Trump’s Awful Scheme against Minnesota Finally Exposed

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0:23Ben Meiselas:Let's debunk and expose what's really going on here as Donald Trump and MAGA are attacking the entire Somalian population in Minnesota and in the United States, just as they attacked the Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, and throughout the United States during the 2024 election, lying and saying they're eating the cats and they're eating the dogs and we need to stop them. They're doing something similar now with the Somali population before the 2026 midterms. So Trump and MAGA are trying to, as you know, cover up the Epstein sex trafficking ring. They're covering up a child sex trafficking ring right now at the highest levels of our government.

1:11Ben Meiselas:To cover up the cover-up, they need a distraction. Also, Donald Trump promised that he would make things affordable on day one. Things are less affordable right now, so they need a distraction from that as well. They don't want to attack the Latino community, which ICE and the Border Patrol are already doing, sending them to concentration camps and separating families. But as part of the public PR campaign, they don't want to do that because they need the Latino vote going into the midterms and their approval amongst Latino votes right now, voters, is in like the 20s or the low 30s right now. So they're trying to pick on a group.

1:50Ben Meiselas:They're picking on the Somalian population. They're picking on them in Minnesota. Governor Walz, they've identified as a good target. They send this YouTuber guy, Shirley, Nick Shirley, into Minnesota to concoct this video with the MAGA Republicans in the Minnesota legislature as part of a broader attack on Minnesota Democrats and Democrats generally, and they go after the entire Somali population. So let's just talk about what went down in Minnesota to begin with. So the mastermind of this fraud ring is a white lady who was convicted in March. She was arrested a few years before that. Her name is Amy Bach.

2:38Ben Meiselas:Here's a photo of that right here on this Polymarket account. They go breaking convicted fraudster Amy Bach listed as the person of contact for at least 47 taxpayer funded child cares in Minnesota per official state records. Yeah, there's not a conspiracy there. The Biden administration prosecuted her. The DOJ brought charges against her. Her trial was held back in March where she was convicted, but all this stuff was known. There were lots of reports on this stuff going back some time. I mean, in the 2022, 2023, 2024, There were reports on this. This is not something that just developed. This is not something that is, you know, all of a sudden that is new.

3:28Ben Meiselas:So you go through who is Amy Bach. Amy Bach is a Minnesota resident. She's convicted as the ringleader of one of the largest COVID-19 relief fraud schemes in U.S. history. She founded this nonprofit Feeding Our Future in 2016. She served as its executive director. There's something called a federal child nutrition program that's administered through the Minnesota Department of Education to reimburse meal sites for feeding children. Then there were red flags that appeared in this program. And it turns out that they were seeking at least$250 million in reimbursements while providing few or no actual meals.

4:14Ben Meiselas:prosecutors ultimately demonstrated that Bach and co-conspirators, and she often used a group of co-conspirators who happened to be Somali, but she was the ringleader of all of this. They submitted fake invoices, attendance rosters, and documentations. Funds were laundered through different shell companies. And in 2022, federal charges were filed against 78 individuals. It was initially 47, but that grew over time. Yes, there were defendants who were Somali-Americans. Bach, a white lady, was identified as the mastermind. She also faced accusations that she used threats, intimidation, racism, coercion against an immigrant population to coerce them to be part of this scheme.

5:04Ben Meiselas:And she was convicted in March of 2025. So all this stuff has been covered before. CNN covered it in 2022. Again, October 4th, 2025. Adam Carlson points out Washington Post covered it in 2022. Again, December 19, 2025. Minneapolis Star Tribune has been covering this story continuously since the story first broke in 2022. This is something, again, that has been well known. So when the DOJ posted the following, Attorney General Pambani goes, this was four days ago, Minnesota fraud, Nick Shirley, that's that YouTuber. His work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud and Tim Walz's Minnesota.

