Trump Administration Freezes Minnesota Child care Funds Amid Fraud Claims

President Donald Trump’s administration announced Tuesday it is freezing child care funds to Minnesota adn demanding an audit of some day care centers following a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on X, formerly Twitter, that the move responds to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz pushed back on X, stating that fraudsters are a serious issue the state has addressed for years, but this action is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O’neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday alleging that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers, including attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement followed a day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation,visiting unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

WATCH: Fraud scandals and Trump’s rhetoric escalate fears in Minnesota’s somali community

Years of investigations have included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit feeding Our Future, resulting in 57 convictions in Minnesota. Prosecutors said the institution was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, exploiting a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds supporting 14 programs in Minnesota as 2018 may have been stolen. Most defendants in the child nutrition, housing services, and autism program schemes are Somali Americans.