The USDA Website Says It All
From transphobia to xenophobia, the USDA’s latest statement shows exactly what happens when bigotry becomes government policy.
This is the message currently sitting at the top of the USDA website as of drafting this newsletter on October 27. It reads:
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
That’s not a parody. That’s the actual language from a federal agency’s website—language that sounds ripped straight from a Truth Social rant. It’s juvenile, propagandistic, and shows how far this administration has gone in weaponizing the federal government against the very people it’s supposed to serve.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a messaging issue. This is Project 2025 in action—dismantling professional governance and replacing it with far-right political theater built on fear and hate.
And the way they slip in “gender mutilation procedures”? That’s not accidental. That’s transphobia, institutionalized. This administration has made it abundantly clear that it would rather transgender people not exist—or worse, be six feet under.
If I hadn’t transitioned, I would be dead. I’ve been there. I’ve tried to “pray the trans away.” It doesn’t work. Science doesn’t work that way. My existence isn’t up for debate. But that’s exactly what they’re doing—turning our lives into rhetorical targets to distract from their own failures.
Meanwhile, conservative figures like Mike Davis, a former law clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch, are posting this kind of filth on social media:
“We should only help people who can’t help themselves.
It’s outrageous 40MM people get food stamps.
Get off your fat, ghetto asses.
Get a job.
Stop reproducing.
Change your shitty culture.
Stop giving food stamps to immigrants.
We don’t want you here, if you won’t work.”
This is the mindset now shaping public policy—xenophobia, classism, and open racism masquerading as fiscal responsibility.
I’m self-employed. I freelance. I write for multiple outlets, across multiple beats. That’s more than a full-time job. So when people like Davis sneer “get a job,” they’re not just spewing hatred—they’re denying the reality of modern work and weaponizing stigma against anyone who struggles to make ends meet in this economy.
This is what they want: a society where empathy is weakness, where dignity is conditional, and where entire communities—queer people, immigrants, the poor—are deemed expendable.
Here’s what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on October 23, as the government shutdown dragged into its fourth week—now day twenty-nine and counting:
“Right now, on day twenty-three of the longest total government shutdown in American history, millions of American families are wondering how they’ll make rent, pay their bills, or put food on the table. And what’s the Republican response? To hand Donald Trump and his right-hand man, Russ Vought—the originator of the evil, awful Project 2025—even more power to decide who gets paid and who gets punished.
…We will not give Donald Trump a license to play politics with people’s livelihoods. That’s why we oppose the Senator Johnson bill, because it doesn’t end the pain of this shutdown—it extends it.”
He’s right. Every word of it. This shutdown—and the hate embedded in that USDA statement—is deliberate. It’s the logical outcome of a political movement that believes government should punish, not protect.
Bigotry should not be federal policy. And yet here we are.