5:51Ben Meiselas:There's a fact check of that on X, which was formerly Twitter. The Biden DOJ filed charges against members of the Somali community and the ringleader, the white lady, Amy Bach, for their role in a $250 million feeding our future fraud scam. 78 people have been indicted. 57 people have been convicted. Seven are in prison and the rest are awaiting sentencing right now. So when the Department of Justice is like, we did this, we did that. It's the Biden DOJ that did the vast majority of this. Okay. So that brings us to who is Nick Shirley? Nick Shirley is this YouTuber, right-wing MAGA guy. He's kind of a useful idiot and prop of MAGA.

6:38Ben Meiselas:And he's done this before. He's pushed Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda. And one of the things that we learned, and Andrew Mercado points it out and others pointed it out, and the NPR News, local Minnesota news pointed out, that the Minnesota House GOP leader, Lisa DeMuth, acknowledged the Republican Party's involvement in Nick Shirley's viral daycare video saying, we, the Republican Party, the MAGAs, worked with Nick Shirley on this. That matters, as Andrew Mercado writes, because the video has been widely framed as independent citizen journalism. Minnesota officials have said fraud investigations were already underway long before the video and inspections have not backed up many of the claims made about these specific daycare centers shown.

7:30Ben Meiselas:So what Nick Shirley would do is he would show up during the holidays and nobody would be there. He'd show up after hours or before hours when the daycare isn't open and he would hide the signs showing when the daycare was open and closed or that it was a holiday, or he would just be genuinely creepy. I mean, first off, he would show up with a group of other guys who looked like ICE agents. And so the Somali population, which was already under attack by ICE, would be afraid to open up the door for this guy in ICE. And also, it's pretty creepy that a guy is saying, I want to see the kids. Can I see the kids?

8:07Ben Meiselas:Let me see the children. I want to see the children. Daycare centers aren't going to open up for someone saying, let me see the children. And Nick Shirley's like, well, why didn't they put me in a waiting area? Why didn't they put me in the lobby area? I want to be in the lobby area. As Andrew Mercado writes, still the video fueled widespread outrage and targeted scrutiny of a Somali-owned child care providers. With a top Republican now on record confirming coordination, this reframes the entire narrative. This wasn't just a lone YouTuber uncovering something new. A political party acknowledges involvement in producing or shaping media that went viral, not organically, and helped drive public backlash.

8:51Ben Meiselas:And then they had Elon Musk and JD Vance and their whole right-wing MAGA machine amplify all of this. So now let me show you a few things right here. I'll show you this clip right here. This is of Nick Shirley. And as Keith Edwards says, wow, this guy is a literal idiot. Here, watch this. Did you come during their normal operating hours when you came to visit? I came at 11 a.m., I believe. and I also came the following day later in the day. The point of it is not whether or not I came at the right time with their operation hours. The point is that blacked out doors, they can't give you any information.

9:28You call that number, no one answers. I wasn't trying to go inside. There should be a way for somebody to actually be able to call that number and somebody be able to answer. These aren't real businesses. But surely you don't think a daycare should just be unlocked. You shouldn't be able to just walk into a daycare. There shouldn't be a reception. No, every daycare is locked. And so, okay, you bring up a fair point, then why can't they actually give me information

9:50Ben Meiselas:how to enroll? Take a look at what CBS News Minnesota said about this. And as Adam Mockler says, CBS News Minnesota blows open Nick Shirley's fraud story by showing security camera footage of children there the same day Shirley was there and he just showed up at times where the kids weren't there. Here, play this clip. This is ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis. They have to learn ABC numbers. Director Ahmed Hassan gave WCCO a tour after finding his daycare in the national spotlight. All right, we've arrived to ABC Learning Center. In a now viral video, right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley claims nearly a dozen daycare centers in Minnesota are taking public funds but not providing a service.

10:35He says ABC Learning Center is one of them, knocking on the door in mid-December. I would like to check a child in the daycare. Hassan says his employee didn't respond because Shirley was in a group of about eight people and his staff were concerned about recent ICE activity. Is this daycare committing fraud? No, no, no, we're not committing fraud. Hassan showed a security footage from the same day Shirley was here. According to the timestamps in the videos, this woman takes a young child into the center at around 9 a.m. that day, about three hours before Shirley arrives at the door closer to the street.

