Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance stated on Tuesday that the Trump administration was giving right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley $10,000 and launching a $25 myriad bounty program for members of the community to study fraud.
In December 2025, Shirley published a viral video alleging fraud at daycares in Minnesota that were operated by members of the local Somali community. Shirley lingered in parking many and asked to act childcare centers, taking refusals as evidence that the centers weren’t really caring for children. The video quickly went viral, triggering a enormous governmental response: Federal immigration agents descended on the Minneapolis area, and the Trump administration froze Minnesota’s national backing for childcare. Shirley has since visited other states in the US under akin pretenses, showing up unannounced to market stores and hospice centers in hunt of evidence of fraud. Vance and others in the administration publically praised Shirley, who has since rotate into a backbone in the MAGA-aligned satisfied creator ecosystem. He’s helped popularize a genre of so-called autonomous reporting popular on the correct in which satisfied creators and influencers visage businesses or group they doubtful of fraud or infringement as the basis for their online content. Harassment — or equal immigration crackdowns — frequently follow.
The administration told Fox News that it was additionally launching the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP), a pond of $25 myriad open to anyone who believes they’ve witnessed fraud. A “particular emphasis” is placed on fraud in hospice, residence healthcare, daycares, and particular services, a authorities website says. A chatbot collecting responses instructs the reporting party: “Briefly depict what you saw, heard, or read. A few sentences are enough. Include names, dates, amounts, or records if you have them, and how you know. Note any particulars you’re unsure about.”
According to Fox News and the reporting portal, members of the community who emblem fraud are eligible to get up to $30,000 if a tip submitted leads to a condemnation or important national action. But speaking on Tuesday, Trump contradicted the $30,000 ceiling.
”If you rotate person in and … you discover $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that individual of 1 percent,” Trump stated today. (One percent of $1 milliard would exceed the $30,000 cap.) “And if it’s $10 billion, $200 billion, $400 billion, we’re giving a 1 percent commission to that person,” Trump continued.
The White House didn’t immediately explain how the $10,000 fee to Shirley was calculated or how the program is being funded in the archetypal place.
Shirley’s methods have been criticized particularly in Minnesota, anywhere sweeping fraud investigations were already taking location before he arrived to create content. He accused businesses of faking childcare services according to small additional than being denied admission to facilities, and — to the frustration of many — acted as if his video was the archetypal fraud inquiry in the state. Subsequent province authoritative visits to the centers Shirley featured found them functioning “as expected.”
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