Gov. Tim Walz’s woke refusal to call out Somali scammers cost his state $1B

Scammers in Minnesota have ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $1 billion — while the state’s progressive leaders stood back and watched.

Over the weekend, hundreds of state social workers skewered Gov. Tim Walz not just for ignoring shady nonprofits’ shameless milking of the state’s generous welfare system, but also for punishing workers who raised alarms.

An X account claiming to speak for 480 current Minnesota Department of Human Services employees posted on Saturday that “Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota.”

“We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on,” yet he “systematically retaliated against whistleblowers” and “did his best to discredit fraud reports.”

Dozens of fraudsters, almost all Somali immigrants, set up sham nonprofits, billed the state for services that they never actually delivered and used the cash to fund lavish lifestyles; some of the stolen funds even wound up in the hands of an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia.

Federal prosecutors have convicted at least 59 scammers, with dozens more charged.

One “charity,” Feeding Our Future, faked feeding tens of thousands of hungry kids; others pretended to help the autistic and the homeless — even as the cash actually bought luxury cars, travel and real estate.

And it was exactly as easy as taking candy from babies — because Walz’s administration didn’t want to offend the state’s sizeable Somali voting bloc by acknowledging the theft, and melted at the first cry of “racism!”

Yes: Early on, the state Department of Education started questioning Feeding Our Future’s fishy invoices; the nonprofit threatened a lawsuit charging bigotry — and the questions stopped.

The progressive failure goes far deeper than that woke failure: Walz and his team put ideology above all, including sound fiscal management and other basics of good government — and the Somali bloc was hardly the only vested interest they favored over the public good.

Walz may be a weakling, but the state’s elites stood with him.

If progressivism now means letting scammers and special interests take the state to the cleaners, expect Minnesota to start outgrowing its progressive heritage.