The Trump administration might be disturbed by the welfare scandal in Minnesota, but it is also using it as an excuse to make political hay against Democratic opponents and bolster its immigration crackdown.
Welfare fraud, as Mississippi demonstrates, is bipartisan, as likely to be practiced by multigenerational Americans as relative newcomers to this nation, and more likely to be committed on a massive scale by those who are supposed to be helping the poor than the poor themselves.
The swindling in Minnesota, where fraud by social services providers has been a problem for years, exploded into the national consciousness after a video by a right-wing YouTube influencer showed nine Minneapolis day cares run by Somali Americans that were receiving millions of dollars in public funding for services they allegedly were not providing.
Other local journalists in Minnesota have since done their own checking and found the video to be inaccurate or misleading. Few deny, however, that fraud in welfare programs has been rampant in that state, showing up in more places than day care, such as feeding, housing and autism services. The fraud committed by Minnesota providers is estimated to be at least in the low billions of dollars.
The response of the Trump administration has been to come down especially hard not just on Minnesota but also on four other Democratic-led states – California, Colorado, Illinois and New York. The administration ordered a freeze on all welfare funding in those five states, although a federal judge has blocked that punitive action at least for now.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Washington have taken a much softer approach to Mississippi, a politically friendly state, where laxity or dishonesty within a GOP administration allowed tens of millions of dollars of federal welfare funds to be stolen or squandered several years ago. In December 2024, during Democrat Joe Biden’s last weeks in the White House, his administration ordered Mississippi to pay back $101 million in federal money that was misspent. During Trump’s first few months back in office, the demand was rescinded and Mississippi’s request for more time to work toward a settlement was granted.
The Mississippi case is back in the news as a federal trial continues for the only defendant to not plead guilty to criminal charges over welfare funds being improperly diverted to a few close friends of John Davis, the corrupt former director of the state Department of Human Services, or to individuals and causes supported by Davis’ boss, then-Gov. Phil Bryant.
In Mississippi, fraud was able to occur because of the broad leeway given to states on spending block grant money that previously had been used for direct financial assistance to the poorest of the poor. In Minnesota, it’s claimed that state officials didn’t worry much about policing the spending since the generous match from Washington provided a perverse incentive to be careless in administering the welfare programs.
One Mississippi officeholder who has correctly identified the problem is State Auditor Shad White, who was instrumental in uncovering this state’s welfare scandal six years ago. The Republican has unsuccessfully lobbied both the Mississippi Legislature and Congress, either controlled or heavily influenced by his own party, to take steps to curb fraud. He has recommended putting greater restrictions on how the money is used and demanding close monitoring of the spending, including strict audits.
For that to happen, though, would require a will to institute reforms that would have bipartisan appeal among taxpayers but also bipartisan aversion among those who benefit from the current abuse-prone setup.
As The Wall Street Journal recently quipped, those in elective office are more likely to fundraise off a scandal than do something to keep it from reoccurring.
