Since President Trump returned to the Oval Office, he has delivered some of the most momentous reforms in the history of the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), also known as the food stamp program. Rife with fraud and exploitation, the program is costing taxpayers billions of dollars every year and enriching criminals. Our research, however, has uncovered a new outrage: More than 5,000 liquor stores and smoke shops are now considered “authorized retailers” to accept food stamps — half of which were approved by the Biden-Autopen administration. Fortunately, President Trump has begun a major crackdown on abuses. As it continues to improve and renovate the food stamp program, it should ensure that only stores that help achieve the program’s mission are approved as retailers. Nevertheless, most food stamp trafficking happens not at grocery stores, but at convenience stores. In fact, trafficking takes place at more than one out of five convenience stores that accept food stamps. And nearly three out of every four stores that accept food stamps are convenience stores. The Agriculture Department is supposed to vet and approve stores before allowing them to receive food stamps. But under the Biden administration, the process reportedly took as little as 15 minutes. This is obviously not enough scrutiny for stores receiving our tax dollars. Thankfully, Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins approved the first-ever waivers to allow states to defund soda and junk food in their food stamp programs, and states like Nebraska and Colorado have already filed waivers to do so. To be eligible to receive food stamps, stores are supposed to sell more than a dozen different staple food items, or have food sales as a majority of their revenue. The stores must “effectuate the purpose of the program,” which is to improve nutrition for lower-income Americans. Yet more than 4,000 liquor stores and 1,000 tobacco shops are currently considered USDA-approved vendors — which is suspicious, to put it mildly. The idea that a liquor store sells healthy and nutritious food — or that a tobacco store receives a majority of its revenue from food sales — is doubtful. But even if that were the case, liquor stores and tobacco stores simply do not “effectuate the purpose” of the food stamp program. The food stamp program was created in 1964, specifically to “provide for improved levels of nutrition among low-income households.” But, over the last six decades, politicians and bureaucrats have often lost sight of its mission and opened it up to enormous levels of waste, fraud, and abuse. As a result, over the last 25 years, food stamp spending has exploded, growing more than sixfold to more than $100 billion per year. More spending has meant more opportunities for fraud, and it is estimated that last year alone, more than $2 billion in food stamp benefits were trafficked — that is, sold for cash at a discount or used to buy food that was then sold for cash. Food stamp trafficking has grown tenfold over the last 25 years. President Trump signed historic legislation to make states pay when they misuse tax dollars. These steps alone will save taxpayers billions of dollars — and thankfully, the Trump administration is not resting on its laurels and is continuing its work to improve the program by addressing food stamp trafficking. Food stamp trafficking exploded under the Biden administration, as Democrats turned a blind eye to rampant fraud. Half of the liquor stores and smoke shops that are authorized food stamp retailers were approved under President Biden. Most of these stores are in California, but states like Michigan and Illinois also have hundreds of liquor stores and smoke shops that are authorized to accept food stamps. In fact, liquor stores or smoke shops are eligible to accept food stamps in every single state but North Dakota. By 2022, nearly half of all stores receiving food stamps were convenience stores, with more than four times as many convenience stores receiving food stamps — and 15 times as much taxpayer money spent there — as there were two decades earlier. USDA Secretary Rollins recently issued a new rule that more than doubled the number of required staple food items for stores to qualify to accept food stamps. The new rule also closes loopholes that counted some snack foods as staples. Secretary Rollins is also simplifying the staple food categories, making enforcement easier and ultimately more effective. These rules are just the first step, and there are indications from USDA that a larger crackdown may be coming. This is excellent news, but USDA should go all the way: Prohibit liquor stores, smoke shops, and other retailers that do not “improve levels of nutrition” from accepting food stamp benefits altogether. Allowing our tax dollars to be used at tobacco shops and liquor stores is not just harmful to hardworking taxpayers, but it also harms the people that food stamps are supposed to help. Secretary Rollins