A month after the Trump administration began its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, right-wing creators are turning their attention to a new target in search of fraud: California.
Over the last few weeks, right-wing creators who were instrumental in boosting the Minnesota fraud allegations that predated the administration’s surge of federal immigration agents are now going after a number of California’s social welfare programs, accusing them of unsubstantiated fraud—and potentially laying the groundwork for a similar federal crackdown in the nation’s largest Democrat-run state. They’re already getting support from some of President Donald Trump’s key allies, too.
Nick Shirley, the right-wing influencer whose viral YouTube video claimed to uncover a purported $100 million fraud scheme involving Somali child care centers in Minnesota, posted to Instagram over the weekend announcing his arrival in California. “Secrets out,” Shirley wrote in an Instagram story set to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls.” It’s unclear what exactly Shirley plans to do, but he claims to be “investigating” Somali-run child care centers in California as well, according to posts that circulated on X over the weekend.
Shirley is working with Amy Reichert, a private investigator and failed politician who claims to be investigating “ghost daycares” in California. In his Minnesota video, Shirley “investigated” the fraud by showing up to daycares asking to see children. He appears to be applying the same method in San Diego. Reichert posted a picture with Shirley to X on Saturday, writing “California, here we come! When @nickshirlye drops the video, it’s going to be 🔥.” (Local Minnesota outlets published multiple stories covering child care fraud years before Shirley’s video came out.)
On Sunday, Benny Johnson, a pro-Trump creator and Turning Point USA contributor, published his own “documentary,” in a similar vein to what Shirley filmed in Minnesota. In it, he claimed to reveal a multi-million dollar “homeless industrial complex” in California. Johnson teamed up 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 uncover fraudulent uses of federal funding to support California’s unhoused. Johnson also claimed that the state was “using these federal dollars to rig national elections.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office rejected the claims Johnson made in an X post on Sunday, calling the video “literally the conspiracy theory meme in real life.”
Johnson’s most recent video attempts to claim that California’s homeless shelters are primarily filled with undocumented immigrants. His main piece of evidence is a phone call with a purported “whistleblower” whose identity was concealed. (Newsom’s office responded to this claim, calling it “as real as our Free Unicorn for all undocumented people program.”)
The same week Johnson announced that he would be traveling to California to uncover “fraud,” Trump called California “more corrupt” than Minnesota in a post on Truth Social. “Fraud Investigation of California has begun,” Trump wrote. Last week, Trump named a new assistant attorney general, Colin McDonald, to focus on fraud investigations at the Justice Department.
Other large pro-Trump accounts and news outlets, like Real America’s Voice, are boosting Johnson’s recent video. Larry Elder, talk radio host and former presidential candidate, reposted the video on X Tuesday, writing “fraud in California makes that of Minnesota look like a starter kit.”
Elon Musk, who Shirley thanked for initially boosting his December Minnesota video, has also been elevating news coverage related to California fraud. “Truly insane levels of fraud!” Musk said, reposting a story from Fox News earlier this week.
