Minnesota is just the beginning. California and New York are “next”

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

“The President of the United States loves Minnesota and its people. It is a state where he has historically drawn Republican support, and he has long advocated for 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 just the beginning. California and New York next.”

The 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 heightened federal scrutiny and unchecked ICE activity as tensions between the White House and Democratic governors worsen. In response to protests over this escalation 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. A DHS spokesperson did not address the possibility of increased ICE presence in California or New York as a result of the alleged fraud investigations when reached for comment. “This is it [sic] “The largest DHS operation in history — we won’t get into resources or staffing numbers,” the spokesperson told WIRED on Tuesday.

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

Since the end of December, the Department of Homeland Security has sent thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota in response to a variety of fraud allegations pushed by White House officials. The allegations in Minnesota stem largely from a viral YouTube video posted by 23-year-old right-wing creator Nick Shirley, who claimed to have exposed an alleged $100 million fraud scheme involving Somali child care centers. (Several local media outlets in Minnesota have covered similar stories for years. Nearly 100 people have been charged, and nearly 60 have been convicted.) The video, which has more than 3 million views, has been shared by figures such as Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance. Shortly after it went viral on X, the Department of Homeland Security ramped up its immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. On January 7, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Goode, a Minnesota resident and mother of three. Protests across the state continue. In a speech Wednesday, Walz told residents: “If you see ICE in your neighborhood, get out that phone and hit the record button. Help us create a database of atrocities committed against Minnesotans — not only to create a record for future generations but to store evidence for future prosecution.”

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

In the weeks after the initial surge 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 jurisdictions on February 1. When asked about ICE’s role in fraud investigations, the senior White House official explained that “if the scammers are illegal, they will be deported.”

“Governor Walz has ruined the state of Minnesota, but others, like Governors Gavin Newscomb, 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 on Truth Social last week. He also posted that “California, under Gov. Gavin Newscomb, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s even possible??? A fraud investigation has begun in California.”