Trump take groceries

There’s been a substantial amount of discussion about the fact that the forthcoming savage cuts to Medicaid is that they don’t just affect the people who lose coverage — by causing hospitals to be overcrowded or close outright they make things worse for entire communities. The same thing is true of the forthcoming SNAP cuts:

The deep cuts Republicans made to federal nutrition programs this summer are poised to devastate independent grocery stores that are central to many low-income communities, including those that voted for President Donald Trump.

Food aid recipients often make up the majority of small grocers’ customer base in remote areas and food deserts — places that have limited options for fresh, healthy food.

But a central part of paying for the GOP policy megabill Trump signed on July 4 relied on slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative.

Even though some provisions in the new law won’t go into effect for another three years, others, like expanded work requirements for SNAP participants, could kick some families out of the program and hit the bottom lines of small grocery stores within months. It’s a chain reaction set off in Washington that’s likely to reshape how people access food in more isolated communities even if they don’t use federal assistance.

“I lean pretty heavily right most of the time, but one of the things that I do lean to the left on is we’re a pretty wealthy country, we can help people out,” said St. Johns, Arizona, Mayor Spence Udall, whose town overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2024.

“The businesses that will be affected most by this are the businesses that are most disadvantaged, that are struggling, and you’re going to find that in the rural markets,” he added.

Udall’s community, which sits halfway between — but still far from — Phoenix and Albuquerque, has one grocery store and one local food bank serving over 3,500 people. If the store shutters due to the food aid cuts, the next closest option for groceries is roughly 30 miles away.

Republicans’ overhaul of the anti-hunger program will lead to thousands of job losses and a drop in revenue across the agriculture, retail grocery and food processing industries, according to a study from the Commonwealth Fund.

Wal-Marts can survive this; a lot of independent groceries won’t. Incidentally, one interesting takeaway from this article about experiments in public grocery stores is that one reason some of them struggle or fail is that the local Yankee Dollar will respond by finally agreeing to stock some fresh produce. So again the closure of local groceries can have knock-off effects that make things even worse, as dollar stores face less competition and have less incentive to stock groceries that fewer people will be able to afford.

One question going forward is whether Trump’s total economic war on rural communities will stop Republicans from running up ever-rising margins. I’m not terribly optimistic, but remember that in statewide elections (particularly off-term ones) Dems don’t need to start winning in rural areas — if they can cut into Republican margins a bit this could be important as Republicans continue to chase away suburban voters and rely on sporadic low-information voters.