Here’s how U.S. President Donald Trump defends his push to defund the government-run Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

As he told a gaggle of journalists recently, most of the people on SNAP are “Democrats.”

Uh, come again? Why does that matter?

We shouldn’t have to remind you, Mr. President, that your job is to look after all of this nation’s people. Not just the people in Republican states who voted for you in the recent election. All of its people, even the ones you don’t like.

The SNAP program, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has efficiently managed for a relatively small amount of money every year, has done and is doing a helluva lot of good. Not just that — for millions of Americans, it is vital.

According to government records, SNAP helps feed at least 40 million Americans every month, which is about one-tenth of the population, and 80% of the households served have children. What do the little ones have to do with your vendetta?

Your action is indefensible, but it is also revealing. It apparently slipped your mind that two among the top four SNAP recipient states, Oregon, and New Mexico, are run by Democrats. The others — the rural states of Louisiana and Oklahoma — are solidly Republican.

Did you even consider that the loss of SNAP will certainly hit the rural states and the rural poor the hardest? Did it not cross your mind that those are your supporters? You did not even think your plans through, did you?

Or, as I suspect, you just don’t care. Perhaps you cannot care.

Now, try as you and yours may to make Democrats the fall guys, an increasingly large number of Americans know who is to blame. You are the power in your administration. And this absolutely, positively is something that does not have to happen. It’s a choice you, Donald Trump, made.

It’s cruel and meanhearted.

Coming from a man who is forever accusing his adversaries of politicizing everything, it is also an amazing exhibition of blatant politicization and hyper-hypocrisy.

Online personality Hank Green is encouraging people to donate to local food banks and mutual aid networks, as these face an urgent need for assistance that will strain.

It was Green who pointed out the “absurdity” of a situation where farmers have crops they cannot sell while people are going hungry because of the lack of SNAP benefits. He has even suggested using the National Guard to get food from farmers to those in need.

A more practical use of the National Guard, wouldn’t you say, Mr. Trump?

Robert Whale can be reached at robert.whale@soundpublishing.com.