WASHINGTON ― The Donald Trump administration on Friday told states to pay full food benefits for November even as it fought in court to withhold the aid.

In a memo to states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, said it is “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances” in response to a court order.

Hours after the memo was sent, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to block the lower court’s order for benefits to be distributed ― even after several states had already sent out the funds. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a stay pending a resolution of the administration’s appeal to a lower court.

The Supreme Court’s involvement is the latest twist in a crazy back-and-forth over food benefits for more than 22 million American households, containing more than 42 million people, during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

At first, the Trump administration said it couldn’t pay November’s benefits because Congress had not appropriated funds for operations at the USDA and other federal agencies. Democrats and nonprofit organizations sued, and a court ordered the administration to tap a contingency fund and at least pay partial benefits.

Then President Donald Trump himself said there would be no SNAP benefits until Democrats agree to reopen the government, only for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to say he didn’t mean it. On Thursday, the court ordered the USDA to pay full benefits, rather than partial, by tapping other available funds. The administration immediately appealed the order, but said Friday, in the USDA memo, that it would prepare for November’s benefits to be sent in full.

Volunteers at the San Antonio Food Bank load bags of potatoes for a food distribution for SNAP recipients and other households affected by the federal shutdown on Nov. 6 in San Antonio.

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Asked about the ongoing litigation, the USDA referred HuffPost to Friday’s memo to states.

“Later today, FNS will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor,” the memo said, referring to electronic benefit transfer cards that are used to distribute SNAP benefits.

Food assistance allotments start going out on the first of the month, and since benefit issuance is staggered throughout the month in most states, more households have missed SNAP benefits each day.

Deb Phillips, 66, lives with her daughter and granddaughters in Peoria, Arizona. She said she gets by with Social Security benefits and a pension from her time in the Air Force. She said she missed the $423 in SNAP benefits she normally receives on the 4th of each month. She said she knew she would miss the deposit because she’d been following news about the shutdown.

“If it hadn’t been that I have held some money in reserve, knowing that this was coming up, I would not have food in the house right now,” Phillips told HuffPost.

Phillips said she can stretch her food budget partly by making more mac and cheese than usual, but she worries her granddaughters will get sick of it. She’s furious with the government.

“I’m very dismayed that the leaders of our country have let this go,” she said.