Pro-Trump influencers celebrate after Walz ends re-election bid : NPR

Less than two weeks since the personality appeared on YouTube Nick Shirley released a 42-minute video alleging widespread fraud at Minnesota day care centers run by people of Somali descent, the Trump administration is freezing federal funding streams – including $10 billion to five Democratic-led states – and sent 2,000 federal agents to Minnesota to crack down on immigration.

Moreover, the Democratic governor of Minnesota and former vice presidential candidate, Tim Waltzannounced Monday that he will no longer seek a third term, citing a need to focus on governing rather than on his re-election campaign.

Pro-MAGA influencers on X declared victory as they also shared new, unsubstantiated fraud allegations against other social service providers in both Minnesota and other states.

“Tim Walz was almost the Vice President of the United States,” wrote Rogan O'Handley, a pro-Trump commentator with more than 2 million followers on X. “Now he's dropping out of the Minnesota governor's race in disgrace. And all because a 23-year-old guy with a camera and a thirst for justice exposed billions of his scams. May @nickshirleyyOur work has created 1,000 more Nick Shirleys.”

Shirley herself wrote in X on Monday: “I'M DONE WITH TIM WALS.”

Shirley's video was reinforced by Vice President J.D. Vance and has amassed over 138 million views on X – although his claims information about specific kindergartens and other enterprises receiving government funds without providing services remains unsubstantiated. But the swift politics and political fallout that the video helped advance illustrated the symbiosis between online content creators and the Trump administration's policy goals.

Online content that purports to show evidence of a problem, such as fraud in a democracy, can be used by politicians to justify policy changes they want to make, says Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the spread of online rumors during crises and breaking news. She said similar dynamics have been seen in the past with content alleging wasteful spending by USAID or posts claiming that blame diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for accidents.

“They become really effective at passing policies that align with what policymakers want,” Starbird said. “Whether it was defunding social programs in blue states or eliminating DEI initiatives at all universities, these dynamics have been very effective for the second Trump administration.”

One factor is that Trump's cabinet is made up of people who understand the power of online content. because this is the world they came fromsaid Shannon McGregor, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies the role of social media in politics.

“There are people who are and have been influential people in cabinet-level positions and other positions in the state,” MacGregor said. “It’s all about harnessing the attention economy, where attention equals power.”

McGregor said this dynamic played out again when content creators associated with Trump in cities like Portland made videos showing protests against ICE as brutal and destructive, which helped the Trump administration bolster its justification for taking harsh measures, including by sending in the National Guard. The White House gave some of these authors special access and invited some, including Shirley, to participate in roundtable discussion on antifa in October.

Some of the nursery staff featured in Shirley's video received threatening phone calls or been vandalized. Although Shirley's video shows there were no children in the day care centers he visited, Minnesota State Department of Children, Youth and Families officials said they visited nine kindergartens showed in the video and found children in all but one of them, which was not yet open to families. The agency also informed the media. one kindergarten shown in the video has been closed since 2022.

At the same time, other fraud schemes in government social service programs are well documented. At least 78 people were brought to criminal liability linked to a $250 million scheme involving a COVID-era nutrition programme. Most are from the Somali community, which has a significant presence in the state and is often the target of Trump's ire.

These legitimate scams make it difficult to interpret new, unverified claims made by social media influencers. The allegations now circulating online may be misinterpretations of records or exaggerations of minor problems, or they may expose actual fraudulent activity.

“It’s very difficult to fact-check statements made this way,” Starbird said. “And by the time they check the facts, the impact of these statements will have already occurred – people will already have made up their minds about what they believe.”

Content creators have been posting videos of themselves in recent days. knocking on the doors of what seems to be kindergartens and home healthcare enterprises in other states, including Ohio's Somali community. A parody video In recent days, some online users who didn't seem to realize it was satire have also shared online an empty Los Angeles daycare that received $42 million.

IN appearance on Fox News Monday night White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt cited “great independent journalists like Nick Shirley” who helped the Trump administration uncover the fraud before describing the federal government's response in Minnesota and Trump's belief that Walz “carries criminal responsibility.”

This week, the Trump administration said it was freezing $10 billion in child care funds and Social Security benefits for Minnesota, California, Colorado, Illinois and New York because of suspected fraud. The freeze followed other announced changes to federal funding for child care centers all over the country.

“California under Gov. Gavin Newscum is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that's possible???? California Fraud Investigation Begins” Trump wrote in Truth Social early Tuesday but did not provide more details.

Just 23 minutes later, pro-Trump podcaster Benny Johnson posted a message to his four million followers on X said he would be traveling to California next week to investigate fraud and asked for advice. By Tuesday evening he claimed it received “more than 1,000 reports from whistleblowers, government officials and public servants exposing waste, fraud and abuse in California” and alleged $250 billion in possible fraud.

“The path from rumor to policy is now shorter than the time it takes to verify a statement,” written by Renee DiRestaprofessor at Georgetown University who studies how information flows online in her newsletter. “This is a remarkable and dangerous shift. People have always believed rumors, but now government elites use them to justify what they wanted to do anyway.”