- In fall 2025, social media users claimed that the fall 2025 disruption to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food assistance payments was part of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint linked to allies of U.S. President Donald Trump and published shortly before Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign.
- It’s true that Project 2025 proposed several changes to SNAP — tougher work rules, stricter waiver limits, revisions to the Thrifty Food Plan, limits on broad-based categorical eligibility and shifting nutrition programs to the Department of Health and Human Services. Some of these ideas later appeared in Trump’s signature tax and budget legislation, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- Project 2025 did not call for ending SNAP or targeting single parents, contrary to what some social media posts claimed. The document also did not outline plans to “gut” the program or remove agriculture from SNAP in a way that ends benefits. Instead, its recommendations focused on tightening eligibility rules, reinstating work requirements and reorganizing administrative responsibilities.
Social media users have claimed that the fall 2025 disruption to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food assistance payments was part of Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint linked to allies of U.S. President Donald Trump and published shortly before Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign. SNAP, commonly known as “food stamps,” is the country’s largest anti-hunger initiative, providing monthly benefits to nearly 42 million Americans in fiscal year 2024.
Posts across social media platforms including X, Facebook and Threads attributed the situation to Project 2025’s alleged proposals for overhauling federal nutrition programs.
“It was outlined in Project 2025 that they would take away SNAP from single parents, then use CPS [Child Protective Services] to place those kids in 2 parent households when those single parents can’t afford food,” one X post (archived) claimed.
(X user @talyaTheeEnby)
“FYI: Gutting SNAP benefits is outlined in Chapter 10 of Project 2025,” another post (archived) claimed, “Remember, this is all by design. ALL OF IT.”Â
“Hey Maga, this is literally in the Project 2025 plan, including separating agriculture from SNAP benefits and eliminating SNAP entirely. Call me a liar, I dare you. It is intentional cruelty. That is the goal,” another X post read.
In short, it’s true that Project 2025 proposed several changes to SNAP — tougher work rules, stricter waiver limits, revisions to the Thrifty Food Plan, limits on broad-based categorical eligibility and shifting nutrition programs to the Department of Health and Human Services. Some of these ideas later appeared in Trump’s signature tax and budget legislation, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But the plan did not call for ending SNAP or targeting single parents, contrary to what some social media posts claimed.
What Project 2025 actually says about SNAP
The claims circulating online refer to “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise,” a nearly 1,000-page policy document the Heritage Foundation published as part of the Project 2025 initiative. The document mentions “SNAP” or “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” more than 20 times and “food stamps” 10 times (including footnotes).Â
The relevant section, Chapter 10, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, does contain proposals to change how SNAP is administered.
The document called for re-implementing and strengthening work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, similar to a rule advanced during the first Trump administration. Under current law, the document claimed, states may request waivers from these requirements if unemployment is high or if the state lacks sufficient job opportunities. Project 2025 proposed tightening those waiver rules, echoing a 2019 USDA regulation that would have restricted states to seeking waivers only when unemployment exceeded 6% for more than 24 months. A federal judge blocked the rule, and although USDA initially appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit later allowed the department to withdraw that appeal, leaving the rule unimplemented.
Project 2025 also urged clarifying states’ ability to impose “general work requirements” on work-capable adults ages 16-59 who work fewer than 30 hours per week.
The document criticized what it called “broad-based categorical eligibility,” an administrative option that lets states qualify applicants for SNAP if they receive certain Temporary Assistance for Needy Families-funded services, even minimal ones, such as informational pamphlets. The authors argued that this allows applicants to bypass asset limits and proposed restoring stricter eligibility definitions. The first Trump administration proposed a rule to close the loophole, but it was never finalized.
The plan criticized the Biden administration’s 2021 update to the Thrifty Food Plan, which increased SNAP benefits — a change Congress instructed USDA to update but historically kept cost-neutral, meaning it was limited to inflation adjustments. Project 2025 suggested reevaluating the update and returning to a cost-neutral approach.
Project 2025 also called for further restricting states’ ability to boost SNAP benefits by issuing minimal Low-Income Heat and Energy Assistance Program payments, a practice the plan called a “heat-and-eat loophole.” The USDA drafted a rule to address this during the first Trump administration, but didn’t finalize it.
