I just figured out the back story, the state has a pending court decision in a lawsuit vs. the USDA. This announcement is clearly a political stunt in light of that:
At this point who is keeping the federal government in check? They are breaking the law blatantly, one very recent example being the release of the Epstein stuff. Nothing happens, nothing is holding them accountable.
It's only going to get worse, they lose in court and find another angle to keep breaking the law, over and over, there simply isn't enough institutional power in the USA to do anything against it.
The execution of the law is left to the... executive branch. The constitution specifies that power of the executive is vested onto one person (yeah, really).
When the person tasked with executing the law is a convicted criminal and is ignoring laws himself...
But they can keep doing this and harm people while court cases play out right? It’s a tactic to abuse people, exhaust the resistance, and normalize their activities.
I feel like the headline "suspends federal financial awards" doesn't really convey that this is intended to end SNAP benefits and leave many people without food.
I'm not sure where to look for current figures (Wikipedia [0] is a decade out of date) - is Minnesota a net contributor or a net drain on the US federal budget?
It remains an odd strategy where money needs to be skimmed before it can be given farmers. Looking at the per capita numbers from 2015 and the raw tax take in 2024 it looks like Minnesota actually has enough money to sort itself out without relying on other states. It certainly seems like a strategic error to centralise significant influence over the food supply to people like Trump.
These are insane responses to what is admittedly a bad case of Medicare fraud.
But let’s put this in context. The fraud occurred over a few years and is estimated to have been for about $9Bn dollars by the prosecutors. A number that is considered inflated by most independent analysts, but even if it’s like $5bn that’s pretty large, so let’s stick to the $9Bn and in fact round it up to $10Bn.
The fraud in Medicare and Medicaid alone is estimated at over $100Bn every year (irs probably higher). So even if this fraud occurred over 2 years, we’re talking about something that’s at most 5% of the total Medicare/medicaid fraud in the US over that period.
But this isn’t news to the current administration. In fact, to their credit, the justice department busted a $14Bn scheme about 6 months ago, which is already 50% greater than the size of the most inflated estimates of this scheme.
And yet all the people defending cutting food to children (and not just in MN, but in other Democratic run states that have nothing to do with MN) have likely never even heard of that much larger scheme that was busted and led to absolutely no policy changes.
USDA or some specific czar, pasha or chief of staff in the Trump admin? Or perhaps Trump himself? It would be good practice to start assigning responsibilities directly to those acting by executive fiat. Credit where credit is due, if these are correct actions.
Ok so they clearly don't actually care and let it continue through the entire first Trump administration, and are doing this to punish the resistance in Minnesota.
Well, that’s pretty crazy. I saw the independent journalist video on daycares too after I posted. I mean… you can’t target a state but it does seem pretty bad and that payments should be limited until the fraud is sorted out.
Every single daycare in that video was visited independently and found to have children in it. Furthermore, many Somali families are being persecuted by ICE right now, so if attendance is lower than usual there's a sick reason.
This type of overly broad collective punishment would be considered a war crime under international law. Potentially hundreds of thousands of families will go hungry as a result. All for fraud that is ALLEGED to be $9B without much evidence.
Meanwhile the administration added 4 trillion in new unnecessary spending, including $170 billion in additional funding for DHS and ICE. Those contracts probably go to companies with some tie to the Trump family. That’s the real fraud. All this “Somalian fraud”, could be true, but is insignificant compared to the corruption in the Trump administration. And let’s not forget the Epstein files that they’re using Venezuelans and Somalians and immigrants to distract from.
No, please, let's do forget about Epstein. We've gone beyond the point of no return; there is no reputational damage to Trump that will change anything; the avalanche has begun and there is no immediate shelter for anyone, anywhere.
These are now the United States of Roy Cohn, where everyone in the federal government claims all authority and denies all responsibility. They will continue to lie and deny, and attack attack attack. This is the apprentice lawyer's lowdown and dirty gameplan: to claim victory in everything, no matter how egregious the loss or failure; to never admit to any mistakes, never accept defeat; to never stop attacking enemies, real or imagined.
This is Trump teaching his cabinet what Roy Cohn taught him: the mindless attack-dog strategy. It is a wonderful stance for a lawyer to take. Who wouldn't want a lawyer like that, working for them? But this US administration should not be built on this rabid aggression against the American people (but it is). The fact that the ghost of a long-dead and demented lawyer is now haunting the halls of our federal government-- in every cabinet office and hanging from every branch-- influencing and participating in the same rabid hate-- repeating the same frothing-at-the-mouth bald-faced lies-- tells me that no amount of Epstein taint will make any difference.
USDA administers SNAP, which provides food aid to over four hundred thousand families in the state. That's one of the programs this announcement is talking about suspending.
I just figured out the back story, the state has a pending court decision in a lawsuit vs. the USDA. This announcement is clearly a political stunt in light of that:
https://www.minnpost.com/national/washington/2026/01/snap-mi...
The federal government will lose in court, and we’ll continue on.
You are posting as though these sorts of rules and formalisms still matter when they clearly do not.
At this point who is keeping the federal government in check? They are breaking the law blatantly, one very recent example being the release of the Epstein stuff. Nothing happens, nothing is holding them accountable.
It's only going to get worse, they lose in court and find another angle to keep breaking the law, over and over, there simply isn't enough institutional power in the USA to do anything against it.
The execution of the law is left to the... executive branch. The constitution specifies that power of the executive is vested onto one person (yeah, really).
