By Angélique Bouchard
At the end of 2025, Minnesota, the emblematic state of American progressivism, is rocked by a public funds fraud scandal of “staggering industrial-scale” magnitude, in the words of federal deputy prosecutor Joe Thompson during his press conference on December 18, 2025:
“Minnesotans and taxpayers deserve to know the truth about the fraud. The fraud is not small. It is not isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It is staggering industrial-scale fraud. It is swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state.”
Thompson reveals that out of $18 billion spent since 2018 on 14 Medicaid programs, a “significant portion” is fraudulent: “I think a significant portion,” he replied, before specifying: “When I say significant, I’m talking about on the order of half or more. But we’ll see.” This could exceed $9 billion, as calculated by Crosslake Mayor Jackson Purfeerst: “If you do the quick math, $9 billion in fraud divided by 5.79 million Minnesotans comes out to roughly $1,500 per person that each hardworking Minnesotan has had stolen from them.”
The shocking symbol remains the viral video by YouTuber Nick Shirley, who visits the Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis: a sign misspelling “Learning” as “Learing,” an empty building despite capacity for 99 children and $4 millionreceived, including $1.9 million in 2025 through the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP).
A woman shouts “Don’t open up. It’s ICE” before driving away the visitors: “Go away. You’re not welcome here. Shame on you.”
Shirley concludes: “There’s no one here. This is a prime example of the billions of dollars in fraud happening right now in Minnesota. This is one of hundreds of ‘daycares’ receiving millions from the government. This daycare (that can’t even spell ‘learning’ right) received $1,900,000 in tax-exempt funding from CCAP in 2025. This is just one of thousands of fraudulent businesses operating in Minnesota.”
The center racked up 95 violations (2019-2023), yet its license runs until 2026. Tom Emmer, Republican House Majority Whip, challenges Tim Walz on X: “4 million dollars of hard-earned tax dollars going to an education center that can’t even spell learning correctly. Care to explain this one, Tim Walz?”
An “Industrial” Fraud Extending Beyond Feeding Our Future
The Feeding Our Future case remains the best-known: a supposed child nutrition initiative that diverted hundreds of millions. Thompson describes fictitious companies: “What we’re seeing are programs that are just entirely fraudulent. These aren’t companies providing some services but overbilling Medicare or Medicaid. These are companies providing essentially no services. They’re essentially shell companies created to defraud the program and submit on a wholesale level fraudulent claims for services that aren’t necessary and aren’t provided.”
Concrete examples: two defendants pocketed $750,000 instead of helping Medicaid recipients find stable housing, using the money for trips to London, Istanbul, and Dubai; another submitted $1.4 million in fraudulent claims, buying cryptocurrencies before fleeing the country; significant transfers to Kenya (over $200,000 in one case) to buy real estate in Nairobi, via the “large Somali diaspora” in those areas. Thompson even notes a “fraud tourism”: two defendants from Philadelphia came because “they heard that Minnesota’s housing stabilization services program was easy money.”
Recently named defendants include Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, Anthony Waddell Jefferson, Lester Brown, Hassan Ahmed Hussein, Ahmed Abdirashid Mohamed, and Kaamil Omar Sallah.
Former prosecutor Joe Teirab, who worked on Feeding Our Future, confides: “When I was on the Feeding Our Future case, the big thing that jumped out to me was, honestly, how easy this fraud was to do. These fraudsters were just saying they were spending all this money on feeding kids, and they were just making up these PDFs, putting false names into Excel sheets. I could do that in five minutes on a computer if I had absolutely no conscience.”
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The Overwhelming Responsibility of Tim Walz
Walz admits: “This is on my watch. I am accountable for this. And more importantly, I am the one that will fix it.” But he disputes the federal estimates: “You should be equally outraged about $1 or whatever that number is, but they’re using that number without the proof behind it. To extrapolate what that number is for sensationalism, or to make statements about it, it doesn’t really help us.”
Nearly 100 mayors sign a letter denouncing: “Fraud, unchecked spending and inconsistent fiscal management in St. Paul have trickled down to our cities… Our state owes it to our citizens to practice responsible fiscal management and to stop taxing our families, seniors and businesses out of Minnesota.” South St. Paul Mayor Jimmy Francis describes citizens “scared and frightened” in the face of uncertainty.
Republicans accuse Walz and local Democrats of letting the fraud persist out of fear of stigmatizing the Somali community, largely involved without generalization.
Ilhan Omar and the Somaliland-Somalia Contrast
Emma Bussey’s article of December 28, 2025 criticizes Ilhan Omar’s stance on Somaliland: analyst Michael Rubin states that “the billions in fraud losses highlight the contrast with the stability and democratic institutions of this breakaway region.” Rubin adds that the corruption exposed in Minnesota “mirrors the governance failures that have plagued Somalia for decades,” while Somaliland offers an alternative model.
This scandal illustrates the dangers of lax management under Democratic administration: billions evaporated, programs emptied of substance, public trust eroded. Walz is paying today for years of negligence, while Republicans and the Trump administration promise a relentless pursuit.
