President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared that he would only distribute SNAP benefits, aka "food stamps", once the Democrats agreed to end the ongoing government shutdown.

Trump made the announcement in the wake of court orders demanding he use emergency funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing, despite the government failing to approve a budget.

"SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly 'handed' to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" he posted on Truth Social.

The White House later clarified that the administration is in full compliance with the court orders and is working to get partial SNAP payments “out the door as much as we can and as quickly as we can.”

"The recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand it’s going to take some time to receive this money because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Leavitt also said the president's statement was referring to future SNAP benefits and that Trump does not want to deplete emergency funds in the case of a "catastrophe," per The Hill. 

Earlier this week, Trump administration officials suggested they had worked out an arrangement to partially fund SNAP benefits. Roughly 42 million people currently receive SNAP benefits.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.