Tag: taxes

Trump denies disaster aid to Colorado for wildfires, flooding

President Trump has denied disaster aid to the state of Colorado in the wake of wildfires and flooding.

The office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced the denial in a Sunday statement. He accused the president of playing “political games” and urged him to reconsider. 

“Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing,” Polis said in the statement.

“I call on the President’s better angels, and urge him to reconsider these requests. This is about the Coloradans who need this support, and we won’t stop fighting for them to get what they deserve. Colorado will be appealing this decision,” he said.

Under the Stafford Act, a president can unlock additional federal assistance by declaring a major disaster.

The Trump administration, however, has sought to shrink federal disaster assistance to states — and has denied some requests for disaster aid. 

While other presidents have turned down some disaster requests, Trump’s denials come as his administration is expected to try to downsize the Federal Emergency Management Agency and spend less federal money on disaster response. 

The White House defended Trump’s decision not to declare the disaster.

“The President responds to each request for Federal assistance under the Stafford Act with great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement—not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email.

Jackson added that “there is no politicization to the President’s decisions on disaster relief.” She said that the Trump administration also mobilized two firefighting planes to help with the response to the fires.

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Nearly 100 Minnesota Mayors Send Panicked Letter to Lawmakers Complaining About Fraud Scandal and the Leadership of Tim Walz

Almost 100 mayors in the state of Minnesota have sent a letter to state lawmakers complaining about the fraud scandal and how it is going to impact the communities they serve.

They are clearly not happy with the leadership of Governor Tim Walz and his connections to the fraud scandal that has rocked the state in recent weeks.

The scandal is still unfolding and it’s unclear what the final tally will be, but it’s looking like something in the tens of billions.

It’s shaping up to be the largest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history. Is there any wonder why these mayors are nervous?

FOX News reports:

98 Minnesota mayors warn state fiscal policies are hurting cities, residents and local budgets

A group of 98 Minnesota mayors raised concerns with state leaders in a letter about their state’s fiscal policies, saying they have impacted their cities and residents, noting a disappearing $18 billion surplus and a projected $2.9 billion to $3 billion deficit for the 2028-29 biennium.

In a letter to state lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz, the 98 mayors expressed concern and frustration, said the state was slipping in national economic rankings.

“Fraud, unchecked spending, and inconsistent fiscal management in St. Paul have trickled down to our cities—reducing our capacity to plan responsibly, maintain infrastructure, hire and retain employees, and sustain core services without overburdening local taxpayers,” the letter states.

Cities across the state now face workforce shortages, slowed business investment, rising operational and construction costs, and families choosing to leave Minnesota altogether, the letter states…

“There is a growing disconnect between state-level fiscal decisions and the strain they place on the cities we lead, the letter said. “When the state expands programs or shifts responsibilities without stable funding, it is our residents—families, seniors, businesses, and workers—who ultimately bear the cost.”

You can see the full letter here.

These mayors should have demanded that Tim Walz resign.

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Kushner and Witkoff Reportedly Draft $112B Plan to Turn Gaza Into ‘Smart City’ With Beach Resorts, High-Speed Rail, and AI Grids — U.S. Pushes Back on Claims It Would Foot $60B

Representatives tied to the Trump administration have circulated a sweeping proposal to rebuild war-torn Gaza into a futuristic international destination, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The plan, formally titled “Project Sunrise,” envisions a decade-long, $112.1 billion redevelopment effort featuring beachside luxury resorts, high-speed rail, and AI-optimized infrastructure.

The draft proposal was developed by a team led by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, along with senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum and other administration officials.

The plan is being presented to prospective donor governments via a 32-slide PowerPoint labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” U.S. officials told the Journal.

According to the presentation, Project Sunrise would convert Gaza’s devastated landscape into a modern coastal metropolis.

Slides reportedly show high-rise developments along the Mediterranean, cost tables, and phased timelines designed to move residents “from tents to penthouses” and stimulate long-term economic growth.

U.S. officials said the plan has been shared with potential donor nations, including wealthy Gulf states as well as Turkey and Egypt.

However, the proposal does not specify which governments or private entities would ultimately finance the project, nor does it detail where Gaza’s roughly two million displaced residents would live during reconstruction, according to WSJ.

The draft estimates total costs at $112.1 billion over 10 years, including humanitarian relief, infrastructure rebuilding, and public-sector payrolls.

Of that amount, nearly $60 billion would allegedly come from grants and debt guarantees, with the United States offering to serve as an “anchor” for roughly 20% or more of that support.

The U.S. State Department immediately moved to push back on the claims that American taxpayers would directly shoulder $60 billion of the project’s cost.

