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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz sharply criticized Trump administration Tuesday’s decision to suspend federal child care funding to state Influencer videos viral Allegations of widespread fraud in government programs.
“This is a long game for Trump,” said Walz, a 2024 Democratic candidate running against Trump. wrote “We have spent years fighting fraudsters. This is a serious problem – but this was his plan all along. He is politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
These comments are made as Department of Health and Human Services Announce It is freezing child care payments to the state.
In a post on X, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attributed the interception to a video Right-wing content creator Nick Shirley claims that a Somali-run day care center in Minnesota is responsible for “possibly the largest fraud scandal in American history.”
Republican leadership explained in video explain They helped create Shirley’s trips to vacant centers where he claimed fraud was taking place, although it was unclear when Shirley visited the facilities this week, as well as some observers in the state Said the video evidence was not sufficient Reports of facts deemed accurate.
state officials explain All centers in the video have been visited within the past six months and no fraud was found.
The manager of one of the centers in the video told reporters minnesota star tribune Although the children are not visible from the outside, they are present when Shirley visits, but the center’s doors are locked for security reasons.
Despite these warnings, Republicans quickly seized on the claims in the video and incorporated them into president The MAGA movement often demonizes the Somali people and immigrant communities in general.
JD Vance, Vice President claim In an X post last week, immigrants “steal money and political power from Minnesota,” while Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer called for the denaturalization of Somalis involved in the fraud.
federal agencies including the FBI The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also begun investigating allegations related to the video.
Minnesota officials have been cracking down on government program fraud for years, with 57 people convicted in a $300 million Feed Our Future fraud scheme that drew attention in 2022.
Walz said in an op-ed earlier this month that the state has implemented “systemic changes” in recent years, including changing state leaders, sending individuals to prison, hiring a former state police chief and FBI agents to oversee program integrity and hiring outside firms to audit payments.
“It doesn’t help that the President of the United States demonizes an entire community or pardons one person responsible for a $1.6 billion fraud. “Walz wrote exist star tribune, Refer to Trump’s recent remarks Private equity executive David Gentile has his sentence commutedof sentence.
“If there was a magic bullet to solve this problem, we wouldn’t be seeing similar problems in these federal Medicaid programs Red states and blue states across the country — including multimillion-dollar fraud schemes in Ohio, Arizona, Nebraska, Texas and Pennsylvania,” he added.
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In response to Walz’s comments, the White House social media account Calling the waltz an insult to people with developmental disabilities.
Federal officials say broader fraud is occurring in Minnesota.
This month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who is prosecuting an ongoing series of fraud cases, said social services fraud in Minnesota’s 14 federally supported programs could amount to as much as $9 billion. The governor’s office called it “speculation” and “sensational” because the case involved an alleged fraud of about $11.6 million.
Before the Minnesota video went viral, the Trump administration had launched a crackdown on Minnesota’s Somali population, the largest in the country.
Ministry of Finance is Investigate how merchants send money to family members In the country, a conservative news outlet reported that the funds supported activist groups.
Trump calls out immigrants from Somalia — including his longtime critics Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar — were “driven out of America,” claiming they “destroyed our country.”