Bad Judges, Bad Friends - The Supreme Court Slows Hunger Aid as Orbán Is Courted in Washington

Washington – The events are unfolding rapidly today, and it has become a bitter day for millions of Americans who rely on food assistance. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Friday evening, in an emergency decision, that the government of Donald Trump may temporarily halt full SNAP payments for November. With this ruling, the nation’s highest court – at the request of the White House – overturned the previous decisions by District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. and the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which had required the government to pay full benefits to those in need across the country. A decision that leaves one speechless.

The case bears the docket number No. 25A104 – USDA v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts et al., and the decision was issued through what is known as the shadow docket – without a public hearing, without a written opinion, and within just a few hours. Ketanji Brown Jackson has temporarily suspended the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the Court of Appeals decides on further action. The path now runs through the appeals court in Boston, and then back again, as appeals are expected – returning to the Supreme Court, where the “Club of Six” awaits.

See also our article: “How Six Supreme Court Justices Revived the Spirit of the Third Reich” at https://kaizen-blog.org/en/wie-sechs-richter-des-supreme-court-den-geist-des-dritten-reichs-zurueckbrachten/

Trump celebrated. Amid the ongoing government shutdown, his administration had argued that there were no sufficient funds left in the emergency reserve to cover the month of November in full. But the true motive is political: a president who funnels billions into special budgets for the military and border enforcement wants to tell the poorest Americans there is no money left for bread, milk, and rice.

In front of supermarkets and food banks across the country, lines formed again that same day. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, families waited for hours in their cars to receive at least some food at an impromptu distribution event organized by “Food on the Move.” “We have three children, and the fridge is empty,” said a woman who asked not to be named. In California, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, authorities had already begun the payments – now they are stopped, while the Supreme Court reviews whether the injunction will remain in place.

That this decision came on the very same day Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was received at the White House did not go unnoticed. While America’s food aid was being put on ice, Donald Trump opened the door in the West Wing for the man who calls himself “Europe’s last Christian leader.” It was a staging between two men who confuse power with strength and authority with truth.

Orbán did not come empty-handed – and he did not leave empty-handed. After the meeting, he proudly announced that Hungary had received an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy. Russian gas delivered through TurkStream and oil from the Druzhba pipeline will continue to flow. “We asked the president to lift the sanctions,” Orbán said in media close to Budapest. “We agreed, the president decided – the sanctions do not apply to us.”

Research shows that Hungary will receive the exemption for one year. In return, the country will purchase U.S. liquefied natural gas worth about $600 million and will also buy fuel from Westinghouse for its Paks nuclear power plant. Orbán, however, emphasized that Hungary would continue to import Russian nuclear material – double loyalty, double game. So while families in the United States go hungry, an autocrat celebrates his diplomatic spoils in the Oval Office. Orbán smiles, Trump calls him a “great leader.” Europe is stunned. Ten senators from both parties – including Mitch McConnell, Jeanne Shaheen, and Chris Coons – had introduced a resolution before the meeting urging Hungary to end its dependence on Russian oil and gas. But Trump ignored them. “There will be no Europe if they don’t stop illegal migration,” he said later toward Brussels – a threat that sounded as if he meant to use the entire alliance as leverage.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán: “We are the only government in Europe that considers itself a modern Christian government. All other governments are, in fact, liberal, left-wing governments.”

Trump later warned Europe: “There will be no Europe if they don’t stop illegal migration.”

Orbán, who traveled to Washington with a large delegation of business leaders, ministers, and right-wing media figures, also met on the sidelines with Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the former Brazilian president, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup. Orbán later wrote on X: “We stand firmly with the Bolsonaros. Political witch-hunts have no place in a democracy.” It is a disturbing image: a president who freezes social programs and blocks food aid welcomes a man who systematically undermines European democracy, defends Russian energy imports, and praises convicted coup plotters as victims.

Bad judges, bad friends, bad times – the parallels are too obvious. While the Supreme Court in Washington weakens the social backbone of America to preserve Trump’s fiscal austerity, the president opens his doors to Putin’s authoritarian ally. Once again it becomes clear how closely domestic and foreign policy are intertwined in Trump’s America of 2025: those who tolerate hunger at home will also court despots abroad.

The day ended as it began – with long lines at food banks and long shadows over Washington.