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President Donald Trump's administration announced its decision to freeze child care funds to Minnesota and demand an audit on several day care centers following a series of reported fraud schemes involving government programs alleged to have taken place in recent years.
"We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota," Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill announced on his X account. "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 against the blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in her 2024 presidential election loss to Trump, pushed back on his X account, claiming the state had spent several years cracking down on fraudsters but the decision to freeze child care funds was part of Trump "politicizing the issue."
"This is Trump’s long game. 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," Walz wrote in response to O'Neill's announcement.
O'Neill referenced a video shared by a right-wing influencer claiming that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud and demanded Walz submit an audit of the centers alleged to have been involved in the schemes, which would include attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.
“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.
The administration's announcement came one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were reported to be conducting a fraud investigation in Minneapolis, which included visiting unidentified businesses and questioning workers. Several fraud investigations have been launched in Minnesota in recent years including a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme centered around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which resulted in 57 people being convicted.