USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins just dropped a number that should make every taxpayer in America want to throw their W-2 into a bonfire. Since she took office, 3.3 million people have quietly vanished from the SNAP rolls — including nearly 200,000 dead people who were apparently still enjoying their grocery benefits from beyond the grave.
Zombie shoppers! Who knew the afterlife had such great produce sections?
Here’s the kicker. Rollins sent a letter to all 50 governors within an hour of being sworn in informing them that the free-for-all was over. And wouldn’t you know it, millions of “hungry Americans” suddenly lost their appetites. The SNAP rolls dropped below 40 million for the first time since 2020, which is remarkable when you consider that the Biden administration nearly doubled the program with what Rollins calls “zero accountability.”
Zero. As in, before Rollins showed up, the federal government had never once required the states to share data on whether SNAP money was actually going to, you know, feeding people. We were just writing checks to 42 million Americans and hoping for the best. Your tax dollars at work, folks.
The 29 Republican-led states that actually cooperated with the USDA’s fraud review turned up roughly 500,000 people collecting benefits in two or more states simultaneously. They found one creative individual pulling SNAP benefits in six different states. They also discovered about 200,000 dead people still on the rolls — because apparently someone was using dead people’s Social Security numbers to keep the gravy train rolling. The whole operation has produced around 1,500 arrests and 125 convictions so far.
But here’s where it gets really good.
Those 3.3 million and all those arrests? That’s from the red states only. Twenty-one blue states — including California, New York, and Minnesota — have refused to hand over their data. Some of them actually sued the USDA for having the audacity to ask.
“When we finally get our hands on that blue state data, I think it is going to be more shocking than anyone could have even imagined,” Rollins told Breitbart. We believe her. If 29 cooperating states coughed up 200,000 dead benefit collectors, imagine what California’s been hiding. Gavin Newsom’s office said they “no longer take the Trump Administration’s words at face value.” (That’s rich coming from a governor who can’t keep water in his fire hydrants.)
New York Governor Kathy Hochul fired back with this gem on X: “Genuine question: Why is the Trump Administration so hellbent on people going hungry?”
Genuine answer, Kathy: Dead people don’t eat.
Speaking of New York, a massive $66 million fraud sting there uncovered a USDA employee named Arlasa Davis who was literally working in the division responsible for catching SNAP fraud — and instead sold hundreds of EBT license numbers to a network that supplied roughly 160 unauthorized terminals to smoke shops and other ineligible businesses across the city. She disguised her bribes in communications as “birthday gifts” and “flowers.” How sweet!
Rollins calls that bust “just the tip of the spear.” The USDA’s own chief SNAP fraud investigator, Mark Haskins, told investigators that while official dashboards show $250 million in benefits stolen in 2024, the real figure could be $12 billion a year. That’s not a rounding error. That’s 48 times the official number.
Meanwhile, two Romanian nationals who were in the country illegally got indicted for stealing $160,000 in SNAP benefits in Portland. A restaurant owner in Massachusetts was using fraudulently obtained SNAP cards to buy bulk food for his business tax-free, then wiring the profits to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. A ring of small stores in Boston was running $100,000 to $500,000 per month in SNAP redemptions — outpacing actual supermarkets — and shipping donated food meant for hungry children overseas.
These aren’t glitches in the system. The fraud was the system.
Democrats have always measured the success of a government program by how many people are on it. More recipients equals more success. By that logic, a hospital is doing great work when the morgue is full. Republicans measure success by how many people no longer need help. Funny how 3.3 million people managed to find their way off food stamps the second someone started looking at the receipts.
Rollins credits the DOGE team — yes, Elon’s guys — with jumpstarting the effort. “I can’t give enough credit to Elon Musk,” she said. After DOGE’s original mission wound down, Rollins pivoted the team directly into SNAP auditing. They’re still at it.
The blue state data is coming whether those governors like it or not. And when it does, the numbers are going to make 3.3 million look like a warm-up act. Every American who files a tax return this April should be asking themselves one simple question: How many dead people did I buy groceries for this year?
