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tim walz
Walz Says Trump Is Exploiting Minnesota Fraud Issue to Defund State’s Childcare Programs
"He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans," said the Democratic governor.
Dec 31, 2025
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday accused US President Donald Trump and his administration of sensationalizing and exploiting a real problem—fraud in the state's social services system—to advance their broader agenda of gutting the safety net.
"This is Trump’s long game," Walz wrote on social media after the US Department of Health and Human Services announced it was suspending all federal childcare funds to Minnesota, alleging "blatant fraud that appears to be rampant."
Walz added that fraud is "a serious issue—but this has been [Trump's] plan all along."
"He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans," the governor wrote.
This is Trump’s long game.
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. https://t.co/7ByWjeXxu0
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) December 31, 2025
The right-wing media ecosystem and Republican politicians have fixated on fraud in Minnesota in recent weeks, using it to launch bigoted attacks on the state's Somali community and call for mass deportations of Somalis.
The issue exploded over the weekend after Nick Shirley, a right-wing influencer and YouTuber, released a video claiming to expose fraud in Minnesota day care centers. The video went viral and was shared by top Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Vice President JD Vance. Kristi Noem, head of the US Department of Homeland Security, said in the wake of the video's publication that federal agents "are on the ground" in the state and "conducting a massive investigation."
Minnesota Public Radio reported that the state's House speaker, Rep. Lisa Demuth (R-13A), confirmed that her caucus directed Shirley to the day care sites that he visited.
"Those featured in his widely viewed video have been part of a state-administered childcare program using federal money, although some recently had operations or payments suspended," the outlet noted.
The Guardian noted that "despite claims by conservatives on social media that the allegations of fraud were ignored until now, there have been years of fraud investigations that began with the indictments in 2022 of 47 defendants for their alleged roles in a $250 million scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the Covid-19 pandemic."
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Trump Says 'Other Cities Are Hopefully Watching' as He Deploys National Guard, Takes Over DC Police
"The administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful," declared Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
Aug 11, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday moved to deploy the National Guard on the streets of Washington, D.C., while also officially taking over the city's police department.
What's more, Trump suggested that this could be a model for other American cities.
As reported by NBC News, Trump said during his announcement on plans to deploy the National Guard in the nation's capital that "other cities are hopefully watching this" and that he hoped it would make them "self-clean up, and maybe they'll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem."
Trump then named Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago as potential future targets for National Guard deployments and other measures.
Shortly after Trump made his announcement, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb indicated that he was not taking the president's attempt to take over his city's police force lying down.
"The administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful," he declared in a post on X. "There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in D.C. reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year. We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents."
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) was also quick to condemn the president's takeover of D.C. law enforcement as an unnecessary power grab.
"The president's attempt to federalize the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard on the streets of our nation's capital is an abuse of power," she said. "It's an egotistical, pathetic attempt to stoke fear and distract from his failures: America is less affordable, healthy, and safe under this administration."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who last year served as the Democratic Party's vice-presidential nominee, chided critics who had accused him in the past of exaggerating the authoritarian threat of a second Trump term.
"The road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you you're overreacting," he wrote on X.
The NAACP, meanwhile, compared Trump's enthusiasm for deploying the National Guard in Washington, D.C. to purportedly battle crime with the lackadaisical attitude he took toward deploying the National Guard when his supporters violently stormed the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
"As a reminder: The same president who proclaims he wants to take back our capital during a historic 30-year low crime rate also couldn't find the National Guard on Jan. 6," the organization wrote.
Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman issued a joint statement slamming Trump's actions and outright labeling him a "despot."
"As autocrats commonly do, Trump is seeking control over the national capital in order to intimidate and squelch dissent," they said. "Like despots around the world and throughout history, Trump is also relying on the pretextual deployment of military force to intimidate and project power, to suppress protest and undercut democracy."
As reported by Politico, Trump's seizure of the D.C. police is on borrowed time from a legal perspective. While the Home Rule Act gives Trump the power to take control of the D.C. police force for emergencies, this power only lasts for 30 days, after which he must seek authorization from Congress to maintain control.
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Minneapolis Dems Endorse Democratic Socialist Fateh for Mayor Over Incumbent Frey
"Today we witnessed a rejection of politics as usual, a rejection of the inhumane way we have been treating our unhoused neighbors, a rejection of the way our mayor has turned his back on labor," said Omar Fateh.
Jul 21, 2025
Omar Fateh—a democratic socialist Minnesota state senator and son of Somali immigrants running for mayor of Minneapolis—on Saturday won the endorsement of the city's Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, an affiliate of the national Democratic Party, which chose him over two-term incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey.
The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Fateh (DFL-62) won at least 60% of the Minneapolis DFL delegate vote in what is the party's first-ever mayoral endorsement.
"Today we witnessed a rejection of politics as usual, a rejection of the inhumane way we have been treating our unhoused neighbors, a rejection of the way our mayor has turned his back on labor," Fateh said following the vote. "Yes, we secured the DFL endorsement, but we know the status quo are going to do anything and everything to maintain power. They'll have all the money in the world, they'll have all the influence in the world—but they don't have you."
I am incredibly honored to be the DFL endorsed candidate for Minneapolis Mayor. This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual. It’s a mandate to build a city that works for all of us. fatehformayor.com/donate
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— Omar Fateh (@omarfatehmn.com) July 19, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Frey campaign manager Sam Schulenberg said in a statement that "this election should be decided by the entire city rather than the small group of people who became delegates, particularly in light of the extremely flawed and irregular conduct of this convention."
According to the Star Tribune, "confusion and distrust over electronic balloting snarled" much of the endorsement process, but there was no indication that this favored any candidate.
"Voters will now have a clear choice between the records and the leadership of Sen. Fateh and Mayor Frey," Schulenberg added. "We look forward to taking our vision to the voters in November."
Among the dozens of bills authored by Fateh are a successful proposal to fund tuition-free public colleges and universities and tribal colleges for students from families with household incomes below $80,000, including undocumented immigrants, and another measure that exempted fentanyl test strips from being considered drug paraphernalia.
Fateh was also the chief state Senate author of a bill that would have ensured that drivers on ride-hailing applications like Uber and Lyft were paid minimum wage and received workplace protections. Although the bill was approved by both houses of the state Legislature, it was vetoed by DFL Gov. Tim Walz, sparking widespread outrage among progressives.
Numerous progressive state and local elected officials have endorsed Fateh, as have the hospitality union Unite Here! Local 17, Service Employees International Union Minnesota, and the Twin Cities branches of Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, and Sunrise Movement.
Fateh's ascent has been compared to that of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, who is also a democratic socialist. Like Mamdani, Fateh has also been bombarded with racist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic hate by prominent right-wing social media users. Many haters have told the Washington, D.C.-born Fateh to "go back to Somalia."
The Minnesota branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations last week condemned these attacks and linked politically motivated hatred with the recent assassination of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL-34B) and her husband, and shooting of John Hoffman (DFL-34) and his wife.
Hoffman phoned into the Minnesota DFL convention to endorse Fateh for mayor—a move that stood in stark contrast with New York Democrats including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who have not endorsed Mamdani.
"Schumer and Jeffries could learn a thing or two from Minnesotans," said Austin Ahlman, a reporter and researcher with the Open Markets Institute's Center for Journalism & Liberty.
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