‘We’ll Stop Paying’: Walz Meets the Money Hammer”

Somali fraud, federal chokeholds, and a Minnesota governor running out of places to hide.

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TODAY’S TOP STORY

Minnesota’s Somali Fraud Machine Just Met Trump’s Money Hammer

If you want to know who actually runs a state, watch what happens when the federal money is threatened.

On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, now running the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under Trump, dropped a political grenade in St. Paul. In a public letter and posts on X, he accused “bad actors” in Minnesota’s Somali community of orchestrating more than $1 billion in Medicaid fraud — and warned Gov. Tim Walz that unless the state cleans house and “restores the integrity” of its program, Washington will stop paying its share of Minnesota’s Medicaid bill.

This isn’t some accounting dispute. Oz points to two Walz-era programs that exploded in cost: one “housing stabilization” program projected at about $2.6 million that somehow burned through over $100 million in 2024, and an autism-related program that ballooned from a few million to nearly $400 million in five years. The allegation: scammers used those programs to siphon off taxpayer money for luxury cars, overseas real estate, and kickbacks to parents enrolling kids in sham treatment centers — with federal investigators now probing whether some of that cash may have been routed to the terrorist group al-Shabab.

Oz’s message to Walz was anything but subtle:

fix it in 60 days — with weekly fraud reports, a freeze on high-risk providers, and a full re-verification of every current provider — or “we’ll stop paying” the federal share. In bureaucratic language, that’s a gun on the table.

Meanwhile, pressure on Walz is coming from inside the state as well. Former gubernatorial challenger Dr. Scott Jensen is openly accusing the governor of “derelict leadership” and suggesting there was a cover-up “worse than Watergate” around the broader Minnesota welfare scandal, which watchdogs have called one of the largest thefts of taxpayer dollars in U.S. history. Jensen says Walz’s team knew early, dragged its feet, and only moved when the fraud was too big to hide.

If that’s not bad enough, the visuals are turning against him too. New reporting has highlighted Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, a Somali illegal immigrant and convicted fraudster who was recently arrested by ICE. Before his arrest, he was photographed getting cozy with Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and other top Minnesota Democrats — the same political class now insisting they’re shocked, shocked to discover fraud in the system.

Layer on top of that the broader White House offensive: Trump has branded Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” ordered new federal probes into where the money went, and moved to strip deportation protections from hundreds of Somali migrants in the state. The message from Washington is clear: this isn’t just a local embarrassment; it’s a national test case for whether blue-state patronage machines can finally be cracked open.

So what’s the storyline you’ll hear from most big outlets? That this is Trump versus Somalis, full stop.

What they’re less eager to dwell on:

• A billion-dollar fraud linked to politically protected networks,

• A governor accused of ignoring red flags and slow-walking the response, and

• A federal government that, for once, is threatening to turn off the cash instead of writing another angry letter.

In today’s paid briefing, we’ll follow the money: the nonprofits, the COVID-era programs, the political donors, and how this scandal could become the blueprint for taking on similar machines in every blue state that tried the same game — and thought nobody would ever call the bluff.

Get the full breakdown in today’s paid briefing.

THE QUICK BRIEF

Jake Tapper’s ‘White Suspect’ Problem

CNN’s Jake Tapper had to issue an on-air correction after confidently describing the D.C. pipe bomb suspect, Brian Cole Jr., as a “30-year-old White man” — before the photo even aired showed he’s Black. The same crowd that lectures everyone on “disinformation” keeps proving they’ll racially script a story first and fix the facts later. Read more

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Epstein Files: Judge Cracks Open the Black Box

A federal judge in Florida has ordered the release of long-hidden Jeffrey Epstein grand jury documents, overruling years of secrecy around an earlier case. The move leans on the new Epstein Files Transparency Act and inches us closer to seeing which powerful names were protected — and how far the system went to keep them that way. Read more

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Hegseth: Trump Can Hit Cartels ‘As He Sees Fit’

War Secretary Pete Hegseth defended strikes on cartel-linked boats, saying Trump has the authority to use force “as he sees fit” to defend the country. At the Reagan National Defense Forum, he also hinted at a coming defense spending buildup and revealed details on 20+ anti–narco-terror operations — a clear signal that the Trump doctrine is peace through overwhelming firepower, not UN statements. Read more

CROSSHAIRS

Minnesota GOP: Aiming at the Wrong Target

While Walz is neck-deep in a billion-dollar Somali fraud scandal, Minnesota state Sen. Jim Abeler (a Republican, allegedly) took time to write Trump a letter scolding him for calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and praising the community instead. The Left’s political machine is under federal investigation, and this guy’s priority is signaling to the editorial board that he’s one of the “good Republicans.” Read more

RAPID FIRE

Border Patrol Drops a $5,000 Reality Check

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks says nearly all illegal immigrants 14 and older who entered without inspection will now face a $5,000 “apprehension fee,” a penalty baked into Trump’s new enforcement law. The same crowd that said the border was “complicated” is suddenly furious that breaking the law comes with an actual price tag. Read more

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Judge Lets Gitmo Migrant Lawsuit Go Forward

A federal judge rejected the Trump administration’s bid to toss a lawsuit challenging the plan to detain thousands of criminal migrants at Guantánamo Bay, keeping the case alive and setting a hearing for next steps. The legal establishment is just fine with endless migrant waves—but locking up the worst of the worst at a naval base is somehow a bridge too far. Read more

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If you’ve been reading this far, you’re already doing more homework than half of Congress. The next step is making sure you’re getting the full file, not just the public-facing summary.

The regime has think tanks, handlers, and “exclusive briefings.” You should too. That’s what Ledger Daily is meant to be — the war room for people who actually pay the bills in this country.

Stay sharp, stay skeptical, and don’t outsource your brain to anyone with a teleprompter.

~Scott 🇺🇸

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