11:05Within the hour, After Shirley leaves, a woman arrives at the other door with a stroller. A larger family heads inside a few hours later. Tuesday afternoon, WCCO found at least a dozen children at ABC Learning Center, which is licensed with the state. Records show Minnesota officials last visited the daycare in November, noting some corrected and ongoing violations related to day-to-day operations, but no record of fraud. What did I do? I'm just a typical human being who wants to live and do the right thing. I have kids to feed. Umi Hassan, the daycare's current owner, believes these latest fraud accusations are political.

11:41Both she and Hassan are Somali Americans. We pay our taxes. We do whatever we can to be a law-obeyed citizen. At the same time, when one Somali does something wrong, we all get collective banishment. With Shirley's video now approaching 2.3 million views on YouTube alone, they say they are getting nonstop phone calls harassing them. I was looking for a place for my granddaughter. with many of those calls attached to out-of-state phone numbers. They normally say, knock, knock, we're going to come. We're going to arrest, you know, something like that. Hassan says they turned over attendance records to comply with the Department of Homeland Security request.

12:21They're now waiting to hear back. CBS News is reviewing records related to the same daycares. All but two have active licenses. And Aaron, while the active places have violations related to safety or staff training, there's no recorded evidence.

12:34Ben Meiselas:Here is a longer version of CNN confronting Shirley. Play this clip. We're from CNN. Can we talk to you? This is MAGA YouTuber Nick Shirley. Back at a daycare in Minnesota, he alleged was a fraudulent facility in a now viral video. If you are going to say this is a left or right issue, but no, fraud is fraud. I'm not out here trying to put a twist on things. Shirley's viral video released over the weekend in which he says he's uncovering tens of millions of dollars in fraud at Minneapolis daycares run by the Somali community was retweeted by Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance. In the video, Shirley tries to open locked doors and talk to people at various daycares he claims are frauds.

13:13Did you come during their normal operating hours when you came to visit? I came at 11 a.m., I believe, and I also came the following day later in the day. The point of it is not whether or not I came at the right time of their operation hours. The point is that blacked outdoors, they can't give any information you call that number no one answers i wasn't trying to go inside and they there should be a way for somebody to actually be able to call that number and somebody be able to answer these aren't real businesses but surely you don't think a daycare should just be unlocked you shouldn't be able to just walk into a daycare reception no every daycare is locked and so okay you bring up a fair point then but why can't they actually give me information how to enroll a child federal law enforcement has been investigating fraud in minnesota for several years both attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Cash Patel said on social media they've indicted dozens of defendants.

14:06DHS has posted multiple videos of agents they say are conducting a massive fraud investigation. Do you think that federal law enforcement hasn't done enough? I mean, they would say, look, these fraud cases have been going on, but they've already done like 80 indictments. The cases have been going on, you know, for years. Why did I show up one day in Minnesota and go to all these daycares? No children. They're receiving millions of dollars. We encourage nearly 100 million, $110 million in fraud in one day. How do you know that all the allegations that you're making are true? How do I know that they're true?

14:34Well, we showed you guys what was happening, and then you guys can go ahead and make your own analysis. We're coming, so we can make our own analysis. Are you 100 % sure you're true? Yeah, I am 100 % sure I'm true. CNN is looking into Shirley's claims. Hi, my name's Whitney Wilde. I'm a correspondent for CNN. We reached out to several of the daycares featured in the now viral video. Only one daycare facility answered and said they are a legitimate business. Have you seen that the videos, you know, purporting that some of these daycares don't have kids inside? Minnesota Republicans say despite the new focus from the Trump administration, they have been sounding the alarm on fraud for years.

