DEMS/ENTITLEMENTS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump likes to claim credit for the number of Americans who have stopped receiving food stamps since he entered office. In July 2018, he said 3.5 million had fallen from the rolls; the next spring, five million had. In his State of the Union speech this month, the number had grown to seven million. Democrats say those figures only show Mr. Trump has pushed struggling Americans off public assistance by pressing to restrict eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and other programs. For now, the evidence supports Mr. Trump’s contention that an improving economy is more responsible for falling food stamp rolls than Mr. Trump’s attempts to limit access. Moving forward, however, Mr. Trump’s initiatives are poised to deny assistance to millions of Americans who would previously have been eligible.”
–Jim Tankersley and Lola Fadulu, “Millions of Americans Have Moved Off Assistance. Does Trump Get Credit?,” The New York Times online, February 20, 2020