YouTuber Nick Shirley took the spotlight after he shared a video about Minnesota daycares. The clip captioned “Example of the Billions $$ of fraud taking place in Minnesota” is going viral on social media. Nick Shirley stirred controversy after he claimed that some daycare centers are getting large amounts of government funding in Minnesota despite being non-functional.
In the video, Nick Shirley can be seen standing in front of the daycare and talking to a local resident to learn about the functioning and operations of the organization.
Alleging that fraud and corruption is rampant in Minnesota, he wrote, “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 claimed that this is just one case among the thousands of fraudulent businesses operating in Minnesota.”
Seeking accountability from public’s representatives and leaders, he added, “Tim Walz is governor and knew about the fraud but never reported it.”
He visited the center during mid-week when the Somali run center should have remained open but to his surprise it was closed with no trace of 99 registered students under it. In another video, he interrogates local resident who has been living in the area for the past 8 years. “I haven’t seen any kids. I’ve been here since 2017,” the local can be heard saying in response to Nick Shirley’s question.
The title to the post said, “Want to become a multimillionaire without doing anything? Move to Minnesota and start a daycare!”
Nick Shirley, who describes himself as an independent journalist, is best known for street interviews and acts as a watchdog of government’s mechanisms. Famous for his direct confrontations, he has at several times raised concerns around unnecessary government spending and immigration issues before, according to Reuters.
The 23-year-old online influencer boasts over 1 million followers on Instagram and 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube.
Reuters last year described him as one among a new class of influencers who supported Donald Trump in his presidential campaign. “While Shirley started by making prank videos as a high schooler in Utah and only recently began focusing on illegal immigration, other pro-Trump influencers are more established and explicitly partisan,” the report said.
