The roaring 20s called, and they want their inequalities back.
While millions of Americans were hours away from losing SNAP benefits, President Trump hosted his lavish Gatsby-themed party, which was rumored to cost $3.4 million in taxpayer money.
Trump’s October 31 Halloween party painted a vivid picture: while everyday people worried about where to get their food for November, the powerful danced on. The timing of the party underlines a prioritization of image over the struggles of everyday people. The party serves as a symbol of economic inequality, with Trump standing in for the U.S. economy.
The party took place during the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, caused by partisan disagreements over federal spending, foreign aid, and health insurance subsidies, as programs like SNAP faced funding cuts for roughly 42 million Americans, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The words “Let them eat cake,” possibly uttered by Marie Antoinette, are timeless in their portrayal of how the powerful ignore the hungry. The phrase is said to be her response upon hearing that her starving peasant subjects had no bread and instead, told them to eat brioche, a more expensive delicacy.
Patrick Parker, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Georgia, said the party reflects the idea that the “rich will do anything to maintain their wealth even if it’s at the expense of anyone else.” He also added that these things are “a societal tendency” and that “it’s become normalized.” The student compared the party to typical human values, saying that it’s “kind of similar to when you get off the interstate, and you make the active decision not to give a homeless person money. ”
According to USAFacts, SNAP serves around 1 in every 8 Americans, or about 41.7 million people a year, with 1.4 million of those people being Georgians. In 2024, SNAP benefits accounted for only 1.5% of all federal spending. The government sees the SNAP budget as negligible, but the consequences for SNAP recipients are vast.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the average change in the cost of goods or services purchased by consumers. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the index has risen by 3% over the last year. So, along with the benefit cuts, the rising living costs and inflation have only intensified these struggles, making the extravagance seem more out of touch.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut posted a photo from the party on X, saying, “The way he rubs his inhumanity in Americans’ faces never ceases to stun me. He’s illegally refusing to pay food stamp benefits … while he throws a ridiculously over the top Gatsby party for his right wing millionaire and corporate friends.”
In episode 4122 of “The Daily Show,” Comedian Jon Stewart also said the party was “a wonderful celebration where the theme was apparently gross income inequality.”
“Going to a private school, I see tremendous economic disparities throughout the community compared to the community I surround myself with outside of school,” said Anouk Robbiani, a 16-year-old junior from Atlanta International School. She also adds that people in her school are “very sheltered and sometimes have trouble seeing and acknowledging the struggles of others that are less privileged.”
Maia Barron, a 16-year-old junior from Maynard Jackson High School, emphasised that “teens should care about SNAP cuts because it allows for students to get free meals at school, and it is going to increase food insecurity among families in public schools.”
Part of the irony of the party lies in the plot of “The Great Gatsby.”
The plot overtly addresses the concept of materialism and critiques how the American Dream was overtaken by it. Fast forward about 100 years, and Trump assumes the role of this story’s main character, Jay Gatsby, a wealth-obsessed millionaire in pursuit of his former lover. Yet, as Gatsby longs for love, Trump chases wealth and status to set himself apart from everyday people.
What makes this comparison even more unsettling is that “The Great Gatsby” is regarded as a tragedy, as Gatsby’s relentless efforts lead to his death, but Trump uses the story as a party theme. Trump certainly has a record of pushing down the voices of average Americans, but on this day, Trump disregarded the ironic symbolism of the theme and, more importantly, he ignored all the families about to go hungry a few hours later.
The official theme of the party was “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody,” a reference to the 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” titled “Gatsby,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
In an interview with Stat News, Linsay Allen, a health economist at Northwestern University, said that “people can die” from short gaps of food access and that people with diet-sensitive chronic diseases are reliant on SNAP benefits. For example, diabetes affects 13% of people who live below the federal poverty line.
So it seems that actually a little party can kill somebody.
