Washington (Somalia Today) – President Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on Somalis on Monday, using a White House ceremony for a new anti-fraud task force to accuse Minnesota’s Somali community of driving major welfare scams.
He also used the event to hurl fresh allegations at the state’s Democratic leaders.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance signed an executive order creating the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
The new federal body is led by Vance and housed in the Executive Office of the President.
The order pulls together the Treasury, the Justice Department, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget.
It aims to tighten eligibility checks, share data, freeze suspect payments, and pursue fraud involving federally funded benefits.
But the signing quickly turned into a political attack centred on Somalis in Minnesota.
“When you look at the Minnesota scam a lot of it has to do with—nobody’s calling out anybody, but a lot of it has to do with Somalia and plenty of others,” Trump said.
Trump also blamed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for fraud in the state.
He did not publicly offer evidence for their alleged complicity.
He also revived an old allegation about Omar’s marital history, which she has denied and which local media in Minnesota previously said they could not verify.
Expanding crackdown
Trump’s remarks followed a pattern that has grown sharper in recent months.
He has repeatedly linked fraud cases in Minnesota to the state’s Somali community, using the issue to support a broader crackdown on immigration.
In December, he described Somalis in deeply derogatory terms.
In January, his administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 1,100 Somalis living in the United States.
A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked that move on March 13. The ruling came just days before the protections were due to expire on March 17.
That has left Minnesota’s Somalis facing pressure on two fronts. They now find themselves at the centre of an expanding anti-fraud drive and a harder immigration push.
Minnesota is home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States.
Community members have said the political atmosphere has fuelled fears of racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and wider suspicion towards Somali Americans.
Trump’s latest remarks are likely to deepen those concerns.
He is increasingly folding Minnesota’s fraud scandals into a broader political message about immigration, public spending, and national identity.
Pandemic fraud fallout
The scandal Trump keeps invoking began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It centres on the Feeding Our Future case, one of the largest pandemic fraud prosecutions in the United States.
Federal prosecutors said in 2022 that defendants stole $250 million from a federally funded child nutrition programme.
They allegedly claimed to serve meals to children they never fed.
A jury found Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock guilty in March 2025.
Dozens of defendants have pleaded guilty in the wider case, which has become a symbol of failed oversight in Minnesota.
It has also become a powerful political weapon for Trump and his allies.
But the facts are more complex than Trump’s rhetoric suggests.
Bock, the central figure in the case, is white.
While many of her associates and co-defendants are Somali Americans, not all those charged in Minnesota fraud cases are Somali.
Furthermore, many of the defendants are US citizens.
The largest publicly charged case remains Feeding Our Future.
Federal prosecutor Joe Thompson has said losses across several Minnesota programmes could eventually total around $1 billion.
That figure is far below Trump’s claim on Monday that taxpayers in the state had lost as much as $19 billion.
Political target
Minnesota officials have acknowledged serious gaps in oversight but have pushed back against attempts to cast blame on the broader Somali community.
The state began investigating Feeding Our Future in 2020, passed concerns to the FBI, and has since created a statewide anti-fraud unit.
Governor Walz has also proposed new anti-fraud measures after the federal government used the scandal to intensify scrutiny of Minnesota.
He has previously accused Trump of demonising an entire community.
Congresswoman Omar has also rejected Trump’s attacks.
In earlier comments, she described his repeated fixation on her and on Somalis as “creepy and unhealthy.”
Monday’s outburst showed again how central Minnesota’s Somali community has become to Trump’s politics.
What began as a crackdown on stolen public funds has increasingly merged with a wider campaign message.
This narrative treats Somalis not simply as subjects of investigation but as a political target.
That shift carries risks well beyond Minnesota.
For Somali Americans, the issue is no longer just about fraud prosecutions or programme oversight.
It is about how a high-profile political campaign can turn criminal cases into sweeping claims about an entire community.
For Trump, the message appears clear. He is using a real scandal, rooted in documented fraud and failed oversight, to sharpen a broader narrative about immigration and public corruption.
And for Minnesota’s Somalis, Monday’s White House ceremony made one thing plain.
They remain at the heart of one of the most charged and politically explosive battles of Trump’s return to power.
