President Donald Trump's administration has shared a fake AI-generated trailer for an animated film that disparages Somali immigrants after widespread claims that a Somali-run daycare center in Minnesota fraudulently received millions of dollars in government funds.
Administration officials and right-wing media personalities have busted a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots in the East African country.
A synthetically generated Pixar-inspired clip posted by a right-wing podcaster and shared by the Trump administration's official X account on New Year's Day depicts a group of Somali men traveling to Minnesota, cheating the state's child care program and living a life of luxury.
“We don't have to be pirates anymore. We found a better way. A government-funded nursery school. We have to go to Minnesota,” one of the characters says.
Another character says as he walks down the steps of his mansion and lights up a $100 bill cigar. “Remember when we had to illegally steal from innocent people like thugs? Well, now we're stealing from innocent taxpayers, just as the government intended.”
independent person The White House has been contacted for comment.
The president has repeatedly used racist and derogatory language to describe Somali immigrants and American citizens with roots in a country he calls “shitholes” and “barely a nation.”
At a White House Cabinet meeting last month, President Trump called them “trash” people “from hell.”
“If they come from hell and all they do is complain and complain, we don't want them in our country,” he said. “Let's go back and fix it.”
The president also made baseless claims that Somali immigrants have “taken over” Minnesota and are “prowling the streets in search of 'prey,'” as his administration rushed federal law enforcement officers to the state to arrest hundreds of people.
Federal prosecutors and state investigators have spent years investigating fraud in the state's child care system and convicting dozens of defendants. Right-wing media has also targeted the state, home to the country's largest Somali population, for years with false claims that it is a “recruitment hub for ISIS in the United States” and that it is under siege by Somali immigrants who are manipulating elections.
But the 23-year-old influencer's new claims are closely tied to the president's anti-immigrant policies and his longstanding attempts to undermine the state's Democratic elected officials, including former vice presidential candidate and current governor Tim Walz.
David Shirley's 43-minute tour of the day care facility went viral last month with the backing of Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance, spurring the latest wave of enforcement actions in the state by the Trump administration.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services froze federal child care funding to all states, including Minnesota, in response to the video, and plans to release the funds “only if states certify that they are being spent legitimately.”
The Small Business Administration also suspended about 7,000 borrowers in the state after investigating “thousands” of potentially “fraudulent” federal payments, Administrator Kelly Loeffler said.
These borrowers were approved for 7,900 loans worth $400 million under COVID-19-era programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel also announced new operations in the state in response to Shirley's video.
Noem posted on social media that federal agents are conducting a “massive investigation into child care and other rampant fraud,” and Patel said investigators plan to “dismantle a massive fraud scheme that exploits federal programs.”
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said in an interview that the investigation is a “top priority for the administration.” fox & friends Wednesday.
“As we speak, the Department of Justice continues to execute search warrants and subpoenas,” she said. “People will be in handcuffs as a result of the fraud that Governor Walz has allowed.” [for] For many years. The Department of Homeland Security conducts door-to-door investigations at potential fraud sites, and of course continues to deport illegal aliens in Minnesota communities. ”
Levitt also said the administration is “unafraid of denaturalization” to strip citizenship from Somali-Americans in the state.
State and federal prosecutors have been investigating the allegations for years, including during President Joe Biden's administration.
At least 47 people were indicted during the Biden presidency, and the case grew to include at least 78 defendants as the investigation continued. At least 57 people have been convicted as a result of trials or guilty pleas.
Last month, federal prosecutors estimated that more than half of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs run by Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.
Many of Shirley's claims, including the filming of an empty child care center that received federal funds, have not been verified. Minnesota Republican leaders also acknowledged working with him “to keep the public informed and hold the Walz administration accountable.”
A manager at one facility said Shirley was visiting outside of normal business hours, and a CNN camera crew covering Shirley outside another facility filmed people dropping off children.
“How do I know that? [the allegations are] truth? “We've explained to you what's going on, and then you can go ahead and do your own analysis,” Shirley told CNN.
Tikki Brown, director of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families, said each of the 10 facilities featured in his video had been visited by state investigators at least once in the past six months.
“While we have questions about some of the techniques used in the video, we take the concerns the video raises about fraud very seriously,” she said this week.