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DOJ Charges California Food Stamp Official for Sending Benefits to Dead People – Then Spending Them

Federal prosecutors have charged a longtime California welfare worker with carrying out a multi-year fraud scheme involving food assistance benefits and dead people.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Madera County benefits eligibility worker Leticia Mariscal, 55, of Madera.

Prosecutors alleged that Mariscal stole tens of thousands of dollars in CalFresh benefits by exploiting her access to county databases.

CalFresh is California’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

According to the Justice Department, the alleged scheme took place between December 2020 and April 2025.

Mariscal is accused of improperly accessing identifying information for elderly and deceased individuals.

Authorities said she secretly approved those individuals for CalFresh benefits.

Prosecutors alleged that she then printed EBT cards in their names. Benefits were then deposited onto the cards and allegedly spent by Mariscal herself.

Federal authorities say that more than 15 identities were used in the scheme, The New York Post reported.

The total amount allegedly stolen was at least $40,000.

The case reportedly came to light after the son of a 91-year-old woman living in a nursing home questioned why his mother was receiving food assistance.

Investigators later confronted Mariscal with security footage, according to the complaint.

She allegedly admitted to the conduct after being shown the footage.

Prosecutors said she attempted to shift blame to a former boyfriend she had described as a gang member.

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Somali ‘Medicaid Mogul’ Accused Of Looting Maine Taxpayers, Family Allegedly Put Bounty On Reporter

If you thought the alleged Medicaid fraud in Minnesota by Somalis, which federal prosecutors say could reach $9 billion, was insane, wait until you read the latest report from The Maine Wire: the head of a local nonprofit is accused of lashing out at a local journalist over an investigation, while members of his family allegedly put a bounty on the head of a journalist in Somalia for sharing the reporting.

Earlier this month, Abdullahi Ali, the Executive Director of Health Services contractor Gateway Community Services, was accused of ripping off taxpayers.

NewsNation spoke with a whistleblower who spilled the beans: false records were filed for services that were never provided…

A former Gateway employee, Christopher Bernardini, said the nonprofit was reimbursed with tax dollars from Maine’s Medicaid program and later with federal tax dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program.

While heading up the nonprofit in Maine, Ali was also running for President of Jubbaland in Africa. He boasted to a Kenyan media outlet about how he helped raise funds for the Jubaland Somali army to buy guns and bullets.

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Flushing Chicago’s Future When Rhetoric Replaces Revenue

It’s a sound we all dread: the toilet keeps running long after the handle drops. Water drains, money slips away, and the bill still comes. Anyone standing there nodding, pretending the noise signals progress, must live in Chicago politics—ignoring the damage quietly spreading beneath the floor.

A Mayor at War With Arithmetic

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson keeps insisting he likes business while governing as though payroll offends his values, despite policies that act like our running toilet: employers leave, investment slows, and taxes rise to plug holes, all while policies are openly hostile to growth.

Revenue is treated as an abstraction by leaders rather than wages earned by people who can still pack up and go. Budgets never care about slogans, because when employers exit, residents pay the difference. No matter how well-written, no speech fixes arithmetic.

A City Built on Strength, Undermined by Control

Once, in a time that seems like a galaxy far, far away, Chicago once stood for grit, industry, and upward mobility. Railroads, stockyards, steel, and trade rewarded their leaders’ effort and risk. Governance, consolidated power, and narrow decision-making did something that should never happen: they flushed that spirited grit away, leaving a political structure that rewards insiders and punishes independence.

It’s a script that never changes: predictable election outcomes, concentrated turnout that allows the machines to endure. Leaders hostile to growth arrive preselected rather than challenged.

When Rhetoric Replaces Revenue

The latest version of leadership talks endlessly about equity while ignoring flight. Taxes increase not by choice but by necessity after revenue leaves. Businesses respond to pressure the same way families respond when their neighborhoods become dangerous.

They move.

When each person or entity leaves, their departure tightens the vise on those left behind. Leadership talks endlessly about equity while ignoring flight. Taxes rise not by choice, but by necessity after revenue leaves. 

Businesses respond to pressure the same way families respond to unsafe neighborhoods. They move. Each departure tightens the vise on those left behind. With rising property taxes, multiplying fees, and already-weakened services, officials scold rather than adjust, blaming greed rather than reading the trail they’re leaving.

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Nine US attorneys resign over Trump administration’s ‘fraudulent’ anti-Semitism probe

Nine US attorneys resigned after being pressured by the administration of President Donald Trump to conclude that campuses had violated the civil rights of Jewish students and staff, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation exposing what has been described as a politically driven and legally baseless campaign targeting pro-Palestinian activism at the University of California (UC).

In interviews with The Times, nine former Department of Justice (DoJ) attorneys said they were instructed to prepare lawsuits against UC campuses even before investigations had begun, a practice one attorney described as a “fraudulent and sham investigation.”

