Robert Davis
December 29, 2025
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump is not being honest about his intentions for focusing his attention on social services fraud committed in Minnesota.
The fraud cases gained renewed attention over the weekend after a right-wing influencer named Nick Shirley posted a video on X that claimed to find $110 million in child care fraud committed by Somalians in Minnesota. Trump and several MAGA voices have focused intently on the cases, using them to attack Trump's political foes like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat.
Former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci and British journalist Katty Kay discussed the story on a new episode of the podcast "The Rest is Politics US." They argued that Trump's true intentions for focusing on the story is to change the subject of the 2026 midterm from the economy to immigration.
"The step-back, the bigger picture is about welfare and fraud and government and trust in government and thrown into that [is] immigration, particularly Muslim immigrants, because these most Somali immigrants will be Muslim immigrants and you've got a kind of toxic mix there of things that will be brought up," Kay said. "I can imagine the Haitian immigrants and eating the dogs and the cats was brought up in the last election campaign. This is going to resurface in the midterms."
"That's the big issue for me," Scaramucci said. "If I look at the midterms coming up and giving people a a preview of this, it's going to be about presidential approval rating. It's going to be about jobs and inflation. It's going to be about the state of the economy."
Trump's approval rating has steadily fallen since he took office in January. According to The Economist, his approval rating stands at 39%, which represents a 17-point decline since the beginning of the year.
Trump's approval rating on the economy is also hovering in the mid-30s, according to polls.
A recent AP-NORC poll found that immigration is one of Trump's strongest issues, with a 49% approval rating.
President Donald Trump is not being honest about his intentions for focusing his attention on social services fraud committed in Minnesota.
The fraud cases gained renewed attention over the weekend after a right-wing influencer named Nick Shirley posted a video on X that claimed to find $110 million in child care fraud committed by Somalians in Minnesota. Trump and several MAGA voices have focused intently on the cases, using them to attack Trump's political foes like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat.
Former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci and British journalist Katty Kay discussed the story on a new episode of the podcast "The Rest is Politics US." They argued that Trump's true intentions for focusing on the story is to change the subject of the 2026 midterm from the economy to immigration.
"The step-back, the bigger picture is about welfare and fraud and government and trust in government and thrown into that [is] immigration, particularly Muslim immigrants, because these most Somali immigrants will be Muslim immigrants and you've got a kind of toxic mix there of things that will be brought up," Kay said. "I can imagine the Haitian immigrants and eating the dogs and the cats was brought up in the last election campaign. This is going to resurface in the midterms."
"That's the big issue for me," Scaramucci said. "If I look at the midterms coming up and giving people a a preview of this, it's going to be about presidential approval rating. It's going to be about jobs and inflation. It's going to be about the state of the economy."
Trump's approval rating has steadily fallen since he took office in January. According to The Economist, his approval rating stands at 39%, which represents a 17-point decline since the beginning of the year.
Trump's approval rating on the economy is also hovering in the mid-30s, according to polls.
A recent AP-NORC poll found that immigration is one of Trump's strongest issues, with a 49% approval rating.
'Turned off the money spigot': Trump admin freezes all Minnesota child care funding
Matthew Chapman
December 30, 2025
RAW STORY
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
The Trump administration is clamping down on federal funding for child care programs in Minnesota.
The announcement came from Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill, who posted the specifics to X on Tuesday evening.
"We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota," he wrote. "You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade."
As part of the crackdown, wrote O'Neill, all payments from the Administration of Children and Families "will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state," and in Minnesota specifically, Gov. Tim Walz is being ordered to provide "a comprehensive audit" of day care centers. Additionally, a fraud-reporting hotline and email address have been established.
"Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you," O'Neill concluded. "We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud."
The controversy began with a right-wing freakout over a New York Times deep dive into a criminal investigation that took place in 2022 into fraud in Minnesota pandemic relief programs, where some of the perpetrators were part of the Somali diaspora community in the Twin Cities. Even though the Biden administration already cracked down on this fraud, conservative influencers went looking for more examples, and YouTuber Nick Shirley purported to uncover day care centers in Minnesota Somali neighborhoods that were taking in millions in federal money while not actually having any kids enrolled in them.
So far, experts have reacted to this report with skepticism, and a CBS News fact-check indicated that a day care at the heart of the accusations, while it was investigated by the state for code violations, actually did have kids enrolled.
Matthew Chapman
December 30, 2025
RAW STORY
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
The Trump administration is clamping down on federal funding for child care programs in Minnesota.
The announcement came from Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill, who posted the specifics to X on Tuesday evening.
"We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota," he wrote. "You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade."
As part of the crackdown, wrote O'Neill, all payments from the Administration of Children and Families "will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state," and in Minnesota specifically, Gov. Tim Walz is being ordered to provide "a comprehensive audit" of day care centers. Additionally, a fraud-reporting hotline and email address have been established.
"Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you," O'Neill concluded. "We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud."
The controversy began with a right-wing freakout over a New York Times deep dive into a criminal investigation that took place in 2022 into fraud in Minnesota pandemic relief programs, where some of the perpetrators were part of the Somali diaspora community in the Twin Cities. Even though the Biden administration already cracked down on this fraud, conservative influencers went looking for more examples, and YouTuber Nick Shirley purported to uncover day care centers in Minnesota Somali neighborhoods that were taking in millions in federal money while not actually having any kids enrolled in them.
So far, experts have reacted to this report with skepticism, and a CBS News fact-check indicated that a day care at the heart of the accusations, while it was investigated by the state for code violations, actually did have kids enrolled.
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