A conservative influencer’s viral video alleging widespread fraud at taxpayer-funded child care facilities in Minnesota’s Somali neighborhood kicked off a political firestorm years in the making.
President Donald Trump has long singled out Minnesota’s Somali inhabitants of approximately 108,000 for criticism and, even earlier than the video emerged, pointed to fraud by members of the neighborhood as justification for his declare that Somalis “contribute nothing” to the US and shouldn’t be in the nation.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has spent the previous yr coping with the fallout from high-profile fraud schemes involving Somali residents whereas additionally pushing again in opposition to Trump’s assaults in opposition to the broader Somali neighborhood.
The viral video, which had 132 million views on X as of Wednesday afternoon, added a brand new layer to the controversy that isn’t simply unpacked. The video was produced by Nick Shirley, a YouTuber who has created anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim content material in the previous, and plenty of of its claims couldn’t be instantly verified.
Even so, the Trump administration halted federal child care payments to the state and launched a highly visible response as Justice Department officers insisted that they had been on prime of the matter all alongside. At the identical time, Walz turned to social media to attempt to defend his efforts to fight fraud whereas additionally making an attempt to show public consideration towards Trump’s personal actions.
Here’s a have a look at what the Trump administration and Walz have been saying in response to the controversy.
The Trump administration has seized on the controversy with vigor. In a Wednesday morning social media post, Trump asserted, with out proof, that “up to 90%” of “the Minnesota fraud” could possibly be traced to individuals who arrived in the state “illegally” from Somalia, and he referred to as to “send them back from where they came, Somalia.” (The vast majority of Minnesota residents of Somali descent are US residents, tens of hundreds of whom have been born in the US, and plenty of non-citizens entered legally.)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pledged on Fox News on Wednesday morning that the Justice Department was executing search warrants and subpoenas and that “people will be in handcuffs.”
Top administration officers, together with Vice President JD Vance, amplified Shirley’s video on social media. Several federal agencies publicly pledged to help in a crackdown.
“We will bring an end to the Somali fraud network,” the US Department of Labor posted on Monday, although it didn’t reply to a request for particulars.
Perhaps most notable was the response from Trump’s prime regulation enforcement officers, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who sought to sign that their businesses had been on the case earlier than the viral video appeared.
In a prolonged X publish on Sunday, Patel wrote the FBI had “surged” anti-fraud personnel in Minnesota “even before the public conversation escalated online.”
Bondi wrote on Monday that the Justice Department “has been investigating this for months.” Both Patel and Bondi detailed a $250 million pandemic fraud scheme unearthed by the FBI in Minnesota.
In reality, the investigation into that scheme stretches again years earlier than Trump took workplace.
In September 2022, the Biden Justice Department charged 47 individuals in reference to a plot by the nonprofit Feeding Our Future to steal Covid-era pandemic funds to feed needy youngsters, utilizing the cash as an alternative to purchase luxurious automobiles, jewellery and property. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland referred to as it “the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date.” By the finish of President Joe Biden’s time in workplace, the determine had risen to about 70 individuals charged in reference to the scheme, NCS reported last year.
A jury convicted one among the ringleaders, Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, in June 2024 after a seven-week trial. Bondi erroneously wrote Monday on X that her workplace “successfully secured Farah’s conviction” in August 2025. However, that was the date of his sentencing.
Bondi also pointed to a plot by Farah and others to bribe a juror in change for an acquittal in the fraud case. That indictment additionally befell under Biden.
Beyond the Feeding Our Future scandal, Bondi famous one other associated scheme allegedly uncovered in Minnesota’s Somali neighborhood. In September, the Justice Department charged a 28-year-old lady with wire fraud involving federal autism funding. That investigation seems to have an extended tail as effectively. Minnesota media outlets reported in the summer time of 2024 that the FBI was investigating Medicaid fraud associated to autism funds.
