Brace yourself for a jaw-dropping revelation: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has announced rampant visa fraud in Minnesota that’s costing taxpayers dearly.
During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, Noem exposed that half of all visa holders in Minnesota submitted fraudulent applications, while separate probes uncovered massive scams involving Somali immigrants and over $1 billion in misused taxpayer funds.
This isn’t just a paperwork glitch— it’s a systemic failure.
According to Noem, a recent two-week investigation by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) found that nearly half of at least 1,000 immigrant households visited were entangled in some form of immigration deception.
USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow detailed a laundry list of violations, including marriage scams, overstayed visas, fake employment claims, forged papers, and misuse of H1B and F1 visa programs.
It’s a bureaucratic mess that raises serious questions about oversight and accountability in Minnesota’s immigration processes.
Noem didn’t hold back in her assessment, suggesting this isn’t mere incompetence but possibly intentional negligence at the state level.
“You told me to look into Minnesota and their fraud on visas and their programs: 50% of them are fraudulent, which means that that wacko Gov. (Tim) Walz either is an idiot or he did it on purpose — and I think he’s both, sir,” Noem stated during the Cabinet meeting.
While her words are sharp, they reflect a growing frustration among conservatives about lax policies that seem to prioritize optics over security— a fair critique when billions are at stake.
Noem also claimed that those behind the fraudulent visa applications enrolled in government programs, siphoning off hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars.
She vowed action, stating, “Those who submitted fraudulent visa applications signed up for government programs, took hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers, and we’re going to remove them and get our money back.”
That’s a bold promise, and if delivered, it could restore some faith in a system that feels broken to many hardworking Americans.
Adding fuel to the fire, the U.S. House Oversight Committee and Treasury Department are investigating a separate fraud scheme involving Somali immigrants, allegedly defrauding over $1 billion through a COVID-era food relief program meant for schoolchildren in Minnesota.
Reports indicate that nonprofits, especially around Minneapolis, funneled taxpayer money to employees who splurged on luxury cars and real estate, with some funds reportedly tied to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab— a connection that’s deeply troubling and demands answers.
Federal authorities have already prosecuted 78 individuals and convicted 59 in the Feeding Our Future scandal, a nonprofit that pocketed at least $250 million in taxpayer funds, showing the scale of this betrayal of public trust.
Former Minneapolis Sheriff Rich Stanek weighed in, noting Minnesota’s historically hospitable stance may have blinded officials to these issues, a “Minnesota nice” attitude that’s charming until it costs billions.
Meanwhile, as investigations continue, the spotlight remains on state leadership to explain how such widespread fraud— whether in visas or relief programs— went unchecked for so long.
Michael Dell, the owner of Dell Technologies, along with his wife Susan Dell, have pledged $6.25 billion to help President Donald Trump's initiative to introduce children to investing as part of his One Big Beautiful Bill.
Under Trump's plan, parents of children born as U.S. citizens between 2025 and 2028 would receive $1,000 grants to open investment accounts in the children's names.
The Dells' contribution would add 25 million to the number of children who could be helped with the grants, giving $250 each for children under 10 years old who were not covered under Trump's window and live in zip codes with median incomes of $150,000 or less.
The donation will be the largest for American children ever given, according to the non-profit Invest America that works with the Dells.
“It’s designed to help families feel supported from the start and encourage them to keep saving as their children grow,” Michael Dell told CNBC in an interview. “We know that when children have accounts like this, they’re much more likely to graduate from high school, from college, buy a home, start a business and less likely to be incarcerated.”
The Trump bill allows any parents of children under 18 with Social Security numbers to open the accounts, which are tax-advantaged, starting on July 4, 2026.
“We want to help the children that weren’t part of the government program,” Dell said.
Invest America, run by hedge fund manager Brad Gerstner, advocated for the accounts to be included in Trump's bill, and it fits his agenda of encouraging investment and combatting poverty among families.
Dell Technologies has said it will match the $1,000 seed money in Trump accounts for new employees of the company.
“It would have been impractical, or maybe even impossible, to impact this many kids in this way without such a program,” Dell said.
Withdrawals fromt the accounts are not allowed until the child is 18, at which point it rolls over into an IRA and withdrawals are taxed.
Some states' versions of 529 plans have more tax advantages than the Trump accounts, but Trump is looking beyond funding college educations.
Michael Dell is hopeful that other companies will join him in funding the Trump accounts.
“What we hope is that every child sees a future worth saving for it,” he said. “You think about the compounding effect of a program like this in 10, 20, 30 years on millions of children. That’s what gets us excited.”
The Indiana state House has decided to pursue redistricting to gain a GOP seat in the U.S. House after President Donald Trump pushed the matter, and the Senate plans to reconvene if the House passes a newly drawn map.
