U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) unleashed a fierce critique on his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, slamming members of Minnesota’s Somali community for orchestrating what he called the “most egregious welfare fraud in the country,” with stolen taxpayer funds allegedly funneled to the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
In a fiery episode co-hosted with Ben Ferguson, Cruz spotlighted a recent City Journal investigation revealing how fraud rings, predominantly involving Somali immigrants, have siphoned billions from state programs like Medicaid’s Housing Stabilization Services and the Feeding Our Future scandal—defrauding over $250 million in the latter alone.
Federal counterterrorism officials confirmed to the report’s authors that millions of these pilfered dollars were remitted to Somalia via informal hawala networks, where Al-Shabaab routinely extracts a cut, effectively making “Minnesota taxpayers the largest funder of Al-Shabaab.”
“Somalis in Minnesota have funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to an Islamic terrorist organization,” Cruz declared in a teaser clip shared widely online. “This is a stunning story… Minnesota has become the epicenter of the most egregious welfare fraud in the country. And one of the principal drivers of that welfare fraud are Somali immigrants who are systematically gaming the welfare system. And then, shockingly, federal counterterrorism sources have confirmed that millions of those stolen taxpayer dollars have been sent back to Somalia, where they have ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group. This is a massive scandal.”
The explosive report, penned by Ryan Girdusky and Christopher F. Rufo for the Manhattan Institute, details how programs meant to aid vulnerable populations—such as housing for the disabled and child nutrition—were exploited through fake clinics, ghost clients, and inflated claims.
Autism therapy providers in the Somali-heavy areas surged from 41 to 328 between 2019 and 2023, correlating with a spike in Medicaid payouts from $2.6 million to $21 million annually. In 2023, the Somali diaspora remitted $1.7 billion to Somalia—surpassing the nation’s entire budget—with investigators tracing “untold millions” to terrorist coffers via clan-based transfers.
Federal probes continue, with dozens charged in schemes that prosecutors describe as one of the largest welfare fraud waves in U.S. history. Law enforcement sources warn the full scope—and the precise amount reaching Al-Shabaab—remains unclear, but the implications are dire: a tribal mindset clashing with a “bleeding-heart bureaucracy,” leaving Americans to subsidize terrorism abroad.
The episode, “MTG Resigns—Why & What It Means, Plus Minnesota Taxpayers Are the LARGEST Funders of Al-Shabaab Terrorists,” has ignited national debate, with Cruz’s remarks amplifying calls for reform amid accusations of media silence on the story.