Minnesota Is Just the Beginning. California and New York Are ‘Next’

The Trump administration appears to be rolling out the same playbook used in Minnesota — leveraging fraud allegations to justify significant federal oversight — to other blue states across the country, starting with California and New York.

“POTUS loves Minnesota and its people. It’s a state where he has received historic Republican support, and he has long called it [Governor Tim] Walz for his incompetence and terrible leadership,” a senior White House official told 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 appears to indicate 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 increased federal surveillance and unchecked ICE activity, while exacerbating tensions between the White House and Democratic governors. In response to protests against the surge in Minneapolis, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Thursday morning.

The White House declined to comment, referring WIRED to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When reached for comment, a DHS spokesperson did not discuss the possibility of an increased ICE presence in California or New York following investigations into alleged fraud. “It is [sic] largest DHS operation in history – we won’t go into resources or personnel numbers,” the spokesperson told WIRED on Tuesday.

The governors’ offices in California and New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since late December, DHS has sent thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota in response to various fraud allegations pushed by White House officials. The allegations in Minnesota stem largely from a viral YouTube video posted by right-wing creator Nick Shirley, 23, who claimed to uncover an alleged $100 million fraud scheme involving Somali daycares. (Several local media outlets in Minnesota have covered similar stories for years. Nearly 100 people have been charged and about 60 people have been convicted.) The video, which has more than 3 million views, has been shared by the likes of Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Shortly after it aired on X, DHS increased its immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. On January 7, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a Minnesota resident and mother of three. Protests continue across the state. In a speech Wednesday, Walz told residents: “If you see ICE in your neighborhood, pull out that phone and press record. Help us create a database of atrocities committed against Minnesotans, not only to build a record for posterity, but also to store evidence for future prosecutions.”

Shirley is expected to appear before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Oversight next week to discuss alleged fraud in Minnesota.

In the weeks after the initial push in Minneapolis, the administration threatened to freeze federal funds for programs like Medicaid in other blue states. Trump said Tuesday that the administration could freeze federal payments to sanctuary jurisdictions as early as February 1. Asked about ICE’s role in investigating fraud, the senior White House official explained that “if the fraudsters are illegal, they will be 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 at Truth Social last week. He also posted: “California under Governor Gavin Newscum is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? California fraud investigation has begun.”