President Donald Trump is catching major flak for hosting a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween Party just a few hours before more than 40 million American citizens lost their SNAP benefits due to a lapse.
The Republican president threw a lavish Halloween party at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FL, inspired by the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The name of the night’s official theme was “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody,” which is a title of a song that’s featured on the soundtrack of the 2013 movie version by Fergie, Q-Tip, and GoonRock.
Being that The Great Gatsby takes place during the 1920s and explores the moral decay of the rich, the glittering party captured the gaudiness of the time with a period-appropriate aesthetic and attendees wearing costumes inspired by the period.
President Trump was pictured enjoying himself at the Halloween bash, sitting next to his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
The timing of President Trump’s party, centered around the idea of prosperity, couldn’t have come at a worse time since it happened on the eve of millions of Americans losing access to food benefits.
The Congress failed to reopen the government before funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program stopped on Nov. 1. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration ot use emergency funds to pay for food aid in November, but that didn’t prevent the immediate lapse of benefits.
Trump addressed SNAP benefits on social media on the night of his party, writing, “I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible ... even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out. If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding.”
The following day, the judge who ordered Trump to fund SNAP benefits thanked him for his “quick and definitive response.”