Republicans are all about promoting fraud claims in California

After a month The Trump administration has begun Immigration enforcement process In Minneapolis, Right-wing creators They turn their attention to a new target in search of fraud: ca.

Over the past few weeks, it has been right-wing content creators who have been instrumental in promoting Minnesota Fraud Allegations That preceded the administration’s surge in federal immigration agents, it is now going after a number of California welfare programs, accusing them of unsubstantiated fraud — and potentially laying the groundwork for a similar federal crackdown in the nation’s largest Democratic-run state. They’re already getting support from some key allies of President Donald Trump as well.

Nick Shirley, Right-wing influencer whose viral YouTube video claimed to expose an alleged $100 million fraud scheme involving Somali childcare centers in Minnesota, was posted on Instagram over the weekend announcing its arrival in California. “Secrets out,” Shirley wrote in an Instagram Story set to Katy Perry’s song “California Gurls.” It’s unclear what exactly Shirley is up to, but he claims to be “investigating” Somali-run child care centers in California as well, according to the posts. Traded on X During the weekend.

Shirley works with Amy Reichert, a private investigator and failed politician who claims to be investigating “ghost nurseries” in California. In his video in Minnesota, Shirley “investigated” the scam by showing up at daycares and asking to see the children. It seems so The same method applies in San Diego. Reichert She posted a photo with Shirley to X on Saturdaywriting, “California, here we come! When @nicshirlye drops the video, it’ll be 🔥.” (Local Minnesota outlets She has published multiple stories covering child welfare fraud Years before Shirley’s video appeared.)

On Sunday, Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump creator and Turning Point USA contributor, posted his “documentary,” similar to what Shirley filmed in Minnesota. In it, he claimed to be uncovering a multi-million dollar “homeless industrial complex” in California. Johnson collaborated with two Republican gubernatorial candidates, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, a former adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, in the video, which they claimed was an attempt to expose fraudulent uses of federal funding to support unhoused people in California. Johnson He also claimed that the state He was “using these federal dollars to rig national elections.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office rejected the claims made by Johnson In X’s post on Sundaydescribing the video as “literally a conspiracy theory meme in real life.”

Johnson’s latest video attempts to claim that California’s homeless shelters are primarily filled with illegal immigrants. The main evidence he provided was a phone call to an alleged “whistleblower” whose identity was concealed. (Newsom’s office Respond to this claimdescribing it as “as real as our free unicorn software for all the unregistered people.”)

In the same week that Johnson announced that he would travel to California to expose “fraud,” Trump described California as “more corrupt” than Minnesota in a post on his website. Social truth. “A fraud investigation has begun in California,” Trump wrote. Last week Trump Appointment of a new Assistant ProsecutorColin MacDonald, to focus on fraud investigations at the Department of Justice.

last big Pro-Trump accounts and news outlets, Like the real Voice of Americaserving to enhance Johnson’s recent video. Larry Elder, talk radio host and former presidential candidate, He reposted the video on X Tuesdaywriting “California fraud makes Minnesota look like a raw kit.”

elon musk, To which Shirley thanked him for promoting his December Minnesota videoalso works to elevate news coverage of fraud in California. “The fraud levels are really crazy!” Musk said Repost a story From Fox News earlier this week.