Trump Says Fraud Investigation ‘Has Begun’ In Newsom’s California: ‘More Corrupt Than Minnesota’

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday morning that his administration launched a fraud investigation into California in the wake of the federal government’s Minnesota fraud probe.

Trump accused California under Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of being worse than Minnesota when it comes to corruption. Minnesota, another Democrat-run state, that has come under the microscope in the past month over a welfare fraud scheme and allegations that Somali-run daycares have been inflating their enrollment numbers to receive more taxpayer funding.

“California, under Governor Gavin Newscum, is more corrupt than Minnesota, if that’s possible???” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Fraud Investigation of California has begun. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The president did not specify what the fraud investigation would look into or which federal agency would lead it. A White House official told The Daily Wire that there was “nothing to add to the President’s post.” In a statement shared with The Daily Wire, Newsom’s office called Trump “a deranged, habitual liar.”

“This is not complicated. He spends his days posting whatever garbage his shriveled little brain can cough up — and Fox News dutifully treats it like the Lord’s scripture,” Newsom’s office added. “Meanwhile — in the actual world where adults govern — Gavin Newsom has been cleaning house. Since taking office, he’s blocked over $125 BILLION in fraud, arrested criminal parasites leaching off of taxpayers, and protected taxpayers from the exact kind of scam artists Trump celebrates, excuses, and pardons. Gavin Newsom runs a state. Donald Trump runs his mouth and little fingers.”

Trump’s comment on a fraud investigation into California comes a day after two Republicans in the state sounded the alarm on a potential scandal that they claim is wasting up to $250 billion a year. Steve Hilton, who is running for California governor, and Herb Morgan, who is running for state controller, said on Monday that the state’s welfare program under Newsom has become a bank for “corrupt cronies and political front groups,” The New York Post reported.

“This is what you get from 16 years of one-party rule. Corruption, fraud and abuse on an epic scale. Gavin Newsom and the corrupt Democrat machine have stolen our money and handed it out to corrupt cronies and political front groups,” Hilton said.

Trump has clashed regularly with Newsom during his second term in the White House, going after the Democratic governor over his response to the Southern California wildfires and the violent demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles County.

Immediately after being sworn in for a second term in January, Trump ripped Newsom’s handling of wildfire prevention and called him an “INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR” following the deadly fires that ripped through L.A. County last January.

Then, when anti-ICE demonstrations broke out in L.A. in June, Trump blasted Newsom for doing a “horrible job” to quell the riots and deployed the National Guard and the Marines. Trump also said he would support his border czar, Tom Homan, in arresting the California governor over accusations that he was impeding federal immigration enforcement.

Newsom, who is viewed as one of the frontrunners to become the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028, continues to condemn Trump’s immigration operation and his deployment of the National Guard in California. During an interview on Monday, Newsom accused the president of committing fraud and said that Trump’s National Guard deployment last year pulled troops away from important work, such as protecting the Southern Border and wildfire prevention efforts.

“He impacted all of those public safety efforts,” Newsom said. “For what? For a show. [Troops] sat there playing video games in many cases, total boredom. … They [were] sitting there in the armory doing nothing, costing you taxpayers. You want to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, Mr. President? One-hundred-plus million dollars wasted because of the fraud you perpetuated and the abuse of your authority.”

After a federal appeals court ruled against Trump’s National Guard deployment in California, Trump said late last month that troops would be withdrawn from multiple cities across the United States, including Los Angeles. The appeals court ruling came after the Supreme Court declined an emergency appeal from the Trump administration when a lower court blocked Trump’s attempt to deploy troops to Chicago. Trump argued that the National Guard deployment to multiple U.S. cities “greatly reduced” crime and warned, “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”