USDA suspends federal financial awards to Minnesota and Minneapolis

I feel like the headline "suspends federal financial awards" doesn't really convey that this is intended to end SNAP benefits and leave many people without food.

I just figured out the back story, the state has a pending court decision in a lawsuit vs. the USDA. This announcement is clearly a political stunt in light of that:

https://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2026/01/snap-mi...

I'm not sure where to look for current figures (Wikipedia [0] is a decade out of date) - is Minnesota a net contributor or a net drain on the US federal budget?

It remains an odd strategy where money needs to be skimmed before it can be given farmers. Looking at the per capita numbers from 2015 and the raw tax take in 2024 it looks like Minnesota actually has enough money to sort itself out without relying on other states. It certainly seems like a strategic error to centralise significant influence over the food supply to people like Trump.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_tax_revenue_by_state#F...

USDA or some specific czar, pasha or chief of staff in the Trump admin? Or perhaps Trump himself? It would be good practice to start assigning responsibilities directly to those acting by executive fiat. Credit where credit is due, if these are correct actions.

> "Enough is enough! The Trump administration has uncovered massive fraud in Minnesota and Minneapolis -- billions siphoned off by fraudsters.

Is that true? Seems like a lot of money to just suddenly notice.

This type of overly broad collective punishment would be considered a war crime under international law. Potentially hundreds of thousands of families will go hungry as a result. All for fraud that is ALLEGED to be $9B without much evidence.

Meanwhile the administration added 4 trillion in new unnecessary spending, including $170 billion in additional funding for DHS and ICE. Those contracts probably go to companies with some tie to the Trump family. That’s the real fraud. All this “Somalian fraud”, could be true, but is insignificant compared to the corruption in the Trump administration. And let’s not forget the Epstein files that they’re using Venezuelans and Somalians and immigrants to distract from.