15:12You know, we have talked about fraud. We have gotten stories. We have we've tried to push this forward every way that we can. At the daycare where Shirley showed back up, a stream of children walk inside. You're saying that this is a fraudulent daycare. There's kids being dropped off right now. Yes. The commissioner of children literally said a week ago this place was closed. They're showing face right now. A viral video, disputed claims and their full fallout remains to be seen. Whitney, you mentioned in your story that there were dozens of convictions going back to 2022. Can you explain what those convictions established?

15:49Well, this was really the beginning of this massive fraud case that has now led to more than 50 more than 50 convictions. Fifty six people at least convicted as of September of this year, Jim. At least 78 people have been indicted in that case. It was this sprawling investigation that, you know, DOJ has really touted as their effort to try to root out what is a fraud problem here in Minnesota, Jim. And then, of course, many of them did begin a number of years ago. Whitney Wild, good to have you there. Thanks very much.

16:24Ben Meiselas:Here is Abrahim Ali, manager of Quality Learning Center. Here's what he described. Play this clip. A lot of the journalism that's been going on the last couple of days has been really dishonest. I don't want to point fingers at anybody, but I do feel like what was done was someone came to our building outside of operating hours. There's a specific sign on our door that says our days and our hours. He came outside of those hours and then claimed, hey, they're closed and they're still making money. They're using taxpayer money to work. And it's like you don't come outside of operational hours and then say they're using taxpayer money.

17:00That was completely false. As you can see, we're open Mondays through Thursdays, 2 to 10 p.m. he was here earlier i don't see him right now so it's like are you trying to record that we're doing fraud or are you trying to put somebody's name and then fraud in the same sentence that's what really hurt us the last couple of days we're open we've been open we haven't closed we've been open for eight eight and a half years now we haven't closed once during that very so i wanted to touch on that first the second thing is which is kind of laughable is a sign We mess up the sign. We pay somebody to do our sign.

17:33He incorrectly did it. We're having him work on it. We paid him to correct the sign. He said it'll be done by this week. So by the end of this week, our sign will be fine. The third thing, which is the fraud claim. There's no fraud going on whatsoever. Kids come to us. Clients come to us. Their parents come to us. They're here daily. They leave on time. They come on time. There's no fraud going on whatsoever. Where those claims came from. I mean, if a group of people does fraud, you don't paint the brush with everyone in that group. You don't say, hey, there's a group of people that are somebody that are doing fraud.

18:04Say, hey, every single somebody must be part of fraud. No, we're business owners. Being a business owner is extremely tough. Trying to raise kids that are not yours, that are others, is extremely tough as well. But then for people to come and go like, hey, they're not really working, they're just taking free money. If any of us have children here, raising children is not easy. Trying to help them school work, trying to build their manners is not easy work. So when somebody comes and does that, it's just, it's really disheartening. And the community itself, as Minnesota, as Somalis, as people that own this business for eight years now, we do nothing but to uplift the community, uplift our children, uplift one another, uplift non-Somalis, uplift Somalis, to make a better community for all of us.

18:46So when somebody comes and says, hey, they're not doing it, it's just like, if he would have came, there are operational hours, and there's no one here, okay, you've got a point. He came, I think it was 11 a.m. Obviously, there's no cars in the parking lot. If you look around, there's cars now. Yeah, because our employees are here. Our children are here. Our clients are here. But don't come at 10 a.m. and go, hey, their doors are open. Obviously, our doors are not gonna be open at 10 a.m. We're not open at 10 a.m. That's why the door says that. It's not okay. So is this -

19:12Ben Meiselas:And just so you see how creepy it is with this guy, Nick Shirley, showing up, yeah, you can see why these childcare properties weren't eager to let in some random dude asking, where are the kids, as Aaron Rupert puts it. Here, play this clip. We're just wondering where the kids are. And who are you? My name is Nick Shirley. Nick Shirley. And where are you? Oh, we are from ourselves. Yeah. Hello, we'd like to ask where the money's going. Look at that. Shut us down. Where are the children at? No children inside of this daycare center. And look at this daycare center right here. No children inside of this daycare center.

