Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has responded to the Trump administration’s announcement that it has frozen child care payments to the state amid rampant fraud.
In a Tuesday post on X, Walz claimed the move was “Trump’s long game” and that Walz’s administration has “spent years cracking down on fraudsters.”
The governor stated that the president is “politiciziing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.”
This is Trump’s long game.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) December 31, 2025
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
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it was halting federal childcare funding to Minnesota after a flood of fraud allegations against daycare centers run by Somali residents. Several reports uncovered billions of dollars in taxpayer funds being funneled to organizations that claimed to use it for child care and other uses. In reality, these entities were either using the funds for their personal use or to send abroad to a terrorist organization in Somalia.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! It turns out Minnesota Somali man Abdi Daisane — running for state rep as a Democrat — owns a DAYCARE that has a massive list of violations
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 31, 2025
Unsanitary, no children supervision, violating license terms, barely any staff
IT’S ALL FRAUD!
pic.twitter.com/NbkwO9d38f
Deputy Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS) department announced the decision in a post on X. “We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” he wrote.
We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota.
— Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill (@HHS_Jim) December 30, 2025
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.
Today we have taken three actions… pic.twitter.com/VYbyf3WGop
This means Minnesotan families who rely on this funding could be affected until the state addresses the fraud issue.
The fraud problem in Minnesota isn’t new. Indeed, it has persisted for many years. Federal prosecutors in 2022 charged several people involved in a scheme called “Feeding Our Future,” which swiped about $250 million from a government program aimed at feeding low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal prosecutors believe that almost half of the $18 billion sent to Minnesota for 14 different social programs was likely stolen since 2018.