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Is Nick Shirley a Democrat or Republican? YouTuber's political views explained amid Minnesota fraud row
Nick Shirley has come under the spotlight after sharing a series of posts, prompting conversations around fraudulent practices in Minnesota.
Content creator and independent journalist Nick Shirley has come under the spotlight after alleging that there is a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota's daycare system. Shirley shared a series of posts, prompting conversations around fraud and government oversight in public assistance programs.
Is Nick Shirley a Democrat or Republican?
In a June 2024 article, Reuters described Shirley as being among “a new class of influencers supportive of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who are helping shape the immigration debate as the U.S. election campaign heats up.” The outlet also called him a “pro-Trump online influencer,” who was previously seen asking migrants on camera if they think Joe Biden made it easier for them to come to the United States.
Shirley widely covered the New York City mayoral election, ICE raids, Trump's military parade, as well as protests over the administration's immigration policies in Los Angeles during the summer. He even participated in an "Antifa Roundtable" discussion with Trump and others from members of his administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, earlier this year.
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Prominent conservatives hailed Shirley after his Minnesota fraud videos surfaced. Vice President JD Vance commented on one of Shirley’s posts, "This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes."
Shirley openly criticized Tim Walz, a Democrat, in his recent Minnesota videos, saying in one of them, “Tim Walz is governor and knew about the fraud but never reported it, can you imagine if he was the VP right now??”
“The big question is will Tim Walz be held accountable?” Shirley wrote in another post.
Nick Shirley’s viral videos
Shirley claimed that corruption is rampant in Minnesota, specifically exposing a Somali-run daycare fraud. He shared various videos on social media to expose fraudulent practices in the state.
One of Shirley’s videos, captioned “Example of the Billions $$ of fraud taking place in Minnesota,” shows him standing in front of the daycare and talking to a local resident about the functioning and operations of the organization. “This is one of the hundreds of “daycares” receiving millions of dollars from the government, this daycare (that can’t even spell learning right) received $1,900,000 in tax exempt funding from CCAP,” he alleged, adding that this was only one case among the thousands of fraudulent businesses operating in the state.
Another one of Shirley’s videos has a text overlay that reads, "Confronting a $1.26 Million fraudulent Somali Daycare Center in Minnesota’. The video is captioned, “ANOTHER Minnesota fraudulent DayCare center receiving $1.26 million in CCAP funding (tax exempt money), these day cares all receive money from the government and then block out all windows and lock there doors and won’t even give you the option to enroll your child. Then when they don’t want you to understand what they are saying they speak in Somalian. I just wanted daycare for my “son” Joey!”
Shirley alleged that there are “hundreds of daycares operating fraudulently across the state,” adding, “I have more to show you guys in the coming days.”
