Trump Administration Prepares to Roll Out Minnesota-style Fraud-based Federal Oversight Across Blue States, Starting With California and New York
The Trump administration is reportedly deploying the same playbook it first tested in Minnesota—leveraging unproven fraud allegations to justify sweeping new federal oversight—across other Democratic-led states around the country, beginning with California and New York.
“President Trump cares deeply about Minnesota and its people. It’s a state where he earned historic Republican support, and he has repeatedly called out Governor Tim Walz for incompetence and disastrous leadership,” a senior White House official told WIRED. “The fraud here is so blatant and widespread that Minnesota was a natural starting point, but this is only the beginning. California and New York are next.”
This tactic signals a broader administration strategy: using probes into alleged fraud as a pretext to expand federal operations across blue states, which could subject tens of millions of Americans to heightened federal scrutiny and unconstrained ICE activity while worsening already tense relations between the White House and Democratic governors. Amid ongoing protests over the expanded ICE presence in Minneapolis, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act during a Thursday morning statement.
The White House declined to comment directly on the record, referring all inquiries from WIRED to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When reached for comment, a DHS spokesperson did not address whether fraud investigations would lead to increased ICE deployments in California or New York. “This is the largest DHS operation in history—we won’t disclose details about resources or personnel numbers,” the spokesperson told WIRED on Tuesday. Offices for the governors of California and New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since the end of December, DHS has deployed thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota in response to a slate of fraud claims pushed by White House officials. The Minnesota allegations largely originate from a viral YouTube video published by 23-year-old right-wing content creator Nick Shirley, which claims to uncover a $100 million fraud scheme tied to Somali childcare centers. (Multiple local Minnesota outlets have covered similar investigations for years, with nearly 100 people charged and roughly 60 people convicted to date.) The video, which has amassed more than 3 million views, was shared by high-profile figures including Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Shortly after it spread widely on X, DHS ramped up immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. On January 7, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a Minnesota resident and mother of three. Protests across the state have continued in the weeks since the shooting. During an address to residents on Wednesday, Walz urged, “If you see ICE in your neighborhood, pull out your phone and hit record. Help us build a database of atrocities against Minnesotans—not just to create a permanent record, but to collect evidence for future prosecution.”
Shirley is scheduled to appear next week before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance to discuss the alleged fraud in Minnesota.
In the weeks following the initial Minneapolis deployment, the administration has threatened to freeze federal funding for programs like Medicaid in other blue states. Trump stated Tuesday that the administration could halt federal payments to sanctuary jurisdictions as early as February 1. Asked about ICE’s role in fraud investigations, the senior White House official explained that “if the fraudsters are undocumented, they will be deported.”
“Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum [a derogatory nickname for Gavin Newsom], JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my view, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. He also posted, “California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun.”
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Beyond Trump’s public rhetoric, there are clear signs the administration is already moving to replicate the Minnesota playbook. Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump creator and Turning Point USA contributor, traveled to Los Angeles in recent days to conduct his own “fraud investigation.” So far, Johnson’s coverage has focused on California’s homelessness crisis, claiming the state mismanaged funds allocated to address the issue. Mehmet Oz, the former talk show host and current administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also traveled to Los Angeles last week, promising to target fraud himself and investigate what he claims is foreign gang misuse of funds for federal hospice programs. On Wednesday, Oz announced that CMS would withhold roughly $300 million from California, accusing the state of using “federal Medicaid funds on non-emergency health care for illegals.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to politicize fraud investigations are not slowing down. Last week, the White House announced it would create a new division within the Department of Justice specifically to investigate state-level fraud allegations. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Andrew Ferguson, head of the Federal Trade Commission, is poised to become deputy attorney general overseeing the new fraud unit. ICE has also launched an aggressive recruitment drive to expand its ranks. Last month, The Washington Post reported the agency plans to spend roughly $100 million to advertise deportation officer openings to right-wing audiences online.
Other blue states are already facing growing federal scrutiny. In Maine, ICE agents are reportedly en route; Portland and Lewiston’s mayors announced Wednesday that they expect agents to arrive in their cities as early as next week to target the state’s Somali population, a story first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas. A former Lewiston city councillor told The Boston Globe that the vast majority of Lewiston’s Somali population are U.S. citizens or green card holders — a demographic reality that matches Minnesota’s Somali community, which is also overwhelmingly made up of U.S. citizens. When Trump attacked Somali immigrants in the U.S. in December, Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline responded: “Here, Somali entrepreneurs are business owners and hard workers, creating jobs and strengthening our local economy … Their active role within our city has been instrumental in Lewiston’s revitalization, making such rhetoric not only cruel but clearly false.”
Trump and Maine’s Democratic governor Janet Mills have long clashed over issues including transgender student participation in sports. Over the past few weeks, immigrant-owned businesses in Maine have been targeted by Republican state lawmakers over tax fraud allegations. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced Wednesday that it was investigating two Maine school districts for alleged Title IX violations. Nearly all of the 18 school districts under investigation across the country are located in Democratic states, and all share similar policies allowing transgender students to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity.
“There is no evidence of unchecked criminal activity in our community requiring a disproportionate presence of federal agents,” Portland mayor Mark Dion wrote in a statement. “In that view, Portland rejects the need for the deployment of ICE agents into our neighborhoods. While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach to the enforcement of federal statutes. The consequence of law enforcement should not be chaos and violence, which only results in making Portland less safe.”
Colorado and Illinois, both led by Democratic governors, also had federal funds frozen earlier this month.
