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 and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 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 more than 3 million views, 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 on Wednesday, 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.”
