This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

On Tuesday, President Trump angrily threatened to stop doling out food stamp payments until Democrats capitulate in the government shutdown fight.

Coming after a judge ordered the administration to continue

payments, Trump's threat unleashed widespread fears that he is now directly defying the courts.

Then we saw something unusual. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt quickly clarified that no,

Trump is going to obey the law after all. She offered a

tortured explanation as to what Trump initially meant that wasn't persuasive at all. We think this

shows that Trump's team knows they're in a weak position in the shutdown legally and politically.

They did not want to be perceived as breaking the law to deny food to the

hungry. David Dayan, executive editor of the American prospect, has a good piece arguing that

Trump knows he's lost the politics of this standoff. So we're talking to him about all this

should shape our understanding of what's coming next. Dave, thanks for coming on, man.

Thanks for having me on.

So let's start with this threat. Trump raged on truth social that, quote, snap benefits will be given only when the radical left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do and not before,

close quote. Trump also ranted a bit about crooked Joe Biden and made up some bullshit about how there

was widespread fraud in the program under him and so forth.

Dave, that sure sounded like a direct threat from Trump, but that would defy the courts.

Can you bring us up to date on all that?

Yeah, I mean, what Trump is saying there is going back to what the

administration's position was initially, that they weren't going to tap a contingency fund that

was set up by Congress in the event of a lapse in appropriations or some emergency need.

...