More than 5.8 million individuals dropped off food stamps since President Donald Trump completed his first full month in office, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The most recent USDA data shows that 5,896,383 people discontinued their participation in the nation’s food stamp program— also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)— since February 2017 when Trump completed his first month as president.
Individual and household participation in SNAP had consistently declined overall since 2013 back when the Obama administration was in power, and enrollment in the program reached its highest point in U.S. history.
Food stamp enrollment plummeted after states passed reform measures to curb dependency on welfare, requiring food stamp recipients to work, volunteer, attend school, or receive job training for 20 hours per week.
Under the Trump administration, those numbers have gone down even further.
There are currently 36,401,408 individuals and 18,462,672 households enrolled in the food stamp program. Still, USDA officials said those numbers are “preliminary” due to the 2018 government shutdown, which affected food stamp administration at the beginning of 2019.
When Trump took office, 42,297,791 individuals and 20,937,903 households were enrolled in food stamps.
Although food stamp participation went up slightly for July and August in the short term, a longer term look at the data among the states shows that there is a decline in the number of people on food stamps.
Of the states that reported data, 46 out 50 states reported a percent decrease in the number of people on food stamps over the past year. North Carolina was excluded from the count because it is missing data reports from February 2018 to present.