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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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Republican President Donald Trump called California "more corrupt than Minnesota" under Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and said his administration has now started investigating the state for fraud.
The investigation broadens an anti-fraud crackdown that the Trump administration has linked to its Democratic opponents, blaming them for ignoring corruption within migrant communities out of political self-interest because the party benefits from their votes and donations.
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But Democrats say Trump is tarnishing them without evidence and using the tools of federal power to punish his political enemies, while smearing immigrants to justify their hardline mass deportation policy.
"California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible??? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun," Trump posted to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday morning.
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Newsom's communications director Izzy Gardon called Trump "a deranged, habitual liar whose relationship with reality ended years ago" and defended the governor's record on tackling fraud, saying he "has been cleaning house".
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Trump has seized on the Minnesota fraud scandal, where potentially billions of dollars of taxpayer money was stolen by a network of schemes largely centered in the Somali community under the state's Democratic administration.
The president and his MAGA base see the Minnesota welfare fraud as vindication of the mass deportation policy, centered on the argument that many migrants, legal and illegal, exploit the U.S. while contributing little to it.
He accuses Democrats of inundating the U.S. with migrants for their own political advantage. But Trump's opponents say he is unfairly maligning whole groups of people, such as in his disparaging remarks about the Somali population.
Democratic Governor Tim Walz ended his campaign for a third term in Minnesota in the wake of the fraud scandal—and Trump senses the chance to damage his political opponents across other states, too.
Newsom, a likely candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has repeatedly clashed with Trump under a political strategy to take the fight to the president and his administration, played out largely on social media.
"This is not complicated. [Trump] spends his days posting whatever garbage his shriveled little brain can cough up — and Fox News dutifully treats it like the Lord's scripture," Gardon told Newsweek in a statement.
"Meanwhile — in the actual world where adults govern — Gavin Newsom has been cleaning house. Since taking office, he’s blocked over $125 BILLION in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artists Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons.
"Gavin Newsom runs a state. Donald Trump runs his mouth and little fingers."
The Trump administration is planning to freeze $10 billion in welfare funding from five Democratic states—California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York—due to concerns over potential fraud.
The Department of Health and Human Services freeze was first reported by The New York Post, citing unnamed officials, on Monday.
Trump later shared the Post article on Truth Social.
Taxpayer funds from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant program will be withheld from the states, per the report.
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