The Trump administration appears to be deploying the same playbook it used in Minnesota—leveraging allegations of fraud to justify significant federal oversight—in other blue states across the country, starting with California and New York.
“POTUS loves Minnesota and the people. It’s a state where he received historic Republican support, and he has long called out [Governor Tim] Walz for his incompetence and terrible leadership,” a senior White House official tells WIRED. “The fraud is so blatant and widespread that it’s a good place to start but it’s only the beginning. CA and NY next.”
This approach seemingly signals a broader strategy to use investigations into alleged fraud as a pretext for federal operations in blue states across the country, potentially exposing tens of millions of Americans to heightened federal scrutiny and unchecked ICE activity while exacerbating tensions between the White House and Democratic governors. Responding to protests over this surge in Minneapolis, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act Thursday morning.
The White House declined to comment, referring WIRED to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A DHS spokesperson did not address the possibility of increased ICE presence in either California or New York as a result of alleged fraud investigations when reached for comment. “This is [sic] largest DHS operation in history—we won’t get into resources or numbers of personnel,” the spokesperson told WIRED on Tuesday.
The California and New York governors’ offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since the end of December, DHS has sent thousands of immigration agents into Minnesota in response to a variety of fraud claims pushed by White House officials. The allegations in Minnesota largely stem from a viral YouTube video published by the 23 year-old right-wing creator Nick Shirley, which claimed to uncover a purported $100 million fraud scheme involving Somali child care centers (Multiple local Minnesota outlets have covered similar stories for years. Nearly 100 people have been charged and roughly 60 people have been convicted). The video, which has over three million views as of publication, was shared by figures like Elon Musk and vice president JD Vance. Soon after it circulated on X, DHS ramped up its immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. On January 7, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a Minnesota resident and mother of three. Protests around the state are ongoing. In an address last night, Walz told residents, “if you see ICE in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans—not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution.”
Shirley is expected to appear before the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and federal government surveillance next week to discuss alleged fraud in Minnesota.
In the weeks since the initial Minneapolis surge, the administration has threatened to freeze federal funds for programs like Medicaid in other blue states. Trump said on Tuesday that the administration could freeze federal payments to sanctuary jurisdictions as soon as February 1. Asked about ICE’s role in fraud investigations, the senior White House official explained that “if the fraudsters are illegals, they are getting deported.”
“Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, 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.”
There are signs past Trump’s rhetoric that the administration may be seeking to replicate the Minnesota playbook. Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump creator and Turning Point USA contributor, traveled to Los Angeles in recent days to pursue his own “fraud investigation.” So far, Johnson’s content has focused on California homelessness, suggesting that the state mismanaged funds to combat the issue. Mehmet Oz, the former talk show host and administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, traveled to Los Angeles last week as well, promising to target fraud himself, and examining what he believes to be foreign gangs misusing funds for federal hospice programs. On Wednesday, Oz announced that CMS would be withholding around $300 million from California, accusing the state of using “federal Medicaid funds on non-emergency healthcare for illegals.”
The Trump administration’s efforts to politicize fraud investigations isn’t ending anytime soon. Last week, the White House announced that it would establish a new Justice Department division to investigate state fraud allegations. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Andrew Ferguson, who currently heads the Federal Trade Commission, could become the deputy attorney general for fraud. ICE has also been on a recruiting spree to bolster its numbers. The agency is planning to spend around $100 million to advertise listings for deportation officers in front of right-wing audiences online, according to a report from the Washington Post last month.
Other blue states are also coming under federal scrutiny. In Maine, ICE agents are reportedly on their way; Portland and Lewiston’s mayors announced Wednesday that they are expecting ICE agents to arrive in their cities as early as next week to target the state’s Somali population, as first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas. Lewiston’s Somali population is predominantly made up of US citizens or green card holders, a former city councillor told the Boston Globe. (The same is true of Minnesota’s Somali population, which overwhelmingly comprises US citizens.) When Trump assailed Somali immigrants in the US 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 governor Janet Mills have long sparred over issues like transgender students in sports. Over the last few weeks, immigrant-owned businesses in Maine have come under fire by Republican state lawmakers over allegations of tax fraud. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced Wednesday that it was looking into two Maine school districts for allegedly violating Title IX. Nearly all of the 18 school districts under investigation around the country in Democratic states, including those in Maine, share similar policies by allowing transgender students to participate in sports.
“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, which both have Democratic governors, also saw federal funds frozen this month.
The post Minnesota Is Just the Beginning. California and New York Are ‘Next’ appeared first on Wired.
