Pro-Trump influencers celebrate after Walz ends re-election bid : NPR

Pro-Trump influencer and YouTuber Benny Johnson interviewed in Phoenix earlier this year. Johnson is one of several political influencers with close ties to the Trump administration.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Less than two weeks after YouTube personality Nick Shirley posted a 42-minute video alleging widespread fraud at Minnesota child care centers run by people of Somali descent, the Trump administration is freezing federal funding streams — including $10 billion to five Democratic-led states — and has sent 2,000 federal agents to Minnesota to carry out an immigration crackdown.

Additionally, Democratic Minnesota Governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz announced Monday that he will no longer seek a third term, citing the need to focus on running the state rather than his campaign.

Pro-MAGA influencers on X declared victory by also sharing new, unsubstantiated fraud allegations about other social service providers in Minnesota and other states.

“Tim Walz was almost vice president of the United States,” wrote Rogan O’Handley, a pro-Trump commentator with more than 2 million followers on

Shirley himself posted on X on Monday: “I DONE TIM WALZ.”

Shirley’s video was amplified by Vice President JD Vance and has garnered more than 138 million views on But the rapid political fallout that the video helped provoke illustrates the symbiotic relationship between online content creators and the Trump administration’s policy goals.

Online content that purports to show evidence of a problem, such as fraud in a Democratic state, can be exploited by policymakers to justify policy changes they want to implement, said Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the spread of online rumors during crises and news events. She said a similar dynamic has occurred in the past with content alleging wasteful spending by USAID, or messages claiming diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were to blame for accidents.

“They become really effective at driving policies that align with the direction that policymakers want,” Starbird said. “Whether it was defunding social programs in blue states or eliminating DEI initiatives at all universities, this type of dynamic was very effective for the second Trump administration.”

One factor is that Trump’s Cabinet is made up of people who understand the power of online content because that’s the world they come from, said Shannon McGregor, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies the role of social media in politics.

“There are both people who are and have been influencers in cabinet-level and other positions,” McGregor said. “It’s sort of harnessing the attention economy where attention equals power.”

McGregor said another time this dynamic played out was when Trump-aligned content creators in cities like Portland made videos portraying anti-ICE protests as violent and disruptive, which helped reinforce the Trump administration’s justification for cracking down, including sending in the National Guard. The White House granted special access to some of these creators and invited several, including Shirley, to participate in a roundtable discussion to discuss Antifa in October.

Political influencer Nick Shirley speaks at a White House event on October 8, 2025. Shirley’s viral video alleging fraud at Minnesota child care centers that receive federal funding prompted the Trump administration to cut off funding to several Democratic-led states.

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Some daycare workers featured in Shirley’s video received threatening phone calls or were targets of vandalism. While Shirley’s video appeared to show that no children were present at the daycares he visited, officials with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families said they visited nine of the daycares featured in the video and found children in all but one, which was not yet open to families. The agency also told media that a daycare featured in the video has been closed since 2022.

At the same time, other fraudulent schemes in state social service programs have been well documented. At least 78 people have been criminally charged in connection with a $250 million scheme involving a COVID-era nutrition program. The majority are from the Somali community, which has a large presence in the state and is often the target of Trump’s ire.

These legitimate fraud cases make it difficult to interpret new, unverified claims made by social media influencers. The allegations now spreading online could involve misinterpreting documents or exaggerating minor issues – or could reveal actual fraudulent activity.

“It’s very difficult to verify claims made in this way,” Starbird said. “And by the time the facts are fact-checked, the impact of these claims has already been felt – people have already decided what they believe.”

In recent days, content creators have posted videos of themselves knocking on the doors of what appear to be daycares and home health care businesses in other states, including in Ohio’s Somali community. A parody video purporting to show a vacant daycare in Los Angeles receiving $42 million was also shared online in recent days by some users who didn’t seem to realize it was satire.

During an appearance on Fox News Monday evening, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited “great independent journalists like Nick Shirley” for helping the Trump administration uncover the fraud, before describing the federal response in Minnesota and Trump’s belief that Walz is “criminally responsible.”

The Trump administration said this week it was freezing $10 billion in child care and cash welfare funds for Minnesota, California, Colorado, Illinois and New York due to suspected fraud. The freeze follows other announced changes in federal funding for child care nationwide.

“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that is possible???? The California fraud investigation has begun,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social, but did not provide further details.

Just 23 minutes later, pro-Trump podcaster Benny Johnson told his four million X followers that he would be traveling to California next week to investigate fraud and asked for advice. As of Tuesday evening, he claimed to have received “more than 1,000 messages from whistleblowers, public officials and state employees denouncing California waste, fraud and abuse” and alleged $250 billion in potential fraud.

“The transition from rumor to policy is now shorter than the time it takes to verify a claim,” Renée DiResta, a professor at Georgetown University who studies how information circulates online, wrote in her newsletter. “It’s a remarkable change – and a dangerous one. People have always believed rumors, but now government elites are exploiting them when they justify what they wanted to do anyway.”