Professional-Trump influencer and YouTuber Benny Johnson being interviewed in Phoenix earlier this yr. Johnson is one in all many political influencers with shut ties to the Trump administration.
Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Charly Triballeau/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Lower than two weeks since YouTube character Nick Shirley posted a 42-minute video alleging widespread fraud at Minnesota daycare facilities run by individuals of Somali descent, the Trump administration is freezing streams of federal funding – together with $10 billion to 5 Democratic-led states – and has despatched 2,000 federal brokers to Minnesota to wage an immigration crackdown.
Moreover, Minnesota’s Democratic governor and former vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, introduced Monday he’ll not search a 3rd time period citing the necessity to concentrate on working the state fairly than his marketing campaign.
Professional-MAGA influencers on X declared victory as additionally they shared new, unsubstantiated fraud allegations about different social service suppliers in each Minnesota and different states.
“Tim Walz was nearly Vice President of america,” wrote Rogan O’Handley, a pro-Trump commentator with greater than 2 million followers on X. “Now he is dropping out of the Governor’s race in Minnesota in shame. All as a result of a 23-year-old child with a digital camera and a thirst for justice uncovered billions of his fraud. Could @nickshirleyy‘s work create 1,000 extra Nick Shirleys.”
Shirley himself posted to X on Monday, “I ENDED TIM WALZ.”
Shirley’s video was amplified by Vice President JD Vance and has garnered greater than 138 million views on X – although his claims about particular daycares and different companies receiving public funds with out offering companies stay unsubstantiated. However the swift coverage and political repercussions the video helped propel illustrate the symbiotic relationship between on-line content material creators and the Trump administration’s coverage targets.
On-line content material that purports to point out proof of an issue, like fraud in a Democratic state, will be harnessed by coverage makers to justify coverage adjustments they needed to pursue, stated Kate Starbird, a professor on the College of Washington who research the unfold of on-line rumors throughout crises and breaking information occasions. She stated an analogous dynamic has performed out up to now with content material alleging wasteful USAID spending, or posts claiming that variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives are accountable for accidents.
“They turn out to be actually efficient for driving coverage that aligns with the place these coverage makers need it to go,” Starbird stated. “Whether or not that is de-fund social packages in blue states or remove DEI initiatives all through the entire universities, these sorts of dynamics have been very efficient for the second Trump administration.”
One issue is that Trump’s cupboard is made up of people that perceive the facility of on-line content material as a result of that’s the world they got here from, stated Shannon McGregor, a professor at College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who research the function of social media in politics.
“There’s each people who find themselves and had been influencers with cabinet-level positions and different employees positions,” McGregor stated. “That is type of all about harnessing the eye economic system the place consideration equals energy.”
McGregor stated one other time this dynamic has been on show is when Trump-aligned content material creators in cities like Portland have made movies presenting anti-ICE protests as violent and disruptive that helped bolster the Trump administration’s justification to crack down, together with by sending within the Nationwide Guard. The White Home has given a few of these creators particular entry and invited a number of, together with Shirley, to take part in a roundtable to debate antifa in October.
Political influencer Nick Shirley speaks at an occasion on the White Home on Oct. 8, 2025. Shirley’s viral video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycare facilities that obtain federal funding prompted the Trump administration to halt funding a number of Democrat-led states.
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos
Some childcare workers featured in Shirley’s video have obtained threatening telephone calls or been the targets of vandalism. Whereas Shirley’s video appeared to point out there have been no youngsters current on the daycares he visited, Minnesota state officers from the Division of Kids, Youth and Households stated they visited 9 of the daycares featured within the video and located youngsters in any respect of them besides one, which was not but open for households. The company additionally instructed media shops one daycare featured within the video had been closed since 2022.
On the similar time, different fraud schemes in state social service packages have been nicely documented. A minimum of 78 individuals have been criminally charged associated to a $250 million scheme involving a COVID-era diet program. The bulk are from the Somali neighborhood, which has a big presence within the state and is commonly a goal of Trump’s ire.
These reliable fraud circumstances make it troublesome to interpret new unverified claims which have been made by social media influencers. Allegations that at the moment are spreading on-line could possibly be misinterpreting data or exaggerating minor points – or could possibly be exposing precise fraudulent exercise.
“It is so arduous to truth test the claims that come out in these methods,” stated Starbird. “And by the point they get truth checked, the impression of these claims has already occurred – individuals have already made up their minds of what they imagine.”
Content material creators have posted movies of themselves in latest days knocking on the doorways of what look like daycares and residential well being care companies in different states, together with in Ohio’s Somali neighborhood. A parody video that purported to point out a vacant daycare in Los Angeles that obtained $42 million was additionally shared on-line in latest days by some customers who didn’t seem to comprehend it was satire.
In an look on Fox Information on Monday evening White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt talked about “nice unbiased journalists like Nick Shirley” for serving to the Trump administration uncover fraud, earlier than describing the federal response in Minnesota and Trump’s perception that Walz is “criminally liable.”
The Trump administration indicated this week it’s freezing $10 billion in funds for childcare facilities and money welfare funds for Minnesota, California, Colorado, Illinois and New York resulting from fraud suspicions. The freeze adopted different introduced adjustments to federal funding for childcare facilities nationwide.
“California, beneath Governor Gavin Newscum, is extra corrupt than Minnesota, if that is doable???? The Fraud Investigation of California has begun,” Trump wrote on Fact Social early Tuesday however didn’t present extra particulars.
Simply 23 minutes later, pro-Trump podcaster Benny Johnson posted to his 4 million followers on X that he could be heading to California subsequent week to analyze fraud and requested for suggestions. By Tuesday night he claimed he had obtained “over 1,000 messages from whistleblowers, public officers and State workers exposing California waste, fraud and abuse” and alleged $250 billion in potential fraud.
“The pipeline from rumor to coverage is now shorter than the time it takes to confirm a declare,” wrote Renée DiResta, a Georgetown College professor who research how info travels on-line, in her e-newsletter. “That is a exceptional—and harmful—shift. Folks have all the time believed rumors, however now authorities elites journey them once they present justification for what they needed to do anyway.”
