of Health and Human Services Credit: State of Maine, Department of Health and Human Services In case you can’t make it out, Janet Mills acknowledges in this document that Maine provides SNAP benefits to non-citizens, including 5,000 non-citizens with EBT cards who don’t have jobs, even though they’re eligible to work. And EBT cards are very valuable, as you might imagine. An lIIegaI alien in Chicago, Illinois USA still has $7,612 left on his “refugee” EBT card. The original amount was $10,800.00. pic.twitter.com/vPRinXG2qE — Dane (@UltraDane) May 3, 2025 Credit: @UltraDane/X.com An illegal in the US reportedly left behind a receipt showing over $13K EBT Food Stamp balance and over $4K EBT Cash balance pic.twitter.com/NGd2ybMYJX — Paul A. Szypula ?? (@Bubblebathgirl) August 3, 2024 Credit: @Bubblebathgirl/X.com Some states print your total EBT balance on the receipt. And as you can see, there are people with EBT balances of over $10,000 in some cases. It’s clearly in excess of what any reasonable person would need for groceries. Watch: ? Grocery store worker in Springfield, Ohio says that Haitian migrants have EBT cards with $13,000 for food and $29,000 for cash. Can you believe this? ?? pic.twitter.com/PkbopVrThN — AmericanPapaBear™ (@AmericaPapaBear) September 26, 2024 Credit: @AmericaPapaBear/X.com It is a serious problem, and it gets worse when you realize how many illegal aliens are taking advantage of the system. It’s not just 5,000 people in Maine. This is from the Economic Policy Innovation Center: The Food Stamp program provided benefits to 1.4 million noncitizens in fiscal year 2022, the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Another 2.2 million children living with noncitizens were also on Food Stamps. … California led the way in enrolling noncitizens on Food Stamps, with 273,000 in Fiscal Years 2022. So there’s a clear incentive here for illegal aliens to have children — not simply so that those children can be citizens, but also so that they can collect food stamps. That may be part of the reason why, according to the Center for Immigration Studies: Compared to households headed by the U.S.-born, immigrant-headed households have especially high use of food programs (36 percent vs. 25 percent for the U.S.-born). Additionally, “Food stamp use by Afghan households increased the most, from 19 percent to 35 percent between 2010 and 2019, while falling from 11 percent to 10 percent for native-born households.” Yes, 35% of Afghan households were on food stamps. A typical family of four will receive around $800 in monthly assistance, which is more than many American families spend. This isn’t just wasteful spending. This is a direct attack on you and your family. You are being robbed at gunpoint by the state and forced to subsidize foreigners. We are inviting people to come to this country and live off of the labor of its citizens. Words cannot describe how evil this is. I’ve long said that government shutdowns serve no purpose — that they inevitably get resolved, with no meaningful interruption or changes to anyone’s life — but this particular shutdown presents a clear opportunity for a different result. This time around, it’s extremely easy to see how much overt waste and corruption is inherent in the SNAP system, largely because the people receiving these benefits can’t stop posting on TikTok. They’re revealing — inadvertently — that they don’t actually need the money. They’re telling us that they don’t need the money in about a dozen different ways — by making threats, by highlighting the testimony of morbidly obese women, by admitting that they’re handing the cash to illegal aliens, and so on. So let’s listen to these people, for once. Let’s abolish the SNAP program altogether. Let’s make this government shutdown the first shutdown in the history of this country that’s actually been productive. No one will starve as a result. But a few million people, against their will, might have to learn the all-important twin concepts of budgeting and dieting. And if that happens — which it will, if SNAP is abolished — we’ll all be much better off as a result.