Minnesota Star Tribune Doubles Down, Bewails How Trump’s Crackdown on Somali Fraud Will ‘Squeeze Thousands of Minnesota Families’

As the Trump Administration takes steps to crack down on fraud in Minnesota, the state’s largest paper, the liberal Minnesota Star Tribune, is warning about the impact on “thousands” of families in the North Star State. President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday that it is freezing all payments to child care centers in Minnesota. That came in response to reports in conservative media – culminating in a video investigation from an independent journalist, Nick Shirley, 23 – alleging staggering entitlement fraud in Minnesota, much of it originating in the state’s insular Somali community. Mr. Shirley’s investigation appeared to show that several state-funded, Somali-owned daycare centers in the Twin Cities were not providing services for children. Mr. Shirley’s 40-minute video has received 130 million impressions on X and was retweeted by Vice President JD Vance.The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, scheduled a hearing on January 7 to investigate the fraud allegations. FBI Director Kash Patel also said his agency is investigating the allegations of fraud, and the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News that the Trump Administration is “looking at” revoking citizenship from foreign-born individuals convicted of fraud in Minnesota. From the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has railed against Minnesota’s two term governor, Tim Walz, and also against Representative Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia.Amid the federal investigations, Minnesota’s largest newspaper, the Minnesota Star Tribune (which changed its name from the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2024), has been criticized for playing down the fraud story, even as it was generating enormous coverage across the country, and publishing articles casting doubt on conservative media’s reports of fraud and supporting Mr. Walz.On Wednesday, the newspaper published an article leading its homepage, bemoaning the freeze on payments to child care centers and how it “could squeeze thousands of Minnesota families.” The paper noted that the $185 million in federal funding has been used to help cover the cost of child care for around 23,000 children in the state. “The child care funding freeze would affect day cares statewide, not just facilities that serve the Somali community,” the paper said. “But the state’s administration of those funds is now under the microscope after a right-wing influencer claimed widespread fraud in the program, prompting the federal crackdown,” the article stated in a reference to Mr. Shirley.On December 29, the paper published an article that described Mr. Shirley as a “right-wing influencer,” who has “previously faced criticism” for his YouTube content. It noted that he recorded footage during the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and interviewed a participant of the riot. The paper said that he “was one of several influencers who were invited to the White House in October to participate in an ‘antifa roundtable’ — a discussion about left-wing groups and the anti-fascist movement — with President Donald Trump.”Regarding Mr. Shirley’s latest video, the Minnesota Star Tribune noted that Mr. Walz “has become a favorite target of Trump’s since his unsuccessful run for vice president.”It also highlighted a comment from the Republican speaker of the Minnesota House, Lisa Demuth, who told reporters at a press conference that her caucus “worked with” Mr. Shirley on his video. Ms. Demuth is challenging Mr. Walz in the 2026 Minnesota gubernatorial election. Mr. Walz is seeking a third term.While the Star Tribune bemoaned the federal funding freeze, it admitted that the state is facing a growing fraud scandal. Federal prosecutors have charged more than 90 individuals in fraud schemes, convicting 60 in schemes that prosecutors say stole billions from social service programs. The vast majority of the individuals charged are of Somali descent.The largest fraud scheme involved the Feeding Our Future nonprofit. The Department of Justice says that fraudsters stole $250 million from a pandemic relief program that was designed to provide food to children. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota says that 89 percent of the individuals charged in that case are of Somali descent. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors said that fraudsters stole more than half of the $18 billion allocated to various programs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Star Tribune has faced criticism from conservatives who argued that the paper has not reported on concerns about fraud. The paper defended its record earlier this month. In a post on Facebook, the paper shared an article headlined, “Here’s what to know about Minnesota’s fraud crisis.”“Two hundred seventy-four articles, 138 front page stories. No one has covered Minnesota’s social services fraud scandals more extensively than the Minnesota Star Tribune. This is the sort of independent, fact-based reporting Minnesotans expect and deserve, and we intend to continue,” the post said. A conservative commentator, Drew Holden, conceded that the paper published “hundreds of pieces about the fraud.”“But they’ve repeatedly downplayed how pervasive it is, and earlier this month repeatedly and forcefully pushed back on the suggestion that it is as large as its critics claim,” Mr. Holden wrote on X. “Their total to-date is a mere $217 million (with an m). That ignores tons of strong evidence of other fraud in the areas that @nickshirleyy exposed. I think that’s part of why it went off like a bomb on social media.”The paper has been accused of downplaying the scale of the fraud. One headline stated, “Trump claims Minnesota lost billions to fraud. The evidence to date isn’t close.”Mr. Holden added that “it doesn’t help” that the paper’s CEO, Steve Grove, was a supporter of Mr. Walz. The Minnesota Star Tribune did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Minnesota Star Tribune Doubles Down, Bewails How Trump’s Crackdown on Somali Fraud Will ‘Squeeze Thousands of Minnesota Families’

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