Senate GOP leader Rodric Bray said two weeks ago that there wasn't enough support to move forward with redistricting, but reversed course when Trump threatened to primary GOP state senators if they did not act.
"A RINO State Senator, Rodric Bray, who doesn’t care about keeping the Majority in the House in D.C., is the primary problem. Soon, he will have a Primary Problem, as will any other politician who supports him in this stupidity," Trump posted on social media after Bray's initial refusal.
Last week, State House Speaker Todd Huston announced, "House Republicans will gavel in on Monday, Dec. 1, reconvening the 2026 regular session. All legislative business will be considered beginning next week, including redrawing the state’s congressional map."
Subsequently, Bray posted, "The issue of redrawing Indiana's congressional maps mid-cycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state. To resolve this issue, the Senate intends to reconvene as part of the regular 2026 session on Dec. 8."
The House now has a razor-thin GOP majority, and is trying to preserve it in the midterm elections.
So far, signs have pointed toward GOP losing some seats, which would quickly deny them the majority.
California will be moving forward with redistricting in the opposite direction, while Texas could gain a significant number of GOP seats if it can overcome legal challenges to its plan.
Meanwhile, Trump is scrapping for every single seat he can possibly get, knowing that a Democrat House will pretty much kill his agenda outside of getting GOP-leaning judges appointed.
In Indiana, seven of nine seats are already Republican-controlled, but it's a solid GOP state, so what's one more?
In California, 25% of voters are registered Republican, but only 17% of districts are currently held by Republicans. If the gerrymandering efforts there are successful, up to five more seats could go to Democrats, making things even more lopsided there.
Every seat could be important in 2026, and Trump knows full well that he won't get much accomplished if he can't pass any of his bills in Congress.
Of course, Democrats have a massive advantage between California redistricting and the historical loss of seats for the ruling party in the midterms.
The bloodbath could be massive, and it seems likely that Republicans will not control the House in 2027, the way things are going.
Northwestern University is waving the white flag amid an intense legal battle with the Trump administration over antisemitism.
Northwestern University agreed to send $75 million to the U.S. government to resolve a series of investigations into antisemitism, according to a report from The Associated Press on Saturday.
In return, the Trump administration will restore millions of dollars in federal research funding to the Chicago university.
This is a major victory for Trump, who is going to battle with dozens of prestigious universities that allowed brazen and violent pro-Palestinian protests that often resulted in violence and intimidation against Jewish students.
With Northwestern capitulating, other universities are likely going to see the writing on the wall and recover what they can.
Trump used hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to wage war on Northwestern's leftist leadership.
Trump halted an astounding $790 million in grants, which led to mass layoffs for the university and even the resignation of President Michael Schill in September.
The AP reported, "Under the agreement announced Friday night, Northwestern will make the payment to the U.S. Treasury over the next three years. Among other commitments it also requires the university to revoke the so-called Deering Meadow agreement, which it signed in April 2024 in exchange for pro-Palestinian protesters ending their tent encampment on campus."
2024 saw widespread campus takeovers by Palestinian protest groups who would create no-go zones and get violent with students who wouldn't cooperate with their agenda, Jewish or not.
One can only imagine the reaction if White Nationalist groups had created encampments and essentially seized entire quads on university campuses around the nation while intimidating and violently attacking students.
No doubt the National Guard would have been called in, and police would have been given carte blanche to drive those groups out. In reality, these universities ended up negotiating with these protestors and widespread antisemitism was practically condoned at universities receiving federal funds.
Trump has rightfully come down on these leftist universities for allowing this situation, and now these universities will have to spend millions on Trump's initiatives to rectify the situation.
This issue isn't just about antisemitism on college campuses, as Trump has made it clear he has no patience for the "woke" rule of America's university system. The days of universities being able to push out conservative thought are over, with the federal government cracking down.
Now the question is, which university is going to throw in the towel next? It's always been clear that if enough schools give in, it will only empower Trump's use of federal power to enforce institutional change at publicly funded universities.
President Donald Trump is issuing a pardon to a former president who was sentenced to 45 years in a massive drug trafficking case.
On Friday, Trump announced that he would be issuing a pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison last year in a bombshell drug trafficking case.
Hernandez was convicted of conspiring to import 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. as well as several weapons charges, which led to his astounding 45-year sentence.
However, Trump announced on Truth Social that he decided to pardon Hernandez because "according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly."
Trump is particularly susceptible to unfair and political indictments, so it made sense for him to hear Hernandez's camp out.
Since his conviction, Hernandez has been appealing the sentence while serving time at the U.S. Penitentiary, Hazelton, in West Virginia.
Beyond the fairness of Hernandez's trial being called into question, there are geopolitical motives behind this decision to pardon Hernandez. The Trump administration is putting a heavy focus on South and Central American relations.
