Nursery owner speaks out after Trump scraps childcare over ‘Somali fraud scandal’

A manager at a Minnesota daycare has spoken out after Donald Trump suspended federal childcare payments over alleged ‘Somali daycare fraud’.

A viral video posted by the right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley, showing him speaking to employees of a daycare in Minnesota, went viral last week.

He focused on the Quality Learning Centre in Minneapolis, which was closed at the time Shirley walked around asking, ‘Where are the kids?’

Just days after posting his video, a second Somali-run daycare was broken into and ‘extensively vandalised’.

Allegations of misuse of federal childcare funds for fraud have spread after Shirley’s video went viral, prompting Trump to suspend all funding for Minnesota.

Manager of the centre, Ibrahim Ali, has slammed any allegations of fraud, pointing out that the video was taken when the centre was shut down.

The centre operates from 2 to 10pm, but Shirley filmed his now viral video at around 11am.

Ali has invited those questioning his family’s daycare to come during operating hours, adding: ‘You guys could come tomorrow. You guys could come on Thursday, and you guys could come back on Monday.

‘There’s no fraud going on whatsoever.’

The daycare centre, owned by Ali’s parents, teaches 50 to 80 children each day and has around 25 workers, he said.

When asked about Shirley’s viral video, he suggested that people trying to suggest his business was misusing funds were trying to tie the Somali name to fraud.

The damage from Shirley’s video is done – the $185,000,000 Minnesote receives for 19,000 children’s child care has been frozen.

Jim O’Neill, the deputy HHS secretary, said that payments distributed to childcare centres in the states will only be released when it’s proven the funds are being spent ‘legitimately’.

Minnesota state representative Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, co-chair of the Children and Families Committee, said: ‘If we allow this funding freeze to happen, all Minnesotans are going to suffer.

‘Instead of tearing down our Somali community and our child care centres, let’s lift them up. Let’s make sure that our children have safe places to learn and grow.’

Minnesota, home to America’s largest Somalian population, has faced the wrath of Trump in the past month.

There are just 98,000 Somali immigrants currently living in the United States, about 83% of whom are naturalised citizens, according to the United States census.

In recent weeks, Somalia has been at the forefront of political discussion in the United States, after Trump claimed immigrants from the African country were ‘ruining’ the state of Minnesota.

He said it was ‘barely a country’ and referred to Somali immigrants as ‘garbage’. His issues with the country appear to stem from the Islamic State (IS) groups, which have hidden and attacked villages in the country.

Earlier this year, Trump said of the militants: ‘WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU.’ Local military and police are attempting to find and destroy the terror cells, which the President has been aiding in.

US air strikes in Somalia have doubled since 2024, as Trump tries to target the killers who he said ‘threatened the United States’.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ben Saul, said in May: ‘I recognise the extensive efforts by the Somali authorities to prevent terrorism, through a comprehensive strategy combining law enforcement, military operations, combating violent extremism and addressing the root causes of terrorist recruitment.’

Last month, Trump said of Somalis living in the US: ‘Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.’ 

He also told a crowd of supporters that he didn’t understand why the US only ‘took people from sh**thole countries’.

‘… Hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,’ he began.

An audience member yelled out ‘sh**tholes’, to which Trump replied: ‘I didn’t say sh**hole – you did! We had a meeting, and I said, Why is it we only take people from sh**hole countries? Right?’

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