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California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed President Donald Trump for “parading around the world” while millions of Americans are about to lose access to their crucial food benefits. Twenty-one states, including California, announced on Tuesday that they are suing Trump’s USDA over their refusal to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the ongoing government shutdown. “While Donald Trump parades around the world trying to repair the economic damage he’s done with his incompetence, he’s denying food to millions of Americans who will go hungry next month,” Newsom said on Tuesday, referencing the president’s trip to Asia this week to meet with political leaders. “It’s cruel and speaks to his basic lack of humanity. He doesn’t care about the people of this country, only himself.” California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta claimed the Department of Agriculture has the authority to use contingency funds to keep Americans fed, and has a legal duty to spend all available dollars to fund the SNAP benefits. Newsom also blasted Trump for pushing through $186 billion in cuts to funding, including SNAP and Medicaid, and called the shutdown a “manufactured crisis” happening at a regrettable time. “This choice they’re making, not to provide the contingency funds to mitigate the impacts during Thanksgiving... when we come together as a community and as a family,” Newsom said. “That’s cruelty.” Newsom also claimed that, as a billionaire, Trump is “disassociated” and “disconnected” from the pain and suffering of the real American people who are being impacted by the shutdown. He also questioned why the president went ahead with his tour of Asia “with a crisis of this magnitude” at home. The governor also noted that Trump “went golfing the weekend before the shutdown” and had one meeting about the shutdown where media was not invited. “Which for Donald Trump is extraordinary,” Newsom said, calling him an “unserious” president. Newsom said the stand-off will end when Trump “decides to get back on a plane and come back to the United States of America and in good faith negotiate with a coequal branch of government.” He also found time for a personal dig at the president’s knowledge of politics, noting “He’ll have time on the plane, and I would encourage him to read the Constitution of the United States of America. Three coequal branches of government. Popular sovereignty, the rule of law.” “President Trump,” Newsom added, “it’s the rule of law, not the rule of Don.” “The rule of Don” is one of Newsom’s favorite phrases to troll the president with, surfacing many times in his recent media appearances and social media posts. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
