Fraud and shady deals happen all the time whether we know it or not. What started as a youtuber wanting to expose fraud in childcare has turned into a whole hands-on government investigation.

On December 26th, a youtuber named Nick Shirley posted a video going to daycares to try to expose them claiming that the daycares are a front. During some parts of the video, he would act as a parent wanting to send his pretend “Little Joey” to it. He also tried to interview many people about the money fraud and many of these daycare workers wouldn’t answer, so he came to the conclusion that most of them had no children.

After this video started to gain traction with over millions of views, investigators and people higher in power began to get involved. They decided to set off to Minnesota to explore the daycares Shirely went to. Out of those that Shirley highlighted and found only one with children out of the ones Shirley went to. This whole situation has added more anger to the right-winged law makers who are looking into fraud in social services in Somali immigrant communities. 

Simultaneously, Trump started to become aware of the fraud and immediately went to action too. His administration has stated that they will be withholding funding that supports needy families across five Democratic-run states. One of the governors from New York, a state Trump wants to limit funding for, has stated that he is doing this not to stop fraud, but for political gain. Additionally, it’s been said that states won’t secure any aid unless there is more verification.

This ongoing investigation in Minnesota has caused Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, to drop out of his re-election for a third term since the fraud scandal has intensified. He said to reporters at his capital that he wants to focus more on his state than his political campaign.

Minnesota has been very prominent in the news under fire recently and it doesn’t seem to end anytime soon.