Government shutdown: Trump suggests unpaid federal workers should ask for free food at grocery stores

The ongoing government shutdown over Donald Trump's border wall has had numerous consequences for people across the country.

Members of his team have been left red-faced when trying to defend the decision and a Japanese wrestling company can't even have Japanese wrestlers on their show which they are set to hold in the US later this month.

However, those aren't comparable to the thousands of federal employees who have now been working unpaid for over a month, with no solution to the problem in sight.

In an interview with CNBC, Trump's commerce secretary Wilbur Ross said that he didn't understand why workers were using food banks rather than applying for low or no-interest loans from banks to help them through the period.

Well, I know they are, and I don't really quite understand why. 

The obligations that they would undertake, say borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are, in effect, federally guaranteed.

So the 30 days of pay that some people will be out ... there's no real reason why they shouldn't be able to get a loan against it.

This statement already didn't make much sense but Trump managed to somehow make it worse.

When asked to clarify what Ross had said, Trump appeared to tell the press that a grocery store would give away food for free if they were aware that person wasn't getting paid at their job.

Perhaps he should have said it differently.

Local people know who they are when they go for groceries and everything else, and I think what Wilbur was probably trying to say is that they will work along.

Look, we're not sure were Trump shops but if he could tell everyone where these stores that don't require money are we are confident that his approval ratings would skyrocket.

Since Trump said this, people have been utterly bemused and have been trying to envision what he must be like when he visits a grocery store.

It's very possible that Trump has never been in a grocery store.

Some people have reportedly tried to put Trump's theory into practice and unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.

This isn't the first time that Trump has misunderstood how a shop works.

In a rally in Florida in August 2018, he said that in order to buy groceries customers must carry ID, in a vague attempt to discredit any non-American's from voting in an election.

 You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID.

You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture.

Only American citizens should vote in American elections. The time has come for voter ID like everything else.

So, as you can see, Trump is really in touch with the American people.

HT SF Gate

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