Trump told reporters Tuesday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is “100 percent guilty” in the Minnesota fraud scandal, claimed Rep. Ilhan Omar knew about it, and said Omar “could go to jail.”
The comments came during an Oval Office event where Trump and Vice President JD Vance unveiled the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. The $25 million program pays people who report fraud involving federal money. Anyone who submits a tip through fraud.gov that leads to a conviction or a major federal enforcement action can receive up to $30,000, according to the White House. Trump also said he would personally decide who gets paid when more than one person claims the same reward.
Trump used Minnesota as his main example. He claimed 115 people there have been charged in fraud cases, 75 have been convicted, and 2,700 subpoenas have been issued. Then he turned to Walz. “He’s a fraud. He’s a thief,” Trump said of the governor.
On Omar, Trump claimed “she knew” about the fraud. He accused members of Minnesota’s Somali community of stealing billions in taxpayer money through fraudulent child care centers and other schemes.
Neither Walz nor Omar has been charged with anything connected to the Minnesota fraud cases.
The fraud scandal Trump keeps pointing to started with a pandemic-era federal meal program for children. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of people with stealing money meant to feed kids, and most of the defendants are of Somali descent. Trump has since claimed the total theft in Minnesota tops $19 billion. That figure is his own claim, and it has not been confirmed.
The jail comment came in response to a separate question. A reporter asked whether Omar could be deported if there is a problem with her age on her immigration paperwork. “She could be. She could also go to jail,” Trump said. “They keep talking about deportation. No, she could go to jail.”
That question ties to a federal investigation into Omar’s immigration records, not the Minnesota fraud. Investigators are looking at whether Omar or her late father misstated her age when her family came to the United States from Somalia in the 1990s. Federal agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home last week and seized her passport, phone, and computers.
If investigators prove fraud in her citizenship paperwork, the government could try to denaturalize her. Denaturalization means stripping a naturalized citizen of their citizenship. Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000. She has denied any wrongdoing, called the probe a “ludicrous, partisan investigation,” and accused the administration of political intimidation.
Trump did not stop at the investigation. He called Omar “a sick, a very dishonest person who hates our country,” then added, “I hope they treat her fairly.” He also called Somalia a “real [expletive] house” and said Minnesota’s Somali community “ruined a great state.”
Trump has attacked Walz and Omar over the Minnesota fraud for most of the year. Back in March, he called both of them, along with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, “complicit” while signing an executive order that created a national fraud task force. Vance’s task force is now looking into whether Walz was complicit in Medicaid fraud, according to the vice president.
Omar is in her fifth term representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which covers Minneapolis and has one of the largest Somali communities in the country.