19:51But between those buildings, over$2.6 million.

19:55Ben Meiselas:dollars. I want to give a hat tip to this TikToker, Priya existing, who I think does a pretty good breakdown of everything here as well. Let me show you this clip right here. So I'm getting a lot of messages about all of this alleged fraud that's happening in Minnesota because it's my home state. The first message I got was from a friend of mine asking me if I'd seen that video that wackadoodle Nick Shirley did going to that like quick learning center or whatever it's called. And I'm not saying there's not fraud going on in Minnesota. I'm just saying that some of it seems to be from Nick Shirley.

20:24So he goes to this learning center. It's a daycare that has taken millions of dollars. He's knocking. Nobody's coming to the door, but it would seem that he's actually at the back door. So here he is at the front door. It's a restaurant called Abdi's Kitchen. That learning center shut down due to multiple violations, none of which I don't believe had to do with fraud, but he doesn't tell his followers that it's actually a restaurant. So I got a bunch of messages about that. And then I got this comment on Instagram, which is a bad faith question. This guy is MAGA. And there has been a huge MAGA push to think about Somali people as fraudsters.

20:58Usually what they're referencing is the Feeding Our Future case. And yes, a lot of Somali people were implicated in that case. But what they conveniently leave out is this woman, Amy Bach. In 2016, she founded the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. And in 2020 is when the fraud began. This was at the beginning of the pandemic. This was during DJT's first term. He completely mishandled the pandemic to the point that he loosened oversight on these kinds of programs, allowing claims to get through unverified. And Feeding Our Future claimed that they were giving thousands of meals to children, and they never did.

21:31They pocketed that money to the tune of$240 million. In 2022, during Biden's term, Biden's FBI raided the organization, and the organization shut down. There were 78 suspects, Amy Bach and all of her employees. In March of 2025, 40 of those people, including Amy Bach, were either found guilty or pled guilty. Merrick Garland called it the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme that there ever was. And Biden's administration shut it down. So most of the 78 people who were indicted and the 40 people who were found or pled guilty were Somali. But they were also Bach's employees. She was described as an authoritarian who silenced dissent within her ranks, discouraged scrutiny from state regulators, and cut off people who refused to comply with fudging the numbers.

22:22She is the person who created all of this. And now this has become a huge right-wing talking point because of racism and xenophobia. But no one ever mentions her, the person who created it. Now, there's a ton more to the story, but I know that this guy asked me to cover this, you know, to prove that Somali people are bad. Because that's what this admin wants you to think. The reality is every community has bad actors. That is not an indication of a community as a whole. Unless maybe we're talking about some white women like Amy Bach, who actually was only caught because of Somali whistleblowers.

22:55They were the ones who dissented, the ones that Bach iced out. Anyway, Tulang didn't read. There are bad actors everywhere. But in this case, it was a white woman.

23:05Ben Meiselas:And even on state regime media, which calls itself Fox, Leslie Marshall, I think, did an excellent breakdown. play this clip. Well, I looked at what he could be doing and I looked at what he is doing. One of the things that ties his hands is this very legislature that is trying to get him to resign. Interesting, they're not asking for a recall. So when they say the people of Minnesota don't want him, we'll put it to a recall and let the people of Minnesota decide. Todd, love you. Google. If you Google, actually local Minnesota news outlets have been reporting on this for years. Speaking of years during the Biden administration, there were 59 people convicted so far.

23:42The ringleader is not Somalian. She's a white woman named Amy Block. She was found guilty on all seven counts that were brought against her. So there are people that are already in prison. And remember, some of these are not DHS or federal related facilities. Some of these facilities were closed down for other reasons, not even fraught. But back to your question about Tim Walz. He asked the legislature in his state to give him more authority so that he could do more. And they said no. One. Two, he also has closed a number of these centers already and not just a fraud. They were investigating them for everything else.