As Thompson concludes: “It’s been allowed to go on for far too long, and we need to do whatever we can to stop it in its tracks.” Minnesota becomes a national warning against the excesses of a poorly monitored welfare state, where hardworking American taxpayers’ money funds shell companies rather than real services.
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Elon Musk Unleashes on Tim Walz with a New Nickname Amid Minnesota Fraud Investigations
On December 30, 2025, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, did not hold back in describing Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, as the state faces federal investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing its social services system.
“Traitor Tim Walz,” Musk wrote on X in response to a mocking post referencing a call to financial expert Dave Ramsey’s radio show. The post pointed out that Walz raised taxes, burned through billions in state surplus, and is now under scrutiny for massive frauds targeting Medicaid and other federally funded programs, including those meant to feed children.
This jab from Musk adds to mounting pressure from the Trump administration and Republicans. President Donald Trump has already labeled Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.” Minnesota Republican lawmakers are even calling for Walz to resign.
The Feeding Our Future case, which diverted around $250 million from a child nutrition program funded by the Department of Agriculture during the pandemic, remains at the heart of the investigations: at least 77 people have been charged, taking advantage of relaxed Federal Child Nutrition Program requirements.
Another scheme involves the Housing Stability Services Program, intended to help people with disabilities or mental health issues find housing: the Department of Justice has charged about a dozen people, with more expected.
The majority of those charged belong to Minnesota’s Somali community, prompting Trump in November 2025 to announce the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali migrants, removing deportation protections.
On December 30, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a major operation: “Our investigative agents are conducting a massive operation to identify, arrest, and remove criminals who are defrauding the American people. We will root out this rampant fraud plaguing Minnesota,” DHS wrote on X.
State Authorities’ Reactions: Minimization and Counterattack
In response to Nick Shirley’s viral video showing inactive child care centers despite receiving millions, a Walz spokesperson stated that the governor “has worked for years to crack down on fraud” and “strengthened oversight” of programs.
Children, Youth and Families Department Commissioner Tikki Brown said at a press conference: “We are aware of a video that’s being circulated that has gained local and national attention about childcare centers in Minnesota. While we have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously.”
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Minnesota Republicans Invoke the Constitution to Demand Tim Walz’s Resignation Amid Fraud Crisis
On December 29, 2025, several Minnesota Republican lawmakers issued an official statement calling for Democratic Governor Tim Walz to resign immediately over the fraud scandal that worsened under his tenure. State Senators Bill Lieske and Nathan Wesenberg, along with Representatives Marj Fogelman, Drew Roach, and Mike Wiener, state unequivocally:
“Minnesotans have been watching the fraud crisis get worse and worse for years. It has gone on long enough. This is not about politics or stunts, and we do not make a call like this lightly. The office of the governor deserves respect, and we have tried to give Gov. Walz time to act.”
The group relies on Article 8, Section 6 of the Minnesota Constitution, which provides for the removal of executive and judicial officers for “serious malfeasance in the performance of their duties.” Without launching a formal recall procedure, they believe Walz’s conduct amounts to nonfeasance – failure to fulfill required duties:
“Leadership means doing the right thing even when it is difficult, which is why we are calling on Gov. Walz to resign. We are talking about billions of dollars in fraud that should have gone to vulnerable Minnesotans. The red flags were everywhere. Yet, year after year, the fraud kept growing, and year after year, nothing changed.”
They add: “What we are seeing from the governor is what nonfeasance looks like. When a governor fails to do what he is required to do, when he watches a crisis spiral out of control and does nothing to stop it, that is nonfeasance. The governor had a duty to oversee his administration and protect these programs. He failed. There needs to be consequences. For the good of the state, Gov. Walz should step aside. Minnesota needs accountability, a reset, and new leadership that can get us back on the right track.”
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A Scandal Turned National Political Weapon
Elon Musk’s new nickname – “Traitor Tim Walz” – fits into a broader Republican strategy to turn the Minnesota scandal into a symbol of Democratic failures: tax hikes, budget waste, laxity in the face of “rampant” fraud estimated at several billion. The majority involvement of the Somali community is instrumentalized to justify ending TPS and massive expulsion operations, reinforcing the Trumpian narrative on immigration and security.
For Republicans, Walz embodies a naive progressivism that allowed generous programs to become public money pumps for fictitious structures. The offensive, relayed by figures like Musk and Trump, aims to permanently weaken Minnesota Democrats and set the stage for 2026. The scandal is no longer limited to judicial investigations: it has become a tool for national polarization, where financial fraud merges with accusations of treason against American taxpayers. Hardworking Americans, as Republicans hammer home, deserve better than seeing their taxes fund fraudulent schemes under a Democratic governance accused of complacency.
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Diplômée de la Business School de La Rochelle (Excelia – Bachelor Communication et Stratégies Digitales) et du CELSA – Sorbonne Université, Angélique Bouchard, 25 ans, est titulaire d’un Master 2 de recherche, spécialisation « Géopolitique des médias ». Elle est journaliste indépendante et travaille pour de nombreux médias. Elle est en charge des grands entretiens pour Le Dialogue.