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President Donald Trump said he intends to “get to the bottom” of what he called massive fraud within Minnesota’s Somali community, claiming billions of dollars were stolen through government-funded programs.
Speaking Wednesday night at his New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, the president told supporters that recent reports of financial misconduct in Minnesota revealed staggering losses.
“Can you imagine they stole $18 billion. That’s just what we’re learning about. That’s peanuts,” President Trump said, according to Fox News. “And California is worse, Illinois is worse and sadly New York is worse. We’re going to get to the bottom of all those. It was a giant scam.”
The president’s remarks follow claims by citizen journalist Nick Shirley, who said he and his team uncovered widespread fraud involving day care centers and other state-funded programs in Minnesota. In a post accompanying his viral 42-minute video, Shirley wrote, “Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day,” he posted.
“Like it and share it around like wildfire! It’s time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable. We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped,” he added.
Following the reports, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was freezing federal payments to child care businesses in Minnesota while federal investigators review the allegations. The outlet said the freeze was also meant to pressure other states to examine potential fraud in federally funded programs, particularly in “ethnic enclaves” established through U.S. immigration policy.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Trump administration is also reviewing cases to potentially denaturalize individuals from Somalia who were convicted of fraud in Minnesota. The allegations have fueled growing political tension between President Trump and Democratic leaders in Minnesota as the administration expands investigations into federally funded child care and welfare programs.