One of Hernandez's lawyers, Renato C. Stabile, issued a statement thanking Trump, saying, "A great injustice has been righted and we are so hopeful for the future partnership of the United States and Honduras. Thank you President Trump for making sure that justice was served. We look forward to President Hernandez’s triumphant return to Honduras."
The Trump administration does seem to be prioritizing improving relations with Honduras, and this pardon not only rights a grave injustice in the eyes of Trump but also gives him a valuable ally in improving relations.
Trump is also backing Nasry “Tito” Asfura for Honduras’ presidency in the election happening on Saturday. Trump has promised to increase support for Honduras if Asfura wins, but warned support wouldn't be coming should the country's leftist candidate prevail.
With the United States getting involved, Sunday's election promises to be chaotic as both sides are already deeply polarized.
Both the opposition and the government have alleged that there is voter fraud happening in the election, which seems to be a hallmark of any close election.
Americas director at Human Rights Watch Juanita Goebertus warned that “allegations of possible fraud, aggressive moves by both prosecutors and the army, and political deadlock in the electoral authority are threatening Hondurans’ right to participate in free and fair elections."
These elections will be worth keeping an eye on. The Trump administration will certainly be watching closely, especially if voter fraud is in play. Hopefully, things aren't too bad as there are certainly fears of military action should the election go badly.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected the idea of extending Obamacare subsidies for two years, but said that extensions may be necessary in order to get a deal in place that could replace the existing system.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he would rather not give any extensions of the premium tax credits, which subsidize the cost of health insurance for families making under a certain amount of income.
But he might be open to a deal that agrees to replace Obamacare with a more free-market solution to health insurance in exchange for a subsidy extension until the new plan can be implemented.
“I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” he said.
“Some kind of extension may be necessary to get something else done because the unaffordable care act has been a disaster,” he added, however.
Trump said he would release his own plan for health insurance soon.
“I like my plan the best: Don’t give any money to the insurance companies, give it to the people directly,” he said. “Let them go out and buy their own health care plan. And we’re looking at that, if that can work. We’re looking at that. That’s sort of taking off.”
Behind-the-scenes reports said that his plan would give people the money directly instead of paying insurance companies.
Obamacare enrollees who choose to downgrade to a high deductible plan could get part of the subsidy in an HSA, according to reports of the plan.
Without a subsidy extension, costs for existing enrollees could more than double, on average, at a time when most income-earners are stretched thin because of inflation over the last few years.
Trump said that there are a number of Democrats negotiating with him on a new plan, but declined to name any names.
“I can’t tell you who,” he said. “A lot of Democrats want this plan to happen. They would love to see the money go to the people and the people go out and get their own health care. And there would be nothing like it.”
The problem is, when Obamacare came into being, it amounted to a massive payout to the insurance companies and caused rates to skyrocket. Now, there's no good way to bring them back down.
The system is pretty much broken, and I don't know if Trump's plan will fix anything or just make it even worse.
President Donald Trump is pausing the processing of all Afghan migrants after it was discovered that an Afghan national shot two National Guardsmen near the White House in D.C. on Wednesday.
"Processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols," the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced.
The person arrested for the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, entered the United States in 2021 under the Biden-era initiative Operation Allies Welcome, according to Just the News.
In speaking to condemn the shooting, Trump blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for his lax immigration policies.
"We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country," he said.
The New York Times reported that Lakanwal drove across the country from his home north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife and five children, and had a plan to attack the Guard troops.
A .357 revolver was used in the shooting. Lakanwal allegedly shot one guardsman, then shot again after he fell, before shooting the second guardsman.
The soldiers, Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom, ages 20 and 24, are in critical condition after surgery.
Apparently, Lakanwal worked with the CIA in Afghanistan in 2021 and was part of the withdrawal of Afghan allies when the U.S. withdrew from that area.
Jeanine Pirro said that the U.S. would seek the death penalty for Lakanwal if the guard troops didn't survive.
Pirro also said Lakanwal is being charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, as well as possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.
She also defended the presence of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., saying that their presence helped form “the line that separates a civilized society from a barbaric one.”
A judge has ruled to block the continued deployment, saying it was probably illegal, but Trump is fighting to keep the troops there.
The nonpartisan group #AfghanEvac said that Lakanwal's case “appears to be a tragic outlier — not a pattern."
The Ohio House has passed a bill called the "Charlie Kirk Act" to allow schools to teach about the positive contributions of Christianity to the U.S. in history classes.
The bill passed along party lines, with all Republicans voting for it and all Democrats voting against it.
It was intended to remind teachers that teaching about different religions including Christianity from a historical and cultural perspective is not a violation of the First Amendment.
