WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said on Nov 4 that food assistance aid for millions of Americans will be given out only when the federal government shutdown ends, as lawyers for cities and nonprofits urged a federal judge in Rhode Island to force his administration to fully fund the benefits.

Mr Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap) benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The Republican president’s threat to withhold Snap benefits for 42 million Americans came a day after the US Department of Agriculture said it would use emergency funding to pay for reduced benefits in November after a judge blocked its plans to suspend payments during the shutdown.

The White House said on Nov 4 that the president is fully complying with a court order requiring the government to fund Snap food benefits.

The prolonged government shutdown on Nov 4 entered its 35th day,

matching a record set during Mr Trump’s first term

US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island had given the administration the option of either using US$5.25 billion (S$6.8 billion) in emergency funding to provide partial benefits once it resolved “administrative and clerical burdens” or tapping additional funding to provide Snap benefits in full in November.

The USDA on Nov 3 said that, in light of his ruling, it would use the contingency funding to partially pay for Snap benefits, which cost US$8 billion to US$9 billion per month.

But the administration declined to tap other funding and said that it could take some states, which adm...