Another portion of the plan (Page 298) included a proposal to move the USDA food and nutrition programs to HHS. The plan framed this organizational change as an efficiency measure rather than a complete abolition of SNAP.
What the document does not say
Despite some social media claims, Project 2025 did not call for eliminating SNAP, separating children from single parents or using child protective services to intervene in households that receive food assistance. The document also did not outline plans to “gut” the program or remove agriculture from SNAP in a way that ends benefits. Instead, its recommendations focused on tightening eligibility rules, reinstating work requirements and reorganizing administrative responsibilities.
The news agency AFP also debunked the claim that Project 2025 called for ending SNAP altogether, noting that eliminating a federal program of this size would require congressional action.
How the proposals compare to Trump policies
Project 2025’s recommendations for SNAP line up closely with several changes later enacted in Trump’s budget bill, but not all of them became reality. The Heritage Foundation blueprint called for strengthening work requirements for “able-bodied adults without dependents,” tightening waiver rules and generally expanding rules for when SNAP recipients must work or train in order to qualify. Those ideas effectively became law on July 4, 2025, when Trump signed the budget bill, which expanded work requirements, narrowed the conditions under which states can get waivers and extended the rules to more recipients.
Project 2025 also urged re-evaluating the Thrifty Food Plan to prevent benefit increases and closing the so-called “heat-and-eat” loophole. The new law largely follows that agenda by requiring future TFP updates to be cost-neutral and tightening how LIHEAP energy payments can be used to boost SNAP utility deductions.
(Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, congress.gov)
However, one of the most sweeping Project 2025 ideas, moving all food and nutrition programs including SNAP out of the USDA and into HHS, has not been implemented. As of this writing, SNAP remains administered by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, and the budget bill did not transfer the program to HHS.
Bottom line
All in all, Project 2025 outlines a more-restrictive approach to SNAP, calling for tougher work requirements, limits on broad-based eligibility and various administrative changes. However, the document does not propose eliminating SNAP or removing children from single-parent households. And while several of its ideas later appeared in Trump-era legislation, other major proposals such as moving SNAP out of the USDA have not been enacted as of this writing.
We’ve investigated numerous Project 2025-related claims in the past. For instance, we fact-checked whether the initiative recommended government officials use encrypted messaging apps such as Signal to evade transparency and recordkeeping laws and investigated claims it proposed eliminating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Sources
Deng, Rae. “No, Project 2025 Doesn’t Advise Government Officials to Use Signal to Avoid Recordkeeping Laws.” Snopes, 28 Mar. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/signal-project-2025/.
Ibrahim, Aleksandra Wrona, Nur. “What to Know About Project 2025, the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government.” Snopes, 7 Nov. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/11/07/trump-project-2025-plan/.
Loe, Megan. “Will SNAP Benefits Be Issued in November 2025? What We Know.” Snopes, 21 Oct. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/10/21/snap-benefits-november-shutdown/.
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). 7 May 2025, https://acf.gov/ocs/programs/liheap.
Mandate for Leadership | A Product of The Heritage Foundation. https://www.mandateforleadership.org/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
PerryCook, Taija. “Project 2025 Proposes Eliminating the FDIC? Not Exactly.” Snopes, 22 Dec. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/project-2025-eliminating-fdic/.
Project Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/tag/project_2025/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
SNAP Work Requirements | Food and Nutrition Service. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/work-requirements. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Key Statistics and Research | Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Key Statistics and Research | Economic Research Service. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
USDA Food Plans | Food and Nutrition Service. https://www.fns.usda.gov/research/cnpp/usda-food-plans#:~:text=Consumers%20(CPI%2DU).-,Thrifty%20Food%20Plan,-Background. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
Welfare Benefits or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) | USAGov. https://www.usa.gov/welfare-benefits. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
Welfare Benefits or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) | USAGov. https://www.usa.gov/welfare-benefits. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
What Is SNAP? And Why Does It Matter? | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health. 29 Oct. 2025, https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/what-is-snap-and-why-does-it-matter.