Walz, the Democratic candidate for vp in 2024, was quiet about the video in the three days following its launch on Friday, addressing its allegations Monday solely by means of feedback from a spokesperson. Then, in a social media publish Tuesday afternoon, Walz defended his document on combating fraud — and tried to show the public’s focus to Trump.
“We’ve spent years cracking down on fraud – referring cases to law enforcement, shutting down and auditing high-risk programs. Trump keeps letting fraudsters out of prison. To the national news just now paying attention, here’s what we’ve done to stop it,” Walz wrote on X.
Walz’s X publish included photographs with excerpts of an op-ed he printed in the Minnesota Star Tribune on December 12. The piece acknowledged that the state had been “taken advantage of by an organized group of fraudsters” and that “we have much more to do.”
But it emphasised actions he had already taken, comparable to hiring “investigators, auditors and law enforcement” and a “head of program integrity,” retaining “an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs at the Department of Human Services,” and launching “a specialized fraud-fighting law enforcement unit at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.”
It wasn’t but clear Wednesday whether or not Shirley had actually uncovered fraud at the child care facilities the video recommended weren’t truly operational; it’s commonplace for child care facilities to maintain their doorways locked or bar entry to surprising guests, and it wasn’t apparent in the video what was occurring behind the closed doorways he wasn’t permitted to enter. NCS and state and federal authorities have been trying into the allegations.
However, it’s identified that fraud has plagued a number of state businesses throughout Walz’s tenure — and a housing support program the Walz administration created in 2020 and shut down in 2025 after its price ballooned. NCS reported in October 2024 that audits and interviews confirmed Walz had been a hands-off chief with regard to looking for accountability for episodes of fraud and mismanagement throughout his tenure.
As that they had earlier than the viral video, Republican state and federal lawmakers blasted Walz after the video as a failure on the fraud file, saying he had lengthy ignored repeated warnings about dodgy child care facilities and different schemes. A Republican-controlled US House committee has asked Walz to testify in the new yr.
Walz posted once more about Trump on Tuesday evening after the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced it had frozen all child care funds to Minnesota. Walz wrote, “We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.” Walz didn’t present proof of such a long-term scheme by Trump.
By its personal admission, Walz’s administration was improper a minimum of as soon as because it scrambled to reply to the renewed criticism prompted by the video.
In a Monday remark to NCS, a Walz spokesperson mentioned two of the services featured in the video “have already been closed.” The spokesperson recognized Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis as one among the supposedly shuttered services, echoing comments made earlier in the day by the head of the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families. But the division told local media that Quality Learning Center had “decided to remain open” regardless of having notified the division on Dec. 19 that it was closing.
Shirley’s video prompted allegations that conventional media retailers had ignored the subject of fraud in Minnesota. A Saturday post on X that asserted “you literally can’t find a single mainstream article about the Minnesota fraud…Not even one…” had greater than eight million views as of Wednesday morning.
Though many media retailers didn’t but have protection Saturday of a YouTube video posted the day prior, varied observers appropriately responded that conventional media retailers had written articles lengthy earlier than the video about the subject of fraud in Minnesota — together with the circumstances involving members of the Somali neighborhood that have been highlighted by Bondi and Patel. Minnesota media outlets have extensively reported on fraud tales for years, and various national outlets additionally coated the matter previous to the video.
The Feeding Our Future scandal obtained extra protection than issues with Minnesota child care facilities, however Shirley wasn’t the first to report the child care story, both. In January, for instance, Twin Cities tv station 5 Eyewitness News aired a story during which reporter Jay Kolls famous the documented issues at Quality Learning Center and mentioned that regardless of having visited a number of occasions, “only once did I see people there…but I did not see any children.”
As conservative influencers on social media criticized mainstream information retailers after the launch of the video, additionally they pressed state and federal authorities to take motion. Their calls for prompted rejoinders not solely from Democrats who famous Walz’s prior efforts but additionally a senior Trump-appointed official in the Justice Department.
A conservative commentator posted Sunday of the scandal, “NO ONE IS BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!!!” That prompted Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon to reply: “No one, besides the 99 indictments and 62 convictions so far you mean?”