{"id":27194,"date":"2025-12-18T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=27194"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:43:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:43:00","slug":"trump-admin-calls-on-walz-to-resign-over-widening-fraud-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=27194","title":{"rendered":"Trump Admin Calls On Walz To Resign Over Widening Fraud Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Trump\u2019s education secretary has criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his handling of an expanding fraud scandal, calling for his resignation in a sharply worded letter that also raises concerns about alleged misconduct within the state\u2019s higher education system.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have been Minnesota\u2019s Governor since 2019,\u201d Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote to Walz in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. \u201cDuring that time, your careless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a beachhead of criminality in our country. As President Trump put it, you have turned Minnesota into a \u2018fraudulent hub of money laundering activity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McMahon ended her letter by imploring Walz to step down.<\/p>\n

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\u201cGiven your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

The letter focuses on Minnesota\u2019s large-scale fraud scandal, which has drawn national scrutiny following allegations that nonprofits, including Feeding Our Future, misappropriated at least $1 billion in taxpayer funds during Walz\u2019s tenure as governor. The education secretary also cited what the department described as widespread fraud within Minnesota\u2019s higher education system.<\/p>\n

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Separately, the Department of Education announced last week that it had prevented more than $1 billion in fraudulent student aid during President Trump\u2019s first year back in office, citing increased enforcement against suspected automated applications and so-called \u201cghost students\u201d seeking federal loans.<\/p>\n

One of the alleged schemes disproportionately affected Minnesota. According to Fox News Digital, Riverland Community College averaged more than 100 potentially fraudulent student aid applications per year.<\/p>\n

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McMahon said her department identified nearly 2,000 so-called \u201cghost students\u201d linked to colleges and universities in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call these fraudsters \u2018ghost students\u2019 because they were not ID-verified and often did not live in the United States, or they simply did not exist,\u201d McMahon wrote. \u201cIn Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest without attending the college at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the department has since implemented stricter nationwide safeguards, including mandatory identity verification for certain first-time applicants, before turning her attention to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).<\/p>\n

McMahon wrote that Omar borrowed \u201ctens of thousands\u201d in student loans and \u201cnow does not think she should have to repay, despite her generous, taxpayer-funded salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

A conservative watchdog group last month called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to pursue garnishment of Rep. Ilhan Omar\u2019s congressional wages over her student loan debt, citing her $174,000 annual salary, Alpha News reported. In her letter, McMahon accused Omar of having \u201ctaken advantage\u201d of federal taxpayers.<\/p>\n

The letter also criticized Gov. Walz beyond education policy, alleging that his administration oversaw what federal officials described as widespread welfare fraud affecting multiple assistance programs, including housing aid, food assistance, small-business relief, and services for seniors and children with autism.<\/p>\n

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According to the letter, the fraud allowed perpetrators to enrich themselves while the governor \u201cdid absolutely nothing\u201d to prevent it.<\/p>\n

\u201cShame on you, Governor Walz, for allowing this to happen and for benefiting from it,\u201d McMahon wrote. \u201cStop defrauding American taxpayers. No politician is above the law, and my department, alongside every other agency under the leadership of President Trump, will continue to ensure that you will not be able to dodge accountability for your actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Walz announced the launch of a new statewide fraud prevention program and the hiring of a private forensic auditing firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take full responsibility for it,\u201d Walz said. \u201cI think, and I will acknowledge certainly to Minnesotans and to the press here, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve done a good enough job of communicating the hard work that\u2019s being done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author\u2019s opinion. President Trump\u2019s education secretary has criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his handling of an expanding fraud scandal, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27196,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27194\/revisions\/27196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}