Not so, Krugman says. Trump knew exactly what he was doing:

"The party at Mar a Lago wasn’t a case of tone deafness, living it up despite others’ suffering. It was in large part a party held to celebrate others’ suffering."

For Trump and his followers, the cruelty always has been the point. It's what they celebrate:

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/2

"Of course he realized how it would look. He understood perfectly well that he was partying while ordinary Americans were suffering. And that understanding — combined with the belief that he can get away with it — was a big reason he enjoyed the event.

During Trump’s first term Adam Serwer wrote a justly celebrated article for The Atlantic titled 'The cruelty is the point.'”

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #SNAP #shutdown
/3

"Being rich is fun because you have lots of stuff. But an important part of the pleasure is not just enjoying what you have but enjoying what others do not have. Policing the purchases of the poor is part of the entitlement of the wealthy. Trump can have a gold plated bathroom because that’s the kind of thing he deserves."

~ Noah Berlatsky

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/4

https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/republicans-want-poor-people-to-suffer

"Trump and his minions can also shame and police poor people for buying soda, or getting their nails done, because, again, those are the perks of being wealthy.

Power is entitlement—and part of entitlement is the sadistic pleasure of immiserating women, Black people, immigrants, the poor. As Adam Serwer says, the cruelty is the point."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/5

"The Trump administration said it would provide only partial relief to recipients of food stamps on Monday, amid mounting uncertainty among the nearly 42 million people on the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap). ...

How did we get here?"

~ Jem Bartholomew

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/6

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/first-thing-trump-administration-to-fund-just-half-of-food-stamp-benefits

"As a result of the shutdown, Donald Trump has threatened to cut off the food benefits for the first time in the program’s more than 60-year history. A federal judge last week prevented the Department of Agriculture from suspending Snap altogether."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/7

"Trump agrees to only starve families a little bit."

~ Alix Breeden

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/8

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/11/3/2351900/-Trump-agrees-to-only-starve-families-a-little-bit

"The administration’s position on SNAP shows its cruelty and sends a message that no one is safe from the administration’s heartless disregard of the law. ... Inhumane and cruel have become the watchwords of the Trump administration."

~ Austin Sarat and Steve Kramer

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/9

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/a-mia-president-and-a-hungry-america

"Grocery prices are 2.7 percent higher than they were last September and 1.4 percent higher than January, when Trump triumphantly returned to office. They’re also still on the rise, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday. Overall, grocery prices have increased almost 30 percent in the last five years."

~ Rachel Kahn

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #SNAP #shutdown
/10

https://newrepublic.com/post/202586/no-youre-wrong-trump-spirals-food-prices-60-minutes

"Meanwhile, Trump is gilding the Oval Office and building a ballroom. At least he’s not out of touch!"

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown #ballroom #EpsteinBallroom
/11

"The Trump Administration is now threatening grocery stores that give discounts to SNAP eligible Americans."

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/12

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-trump-threatens-grocery-stores

"The casual cruelty of limiting or cutting off SNAP isn’t just about budgets. It’s about power. It’s about who gets to eat, who gets to work, & who stays dependent. The White House’s refusal to fully extend funding for SNAP will disproportionately harm women and children, who make up the vast majority of SNAP recipients."

~ Cammy Pedroja

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #women #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/13

https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/republicans-snap-benefits-women

"It’s all part of the right’s deeper political project to control women and assert their preferred gender and class-based hierarchies."

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #women #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown #patriarchy #gender #misogyny
/14

"It’s … an astonishing act of cruelty, especially as grocery prices are going up—Trump lied that they are stable in the 60 Minutes interview—hiring has slowed, and the nation is about to celebrate Thanksgiving."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/15

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-3-2025

"President Donald Trump went rogue on Truth Social on Tuesday, contradicting his own administration’s decision a day earlier to fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown—and potentially violating a court order in the process."

~ Rachel Kahn

#Trump #Republicans #CrueltyIsthePoint #food #hunger #children #GreatGatsby #GildedAge #RoaringTwenties #SNAP #shutdown
/16

https://newrepublic.com/post/202668/trump-shocks-team-defy-courts-stop-funding-snap