Trump administration claims food aid fraud but critics say 'there's no evidence'

Source: The Guardian

Mon 4 May 2026 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 4 May 2026 13.39 EDT


The Trump administration’s attack on the 87-year-old food aid program that supports tens of millions of low-income Americans escalated last week as the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, claimed that 14,000 Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (Snap) recipients included owners of luxury vehicles such as Ferraris, Bentleys and Teslas. Critics charge that the broadside is part of a disinformation campaign aimed at undermining a benefit relied on by some of the most vulnerable people in the US.

Rollins did not cite the unnamed state or where this data and its claims came from, but it went viral among conservatives on social media with Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Rand Paul, Congressman Tim Burchett, and actor James Woods quoting the post. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the $57bn program, would not comment on the record and would not verify Rollins’s claims, which stem from an analysis by the Foundation for Government Accountability, an organization that has long advocated for cutting and reducing Snap and other federal government benefits.

The report says its conclusions stem from 2023 data obtained by an unnamed contractor from an anonymous state. It does not provide any information on the alleged Snap recipients or how their identities were matched to car registrations. The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) would not provide its data or methodology and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, ranking member of the nutrition and foreign agriculture subcommittee, said she was highly skeptical of the data. “First of all, if it were true, it would have been cited with the state and what happened,” said Hayes. “I just don’t buy the secretary saying that they have all this information as a gotcha moment, while not also simultaneously saying we plan to hold these people accountable for defrauding the system and taking food away from the people who really need it.”. Hayes said claims of fraud and abuse have often been made without evidence and that cases of provable fraud should be prosecuted, not be used to cut and attack Snap at the expense of people who need and rely on it.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/04/trump-administration-snap-food-aid