should keep up the good work and make the food stamp program fulfill its original purpose of improving nutrition for those who need it. * * * Michael Greibrok is a Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). Kristi Stahr is a Senior Data Analyst at the FGA. The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Qatari opposition leader Sheik Khalid Al-Hail conducted his first English-language interview with staunchly conservative Australian podcast host Erin Molan, blistering the Qatari government for its support of terrorist groups around the world. Molan asked Al-Hail, the leader of the Qatar National Democratic Party (QNDP), which advocates for a constitutional monarchy, about his movement, noting, “I would hazard a guess most people listening have never heard of such a thing, did not realize it existed. And that is for good reason, because the powers that be in Qatar don’t want the world to know that you exist.” “Our movement started in 2010 within Qatar,” Al-Hail, who currently lives in exile in the United Kingdom, recalled, pointing out his group held a 2017 conference in Egypt where they spoke about the support of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. “A lot of people that are affiliated with the Qatari opposition … are banned from traveling from Doha,” he stated. “Those who are outside the country have a genuine fear of prosecution. They cannot come back to the country.” He said that in 2013, he was given a promise by the Qatari leadership, recalling that they stated, “You can come back to Doha. It will be safe. Everything will be fine.” “And it was an absolute nightmare for me,” he said. “I went back to Doha. I’ve been tortured; I’ve been in the high-security intelligence prison for no reason. They started to accuse me of some lies. I managed to run from the country. I didn’t leave the country legally, but I managed to run outside the country because I had some influence within the regime in that time. So I left Qatar, and I established the movement in that time.” “The way they operate is like a criminal organization just hunting and undermining people,” he declared. The New York Times reported in 2016 that poet Muhammad al-Ajami was serving a 15-year sentence “after a secret trial in 2012, for ‘criticizing the emir’ in a poem that praised the Arab Spring,” adding, “Mr. Hail was jailed by the Qatari regime in 2010 and 2014, he said, and in the state security agency’s headquarters, he was beaten, deprived of sleep and electrocuted.” 50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at DailyWire.com/cyberweek. “Talk to me about why this regime is not legitimate, why they are not what they paint themselves to be in the Western world,” Molan prompted. “They painted themselves as these peacemakers that were there to help when they themselves funded the October 7 attacks. They harbored the leaders of Hamas, yet they pretend to be the ones that care deeply about trying to create peace in a region where they are, on the other side, creating all the chaos,” she added. “It’s not an accusation; it’s a factual information. The Qatari regime’s existence is based on terrorism,” Al Hail replied. “The regime of Qatar are trying to undermine us in every single movement,” he continued. “They are smart. They’re spending their money to do one thing. In the West, in America, I was shocked to know a few days ago that they are promoting to some people in America that I am a front for the Qatari regime. Without saying it, they pay people to say, ‘Oh, this guy has been created by the Qatari regime to go and just pretend there is an opposition of Qatar.’ And that’s an absolute bullsh*t. What they’re trying to do is undermine every single opposition they face. They are hacking people. They are terrorizing people.” “Talk to me about the people on the ground in Doha,” Molan suggested. “You look at the Iranian regime, over 80% minimum despise that illegal regime. They are not the legitimate leaders of Iran. Is it a similar situation in Qatar? Do the majority of people want there to be democracy? Do they want their leaders harboring terrorists?” “Qatar has something called original Qataris,” Al-Hail explained. “And the Qataris, the migrant Qataris who came recently — like 20, 30 years ago. So Qatar, to make balance, to control the country, they replaced the original people with outsiders. … When the first democratic election happened in Qatar in 2021 — which they promised from 2013  — the whole election was based on the original Qataris. They excluded the other people. So when that happened, the majority of the seats went to the people that oppose the Qatari regime and the Qatari mentality. And what happened after? They canceled the election. They canceled the whole election. Even in the army of Qatar, they intentionally mixed foreigners with the locals because they know, for fact, that the Qatari people, the original Qatari people, they condemn the Qatari government actions.” “The Qatari people are not Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “We are not Muslim Brotherhood. We are not Islamists. We are not extremists. It’s the regime and their affiliates. That’s the problem. So if you talk about legitimacy, let me come back to you and say, my promise to the world, this regime will not stand for long. … Renting loyalty and renting influence is temporary. It’s for today, tomorrow, and after tomorrow. But things are changing. The world is changing. Money will buy silence for a short period of time. But to stop a terrorist regime like the Qatari regime, you have to go to the source of the issue. They have an enormous access to money, and that’s the problem. So if you stop that, you stop terrorism in the world.” “Let me get this from you now,” Molan said. “You would end every cent were you to somehow form a government in Qatar to go in and lead. Under your leadership, there would not be a cent going to Muslim Brotherhood or any Islamic extremist group, any extremist group at all. Is that what you promise?” “What I promise to the world, I am not acting alone,” Al Hail responded. “So Qatar is a monarchy system. We appreciate that and we respect that as Qataris. We have a group from the royal family of Qatar who believe exactly what we say. For the sake of the stability of the nation, we are leading a movement now that leads to the change of what’s happening in Qatar.” He said the U.S. military base in Doha would remain unaffected, adding, “Nothing would be changed. The only thing that would be changed is that there is no more Hamas in Doha. There is no more Muslim Brotherhood. There is no more extremists in Qatar. Our promise to the world that we will be the best solution for the West. And our money will be focused on developing our own people. We were not going to spend our money anymore to support Hamas or to support these terrorist organizations. Our movement is a peaceful movement.” “Khalid, as someone who believes in the complete opposite of what that regime currently promotes, I hope and pray you are right. Thank you so very much. Thank you for being so brave. Thank you for fighting for what matters,” Molan stated, then concluded to her audience, “Please share with everyone because this voice needs to be amplified if we ever want to change what is happening in the Middle East and, of course, as an extension of that, because the pain that terrorism causes goes well beyond those borders.”

President Donald Trump weighed in on the anticipated Netflix–Warner Bros. merger, saying the amount of market share Netflix would gain “could be a problem.” Trump took questions from the red carpet at a Kennedy Center event over the weekend. Then on Monday, Paramount challenged Netflix with an aggressive bid of its own. “Netflix is a great company. They’ve done a phenomenal job. Ted is a fantastic man,” he said of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, mentioning they met in the Oval Office last week. “I have a lot of respect for him, but it’s a lot of market share, so we’ll have to see what happens.” When asked if Netflix should purchase Warner Bros., Trump replied, “Well that’s the question.” “They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros., you know, that share goes up a lot so, I don’t know,” the president added. “I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share.” The decision is expected to require approval by the Justice Department’s antitrust division.  Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a bid to buy Warner Bros. Paramount CEO David Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is a friend of President Trump and a major donor. The all-cash offer was touted as being “superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion,” plus promised “$18 billion more in cash” compared to the Netflix offer, per a press release shared on Monday. Netflix announced on Friday that it would acquire Warner Bros., including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO, in a massive deal valued at $82.7 billion. Netflix said Warner Bros.’ current method of operating, “including theatrical releases for films,” will continue in an apparent effort to quell fears from critics of the acquisition. “I know some of you’re surprised that we’re making this acquisition, and I certainly understand why. Over the years, we have been known to be builders, not buyers,” Sarandos said during an investor call Friday morning, as The Daily Wire previously reported. “We already have incredible shows and movies and a great business model, and it’s working for talent, it’s working for consumers and it’s working for shareholders. This is a rare opportunity,” he said. “It’s going to help us achieve our mission to entertain the world and to bring people together through great stories.” The acquisition is expected to close once Warner Bros. completes its planned spinoff from Discovery Global, meaning the deal would potentially finalize in the third quarter of 2026.

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