Author, columnist, speaker

Minnesota Welfare Scandal Exposes the Democrats' Kleptocratic Ways

By Robert Knight

The multi-billion-dollar Somali welfare scandal in Minnesota continues to grow, even as Democrats are doing their best to tamp it down.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents the Twin Cities area and is a naturalized citizen from Somalia, lamented the fraud, but said the focus on Somalis was because of bigotry.

She wrote a column for The New York Times accusing President Donald Trump of “hate speech” and “racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and division.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who was sworn into office on a Koran instead of a Bible, called the Trump administration’s recent order to end Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals an example of "racism."

Wearing a hijab, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (aka “al-Flanagan”) told a crowd at a Somali market that “we have your back.”

Somalis now number more than 107,000 in Minnesota, mostly in the Democrat-run area of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The scandal may involve as much as $9 billion stolen, according to the lead federal prosecutor in Minnesota.

For his part, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is posing as a fraud-exposing superhero, instead of what he really is—a crook or clueless political hack.

Remember, Mr. Walz is the guy who said he was placed on the Kamala Harris ticket in 2024 as the vice presidential nominee “because I could code-talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that.”

As part of his manly appeal, Mr. Walz ordered tampon dispensers to be placed in boys’ bathrooms in public schools. Yes, he did.

Despite the Democrats’ insistence that there’s nothing to see here and that anyhow, the fraud is nobody’s fault, the story is growing.

In late December, independent YouTube journalist Nick Shirley ripped the cover off the scandal. His on-the-ground videos exposing phony childcare centers in Minnesota like the one with the “Learing Center” sign, have gone viral, with more than 130 million views.

In response, the Trump administration has announced even more aggressive investigations and a freeze on federal childcare funding to the Gopher State.

This is happening while the legacy media treat it as a non-story. They’re too busy dishing out irrelevant dirt from the Jeffrey Epstein files. It’s similar to the way fighter jets emit clouds of chaff to confuse enemy radar.

Beyond Minnesota, Americans know something is deeply wrong. This isn’t just about illegal immigration or astronomical government fraud. It’s about both.

Many Americans are furious that they’re not only losing their country to an alien culture because of one political party’s greed for power but they’re paying for it with their tax dollars. And if they dare to complain, they’re called racists.

This isn’t about race. It’s about bringing in people with unassimilable cultural values who then turn around and rip us off.

Although there was some local Minnesota media coverage back in 2022, the New York Times broke the story nationally that year about some Somalis milking safety net programs erected during the COVID pandemic.

The FBI probed into groups overseen by Feeding Our Future, which billed the government tens of millions of dollars for nonexistent meals. More than 75 people were arrested and charged. Other fraud schemes involved illicit Medicaid and housing payments and unfounded claims of autism, for which parents got kickbacks.

In 2024, the scandal wasn’t big enough to keep Tim Walz off the Democratic ticket. By then, he was a super good fraud fighter—and white male voter whisperer.

Last month, thanks to Mr. Shirley, the far bigger scandal broke open. The Department of Homeland Security has sent teams to Minnesota to probe how fraudsters, mostly in the Somali community, were getting rich off the taxpayer.

The larger lesson here is something that Milton Friedman said in 1999: "You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state."

Free benefits and an open border, as under former President Joe Biden, are a magnet for an infinite stream of illegal aliens. This situation cannot be sustained.

This was the actual goal of two socialist economists, Richard Cloward and his wife Frances Fox Piven, who crafted the Cloward-Piven strategy in the 1960s.

Their idea was to overwhelm the welfare state with demands until it collapsed, forcing Americans to surrender to full socialism. Mr. Cloward has gone on to his reward, but Ms. Fox Piven, at 93, is still pushing her stuff on credulous academics and students.

In June 2019, during the Democratic presidential primaries, the 10 candidates on stage, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, were asked to raise their hands if they supported giving “undocumented immigrants” access to government health care. All of them did.

Right now, “free” health care may not play as well. Obamacare has exponentially raised health care costs and health insurance premiums.

Democrats are threatening again to shut down the government in late January if taxpayer subsidies are not renewed for their free stuff army. In light of the burgeoning Minnesota scandal, the giveaways may be losing public support.

In an X post quoted in National Review, former Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel said, “Welfare liberalism can’t win if voters believe their money’s being stolen, and that liberals will let it happen to avoid being called racist.”

Which is exactly what happened in Minnesota. And undoubtedly in a lot of other places.

This will keep hitting the fan as the Justice Department and FBI look at more states that have had Democrat, one-party rule for decades, like California and Illinois.

Just imagine what’s under some of those rocks.  

Photo: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on June 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo in The Washington Times.)