Donald Trump speaks during an event about drug prices on Nov. 6, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Alain Stephens is an investigative reporter covering gun violence, arms trafficking, and federal law enforcement.

For the second time in a decade, Washington has shut itself down in a budget standoff, and ordinary Americans are quite literally paying the price. As of this writing, the federal government is in its second month of a shutdown, and 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps got nothing on November 1 — the first time in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s 60-year history that benefits have been fully halted. Think about that: Millions of families woke up hungry because politicians in Washington couldn’t d

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