When the person tasked with executing the law is a convicted criminal and is ignoring laws himself...
But they can keep doing this and harm people while court cases play out right? It’s a tactic to abuse people, exhaust the resistance, and normalize their activities.
I feel like the headline "suspends federal financial awards" doesn't really convey that this is intended to end SNAP benefits and leave many people without food.
I'm not sure where to look for current figures (Wikipedia [0] is a decade out of date) - is Minnesota a net contributor or a net drain on the US federal budget?
It remains an odd strategy where money needs to be skimmed before it can be given farmers. Looking at the per capita numbers from 2015 and the raw tax take in 2024 it looks like Minnesota actually has enough money to sort itself out without relying on other states. It certainly seems like a strategic error to centralise significant influence over the food supply to people like Trump.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_tax_revenue_by_state#F...
Minnesota is a fairly consistent donor state, but that's not really the point here.
These are insane responses to what is admittedly a bad case of Medicare fraud.
But let’s put this in context. The fraud occurred over a few years and is estimated to have been for about $9Bn dollars by the prosecutors. A number that is considered inflated by most independent analysts, but even if it’s like $5bn that’s pretty large, so let’s stick to the $9Bn and in fact round it up to $10Bn.
The fraud in Medicare and Medicaid alone is estimated at over $100Bn every year (irs probably higher). So even if this fraud occurred over 2 years, we’re talking about something that’s at most 5% of the total Medicare/medicaid fraud in the US over that period.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/09/how-medicare-and-medicaid-fr...
But this isn’t news to the current administration. In fact, to their credit, the justice department busted a $14Bn scheme about 6 months ago, which is already 50% greater than the size of the most inflated estimates of this scheme.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-ta...
And yet all the people defending cutting food to children (and not just in MN, but in other Democratic run states that have nothing to do with MN) have likely never even heard of that much larger scheme that was busted and led to absolutely no policy changes.
USDA or some specific czar, pasha or chief of staff in the Trump admin? Or perhaps Trump himself? It would be good practice to start assigning responsibilities directly to those acting by executive fiat. Credit where credit is due, if these are correct actions.
> "Enough is enough! The Trump administration has uncovered massive fraud in Minnesota and Minneapolis -- billions siphoned off by fraudsters.
Is that true? Seems like a lot of money to just suddenly notice.
It was recently boosted by a youtuber, but the reporting on it goes back to 2013.
https://www.fox9.com/news/fox-9-investigating-fraud-uncoveri...
Ok so they clearly don't actually care and let it continue through the entire first Trump administration, and are doing this to punish the resistance in Minnesota.
Well, that’s pretty crazy. I saw the independent journalist video on daycares too after I posted. I mean… you can’t target a state but it does seem pretty bad and that payments should be limited until the fraud is sorted out.
Every single daycare in that video was visited independently and found to have children in it. Furthermore, many Somali families are being persecuted by ICE right now, so if attendance is lower than usual there's a sick reason.
> Every single daycare in that video was visited independently and found to have children in it.
Is there a video for that? I couldn’t find anything.
I did find articles of the FBI carrying boxes of documents out of MN commercial fronts.
Is your supposition that there is no fraud? Or just no daycare fraud?
It does seem true that there is a significant amount of fraud.
Estimates ( seen by comments here ) are in the single digit billion dollar range.
Everything validating your racism seems to seem true to you
In what way is this related to racism?
This type of overly broad collective punishment would be considered a war crime under international law. Potentially hundreds of thousands of families will go hungry as a result. All for fraud that is ALLEGED to be $9B without much evidence.
Meanwhile the administration added 4 trillion in new unnecessary spending, including $170 billion in additional funding for DHS and ICE. Those contracts probably go to companies with some tie to the Trump family. That’s the real fraud. All this “Somalian fraud”, could be true, but is insignificant compared to the corruption in the Trump administration. And let’s not forget the Epstein files that they’re using Venezuelans and Somalians and immigrants to distract from.
> And let’s not forget the Epstein files [snip]
No, please, let's do forget about Epstein. We've gone beyond the point of no return; there is no reputational damage to Trump that will change anything; the avalanche has begun and there is no immediate shelter for anyone, anywhere.
These are now the United States of Roy Cohn, where everyone in the federal government claims all authority and denies all responsibility. They will continue to lie and deny, and attack attack attack. This is the apprentice lawyer's lowdown and dirty gameplan: to claim victory in everything, no matter how egregious the loss or failure; to never admit to any mistakes, never accept defeat; to never stop attacking enemies, real or imagined.
This is Trump teaching his cabinet what Roy Cohn taught him: the mindless attack-dog strategy. It is a wonderful stance for a lawyer to take. Who wouldn't want a lawyer like that, working for them? But this US administration should not be built on this rabid aggression against the American people (but it is). The fact that the ghost of a long-dead and demented lawyer is now haunting the halls of our federal government-- in every cabinet office and hanging from every branch-- influencing and participating in the same rabid hate-- repeating the same frothing-at-the-mouth bald-faced lies-- tells me that no amount of Epstein taint will make any difference.
They need to go to hell.
And we need to send them there.
About this, is there any chance Americans do anything beyond huff, thoughts and prayers?
> Potentially hundreds of thousands of families will go hungry as a result.
By what specific mechanism do you see this happening?
USDA administers SNAP, which provides food aid to over four hundred thousand families in the state. That's one of the programs this announcement is talking about suspending.
https://dcyf.mn.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/SNAP%20Fact%...