The government shutdown is officially over, but — just like in part one — the residue of how far elected officials were willing to go to ignore their own constituents still lingers. Voters took note, and one hopes the 42 million women and children who spent those 43 days wondering where the next meal would come from remember how long it took for the dealer to release the cards. As the shutdown unfolded, the truth became unavoidable: America wasn’t broke. The government was simply choosing who deserved to starve and who deserved to get paid.
The three-card setup (part two)
Card one: What you see
Republicans and Democrats were deadlocked over Affordable Care Act subsidies. The government shut down. Federal workers were furloughed. Food assistance programs faced cuts. Leaders insisted this was fiscal responsibility, that America was broke, and sacrifice was necessary. Meanwhile, anxiety surged as states and clinics warned families that WIC benefits might be delayed or cut off. Mothers across the country watched their refrigerators empty and their options shrink, only to be told there was nothing the government could do for them.
Card two: The distraction
While Americans argued over blame and the media focused on 900,000 furloughed workers, the real crisis slipped into the background. The headlines were about closed parks, federal paychecks, political standoffs — yet the most urgent story was the one being pushed behind the curtain: women and children unsure where their next meal would come from. The nation’s attention drifted exactly where the dealer wanted it, away from the people who needed help the most.
Card three: The sleight of hand
All the while, federal payments continued flowing seamlessly to Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties. Secret Service details were paid in full. Government functions held at Trump hotels were paid in full. Trump spent more than two weeks at Mar-a-Lago, including hosting a Halloween party, with every expense covered. The same government that claimed it couldn’t afford baby formula had no problem covering the President’s bills. Families waited for the cards to be released; the dealer kept shuffling money into his own hands.
The grotesque mathematics
The government claimed it could not afford to feed the millions relying on WIC because the annual budget was ‘too high’ at $7 billion. Yet the same government couldn’t fund SNAP for 42 million people, either. Additionally, in the same shutdown window, $20 billion moved to Argentina without congressional approval. Meanwhile, Trump’s business properties continued receiving government money. Secret Service staffing at Mar-a-Lago continued uninterrupted. Government events at Trump hotels continued as usual. For 43 days, mothers waited for food while the dealer kept the money moving everywhere except toward them.
The con’s brilliance
The brilliance of the con was simple: claim poverty while spending freely. Insist the country has no funds for babies, formula, or food assistance, all while funneling money into the President’s properties and foreign ventures. The dollars were there the entire time — they just weren’t meant for the women and children left hanging during those 43 days.
Who should be angry?
Mothers in red and blue states alike should be outraged, but especially the Republican mothers who believed their party had returned to “pro-life” roots. They voted for candidates who promised to protect families, yet watched their own WIC benefits vanish while Trump’s properties never missed a payment. These are the same mothers who were told abortion must be banned to “save the children,” who genuinely believed “pro-life” meant supporting children from conception through childhood. Yet they were the ones left wondering how to feed the babies they were forced to have.
The message to American mothers
It’s as if they’re saying: “You must have these babies. We’ll force you to carry them to term. We’ll criminalize your reproductive choices. But when you need $50 worth of formula and baby food? Sorry, we’re broke. The government is shut down. There’s no money. Well, no money for you. The payments to Mar-a-Lago clear just fine.”
The perfect con within the con
This was never just about a shutdown. Trump has already announced that programs he opposes “are never going to come back.” He is building a list of services he intends to permanently eliminate, labeling them “egregious socialist, semi-communist programs.” The shutdown wasn’t a mishap. It was an intentional move in a larger strategy to dismantle the very social supports families rely on.
The plan was straightforward: force birth in the name of being “pro-life,” slash food assistance as happened in the summer of 2025 with the largest SNAP cuts in history, use the shutdown as justification to make those cuts permanent, blame Democrats for the hunger his administration engineered, and continue paying himself throughout the chaos. Consider the irony; on July 4, President Trump signed the budget reconciliation law (H.R. 1) that cuts billions from food assistance programs. The law cuts SNAP funding by about 20%, or $186 billion through 2034, making it “the largest cut to SNAP in history,” according to CNBC.
Can you call it ‘Pro-Life?’
How can a government claim to be “pro-life” while refusing to feed American babies, yet continuing to pay the President’s businesses? Republican mothers should be the angriest of all. They believed the promise. They believed “pro-life” meant protecting children — not controlling women. Instead, they watched the dealer force them to have the baby, refuse to help them feed it and then cash out for himself before their child ever saw a dollar.
That’s not fiscal conservatism.
That’s not pro-life.
That’s the dealer, Trump, cashing out while letting you and your babies go hungry.
Tasha Jones is an award-winning journalist, poet, and cultural critic.
Tasha Jones is a poet, writer, researcher, and educator whose work explores language as a tool for liberation and resistance. She hosts In the Beginning: The Spoken Word Podcast, the #1 spoken word podcast on Apple and Spotify. Tasha is also the Poems & Parables Literary Journal editor and is currently writing Pyramids. Plantations. Projects. Penitentiaries. You can follow her on social media: @iamtashajones, @itbspokenwordpod, and @poemsandparables.