“Initially we were told we only had 30 days to come up with a reason to be ready to sue UC,” said Ejaz Baluch, a former senior trial attorney tasked with probing alleged anti-Semitism at UCLA. “It shows just how unserious this exercise was. It was not about trying to find out what really happened.”

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House Oversight Chair James Comer DESTROYS “Dollar Store Obama” Hakeem Jeffries After “Malignant Clown” Attack in Defense of Tim Walz and Somali Fraudsters

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) came out swinging on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in response to a recent press conference where Jeffries called him “a joke, an embarrassment, an unserious individual, and a malignant clown.”

This comes after the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation earlier this month into the widespread welfare and social services fraud perpetrated by Somali aliens, who stole billions of dollars from the state and federal government.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs. The Committee has serious concerns about how you as the Governor, and the Democrat-controlled administration, allowed millions of dollars to be stolen. The Committee also has concerns that you and your administration were fully aware of this fraud and chose not to act for fear of political retaliation,” James Comer wrote in a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“The Committee therefore requests documents and communications showing what your administration knew about this fraud and whether you took action to limit or halt the investigation into this widespread fraud.”

Additionally, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has launched his own investigation into the money trail and potential ties to terrorism.

On Thursday, a reporter asked Jeffries if he thinks Walz and Ellison should cooperate with the Committee’s investigation and whether or not he’s worried about the billions of stolen tax dollars in Minnesota.

But instead of even addressing the question, Jeffries went on a baseless attack against Comer and sounded like a bigger retard than Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

“James Comer is a joke, an embarrassment, an unserious individual, and a malignant clown,” Jeffries said before overconfidently pointing to another reporter.

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Media ‘complicity’ blamed as feds say Minnesota fraud crisis could reach $9B: ‘Shown their true colors’

Minnesota’s sprawling fraud crisis has garnered national headlines in recent weeks, but several critics say the problem festered for years, aided by local media that appeared uninterested in holding people in power accountable. 

“In newsrooms, they’re told, ‘We can’t run that because we’re going to be accused of being racist,’” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage recently told Fox News Digital about news outlets in Minnesota essentially enabling the fraud by not calling out shocking taxpayer waste occurring primarily within the local Somali community.

The outlet that is considered by many the top news source in the region, the Minnesota Star Tribune, has faced criticism on social media in recent days over some of its headlines, including “Minnesota Somali community grapples with fraud cases while pushing back against stereotypes” on Nov. 26 and “Trump claims Minnesota lost billions to fraud. The evidence to date isn’t close” on Dec. 11. 

On Thursday, federal prosecutors held a press conference where they revealed that the true scope of the fraud scandal could end up costing taxpayers around $9 billion, prompting some conservatives on social media to point out the Dec. 11 headline.

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Education Secretary Demands Tim Walz Resigns – Somalian Crime Ring Expands

Fraudsters found every angle to syphon money away from taxpayers under Tim Walz’s failed leadership. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is now urging Walz to resign after it emerged that criminals in Minnesota stole over $12 million from the US Department of Education.

“At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Department of Education became aware that fraudulent college applicants, especially concentrated in Minnesota, were gaming the federal postsecondary education system to collect money that was intended for young Americans to help them afford college,” wrote McMahon.

These bad actors used the same ploy to extort money through programs intended to feed poor children and filed applications on behalf of “ghost students” who never existed. These individuals did not need to verify their ID. Some applicants did not even live in the United States if they existed at all. There were 1,834 approved “ghost students” in Minnesota who received a total of $12.5 million in grants and loans.

A teacher at Century College in Minnesota revealed that 15% of his students were “basically an organized crime ring.” Minnesota State College Southeast experienced a spike in new applicants driven by 84 ghost students, who were primarily Somalian. Some of these students enroll in online courses and attend class for the 10 required days to receive financial aid.

“They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest — without attending the college at all,” said McMahon. “Our new fraud prevention system has now blocked more than $1 billion in attempted financial aid theft by fraudsters, including coordinated international fraud rings and AI bots pretending to be students.”

Somalian crime organizations have found methods to steal from taxpayers through programs for education, food stamps, COVID, small businesses, childhood disability assistance, and elderly care. The welfare state has become their personal piggy bank. What has Walz done to curtail crime? Absolutely nothing. Over $1 billion has gone missing under Walz, which is far too high to be considered a mere oversight.

Walz plans to seek a third term in 2026, as Minnesota has no term limits for governors. He says that he will take accountability but has not taken any steps to curtail fraud. He refuses to accept that these crime rings are connected to Somalian crime organizations. Walz has every intention of expanding the unregulated welfare state and will not hesitate to raise taxes on the very people these programs are designed to assist.

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