Walz Says Minnesota Fraud Claims Are Being Used to Cut Childcare Funds

“This is Trump’s long game,” Walz wrote on social media on Tuesday, December 31, 2025. He said Minnesota had spent years pursuing fraudsters and called fraud “a serious issue,” but argued the administration was politicizing it to defund programs that help residents.

The dispute intensified after right-wing influencer and YouTuber Nick Shirley published a video claiming to expose fraud at Minnesota day care centers. It spread widely and was shared by Trump administration figures, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Vice President JD Vance. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents were in Minnesota conducting “a massive investigation.”

Minnesota Public Radio reported that state House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican representing District 13A, said her caucus directed Shirley to the day-care sites he visited. The outlet said facilities shown in the video had participated in a state-administered childcare program funded with federal money; some had recently had operations or payments suspended.

The Guardian reported that investigations into fraud in Minnesota predated the video. In 2022, 47 defendants were indicted for their alleged roles in a $250 million scheme involving a federally funded child nutrition program during the Covid-19 pandemic. In recent weeks, Republican politicians and right-wing media figures have also used the allegations to attack Minnesota’s Somali community and call for mass deportations of Somalis, according to the source report.