Trump Thought Mostly Black People Are on Welfare, But Statistics Show Otherwise

by Kathy Grear 03/12/2018

Last March, then-newly elected President Trump reportedly met with the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. During the meeting, one of the members told Trump that welfare reforms would be unfavorable to her constituents and added that “not all of them are Black.”

In fact, whites are the biggest beneficiaries when it comes to government safety-net programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, commonly referred to as welfare.

President Donald Trump was surprised to know that welfare beneficiaries are not mostly Black. Recent statistics prove that more whites are actually benefiting from welfare instead.

Just over 40 percent of SNAP recipients are white. Another 25.7 percent are black, 10.3 percent are Hispanic, 2.1 percent are Asian and 1.2 percent are Native American, according to a 2015 Department of Agriculture report.

Despite Trump’s newly gleaned information, welfare reform remains one of his top goals for 2018. His administration and Congressional Republicans are looking to overhaul federal safety-net programs like SNAP, Medicaid and housing benefits.

Trump seemed skeptical on welfare reforms and asked, “Really? Then what are they?”

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, white men and women without a college degree that are 18 to 64 years old represent the largest class of adults that benefit from government safety-net programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, also known as welfare.

The U.S. Think Tank’s 2017 report stated that 6.2 million working-age whites were pushed up on the poverty line in 2014, while there were only 2.8 million blacks and 2.4 million Hispanics.

Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

The same also goes for the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) most commonly known as food stamps.

Based on the 2015 report of Department of Agriculture, only 25.7 percent of SNAP recipients are black, 10 percent are Hispanic, 2.1 percent are Asian, 1.2 percent are Native American, while 40 percent of SNAP recipients are white.

Even after knowing these, welfare reforms are still one of Trump’s goals for 2018. His administration, together with the Congressional Republicans, are planning to make changes on federal safety-net programs like SNAP, Medicaid and housing benefits.