Food Stamps Are Down 13%. Here's What the Government's Own Numbers Say.
A headline today says the Trump administration "pushed off 13% of Americans enrolled in food stamps." The drop is real. The rest of the story, from both sides, needs a closer look.
By Clara Hughes
On Sunday morning, The Guardian ran this headline: "Trump administration has pushed off 13% of Americans enrolled in food stamps." It's the kind of line that gets passed around Facebook and repeated on cable before anyone checks it. So we checked it, using the Department of Agriculture's own data tables, the Congressional Research Service, the Congressional Budget Office, and USDA's published reports. Here is what holds up, what doesn't, and what both parties would rather you didn't notice. The verdict FACT: The 13% drop is real. USDA's own state-by-state table puts SNAP participation at 41,603,048 people in July 2025, the month the One Big Beautiful Bill Act became law. In July 2026 it was 36,087,667. That's about 5.5 million fewer people, and USDA itself calculates the change at −13.3%. MISLEADING: "13% of Americans." It's 13% of SNAP enrollees, not 13% of Americans. About 36 million people are still enrolled. SPIN: "Pushed off." The decline began before the law. Congress wrote the rules, and USDA says no single policy explains the drop. The new rules clearly played a big part, but "pushed off" is advocacy, not arithmetic. ALSO SPIN: "They all got jobs." The jobs data don't show a hiring boom big enough to explain 5.5 million people leaving the rolls. CAN'T VERIFY: the "lowest since 2009" claim that has been repeated in coverage this week. USDA's own annual table complicates it (more below). This is an Altas Premium Special Report. Keep reading for the month-by-month USDA numbers, the states with the biggest drops (Florida and Michigan are on the list), the $10.1 billion in improper payments, what the law actually changed, and what to watch before the next deadline. [Subscribe to Altas World News →] The numbers, straight from USDA USDA's food-assistance agency publishes monthly SNAP participation tables. The latest version, with "data as of October 9, 2026," runs through July 2026. Here is the national monthly count: MonthPeople on SNAP Oct 2024 (recent peak)43,2…