“It’s essential that we highlight the positive influence religion has had throughout our history – uniting communities, enriching our shared values, and safeguarding our First Amendment rights as Americans to speak and worship freely,” bill co-sponsor Michael Dovilla said after its passage.
Not all religious leaders and clergy support the bill, with some thinking church and state should be completely separated.
Some also feared that the bill would encourage teachers to ignore potential negative effects of religion, such as the way Christianity was used in the South to uphold slavery for a time.
In addition, the Ohio Council for the Social Studies said the bill was redundant and narrow, but Dovilla disagreed.
“It’s essential that we highlight the positive influence religion has had throughout our history,” he said. “Uniting communities, enriching our shared values, and safeguarding our First Amendment rights as Americans to speak and worship freely.”
The bill does not prevent teachers from covering topics that show the negatives of religion, it only encourages the positive to also be included.
“This bill does not impose a belief system, it simply allows teachers and professors to include historical truths that have too often been neglected,” Gabe Guidarini, chairman of the Ohio College Republican Federation, said.
Students should learn “how faith shaped the resolve of the pilgrims, guided our Founders’ convictions, inspired movements that provided us the liberties we enjoy today, and informed the moral fabric that has bound our republic together since its birth,” he added.
It's clear that the left wants only the negative parts of religion, if any, to be highlighted in schools.
They think we should worship at the altar of the federal government, which they think provides everything that people need.
In truth, taking religion out of schools and the public square has done nothing but make it worse. Hopefully, this bill will help Ohioans realize the positive impact of Christianity and how important faith was to building America.
President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Burma as part of its overall immigration strategy to restrict both legal and illegal immigration.
Nearly 10,000 Burmese nationals will be impacted by the move, which set a date of January 26, 2026 for TPS to end.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that the administration believes the conditions in Burma are improved enough for the nationals to return home.
She said,
The situation in Burma has improved enough that it is safe for Burmese citizens to return home, so we are terminating the Temporary Protected Status. Burma has made notable progress in governance and stability, including the end of its state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful ceasefire agreements, and improved local governance contributing to enhanced public service delivery and national reconciliation.
“This decision restores TPS to its original status as temporary,” Noem added.
It has been a complaint of the Trump administration that previous administrations (Obama and Biden) treated TPS as a more permanent status and were reluctant to ever end it.
Former President Joe Biden alone allowed more than a million migrants to come into the U.S. under TPS, as of early 2025.
TPS, which started in 1990 under then-President Bill Clinton, was intended to prevent deportation of migrants who are designated as experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters in their countries of origin.
Trump has ended the program for migrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela, but legal challenges have blocked the action for some countries, at least for now.
Just about any country in the world could claim that conditions there are worse than in the U.S., but that's not the measuring stick TPS was made to use.
It's not a bad thing to be compassionate and take on some refugees when a country is clearly having a bad moment, but taking on millions of refugees and then vaguely making it permanent is not a thing we should be doing as a country.
Trump has set an ambitious goal to deport a million illegal immigrants each year he is in office, and the people whose TPS has been revoked could be some of those if they refuse to leave the country.
The DHS said in September that more than 2 million illegal immigrants have already been deported or left on their own, with the majority of them having self-deported to avoid detention and deportation at the hands of the government.
"The era of open borders is over," a statement from DHS said. And it seems that the open arms that have greeted so many refugees are also a thing of the past.
In the aftermath of a Democrat statement encouraging military troops to disobey orders from President Donald Trump, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) admitted to ABC "This Week" host Martha Raddatz that she wasn't aware of any instance when President Donald Trump issued an illegal order to the military.
“Let’s talk right now. Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?” Raddatz asked.
“To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal — but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes, and everything related to Venezuela,” Slotkin answered.
Slotkin justified the Democrat statement about disobeying Trump, which she participated in, by saying that they did it because of the “sheer number” of troops and young officers asking them what they “should do.”
“Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” the lawmakers say in the video, which was released on Tuesday.
“Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders,” Kelly says in the video.
“You can refuse illegal orders,” Slotkin says in the video.
President Donald Trump's response on Truth Social initially said the statement was "sedition," which is "punishable by death," but Trump later revised his statement after saying he did not want to "execute" the lawmakers.
“THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OKAY,” Trump wrote in a post on Saturday. “IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE! IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!”
It is important to note that, technically, the Democrats did not tell military members to disobey Trump.
That being said, they certainly seemed to imply from their comments that Trump was a "threat to the Constitution" and was issuing or would likely issue illegal orders to the military at some point, which is unfair and wrong of them to do.
Their words obviously created a controversy, based on Slotkin's appearance on "This Week."
Even if they were sincere about wanting to respond to the inquiries they said they were getting, they ended up inflaming the situation rather than calming it down, which is never a good thing (but probably exactly what they wanted to do, if truth be told).