Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. look on near the exit, during a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Republican former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger sharply condemned President Donald Trump and his onetime GOP colleagues, accusing the president of “sadism” for refusing to release what experts say are legally mandated funds to sustain food stamp payments once they’re cut off on November 1.

Warning that “millions of Americans will stop receiving food stamps” if Congress does not act, Kinzinger explained that “mothers won’t be able to buy groceries. Veterans won’t be able to feed their families. Children will go hungry — not because of some natural disaster or accident of bureaucracy, but because our leaders made a deliberate choice.”

“I’ve been in Congress,” he wrote. “I’ve sat in those rooms where politicians calculate pain — where they decide that hurting ordinary Americans might be good for their ‘message.'”

Indeed, on Tuesday afternoon, Politico reported that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told his GOP conference to sit tight as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps shutoff hits.

“Things are getting real’ this week,” Johnson said, as Politico noted, adding that “he braced his members for some of the worst real-world fallout of the shutdown so far.”

Johnson “urged Republicans to stay in lockstep as ‘pressure mounts on Democrats’ — including key deadlines that will impact millions of low-income Americans.”

“’The pain register is about to hit level 10,’ Johnson said, adding that ‘sadly’ 42 million Americans will be hit this weekend when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits run out of money.”

Kinzinger pointed out that President Trump “has a choice” in this.

“He can use emergency funds to keep food assistance flowing while negotiations continue. He could say, ‘Not on my watch will people go hungry.’ But he isn’t. He is choosing not to — because he wants the pain. He wants the headlines. He wants to point to struggling families and say, ‘Blame the Democrats.'”

“That’s not leadership,” the former lawmaker lamented. “That’s sadism dressed up as politics.”

Expressing anger over Trump’s $300 million ballroom, and possible $250 million Department of Justice settlement for being investigated, Kinzinger said, “I’ve seen what shutdowns do.”

“I’ve seen families line up at food pantries because their pay got delayed. I’ve heard from single parents who rely on SNAP to get through the week. These are not ‘lazy’ people. They’re workers — often working full-time — who still fall below the poverty line because the system rewards wealth, not work.”

He added that “what government is supposed to do” is “protect its citizens in hard times. Not turn hunger into a political weapon.”

Denouncing the “moral bankruptcy” of congressional Republicans and President Trump, Kinzinger wrote, “When you see a president who intentionally withholds help to make a point, you’re seeing the moral rot that now defines the GOP. The cruelty isn’t a side effect — it’s the strategy.”