The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 2nd, 2025: Minnesota Taxpayers May Be Funding Somali Terrorists & Kyiv Targets Moscow’s Tankers Again

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: A major investigation out of Minnesota. New reporting from City Journal alleges that large-scale welfare-fraud networks may have funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars through Somali money-transfer systems — with some of those funds potentially reaching the terrorist group al-Shabaab. And later in the show — an update on Kyiv’s growing pressure campaign against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, as Ukraine claims a third strike in less than a week, this time on a Russian-flagged tanker off the Turkish coast. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief TriTails Premium Beef: Get 15% OFF the ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ steak box. Order by Dec 14 at https://TriTailsBeef.com  American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an avg of $800/mo. NMLS 182334, https://nmlsconsumeraccess.org - APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-885-1881 for details about credit costs and terms. Visit https://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Looking to diversify and protect your hard-earned assets, well, schedule a free consultation with the Birch Gold Group. They're the precious metal specialists. Just text PDB to the number 989-89-89-8, and you'll receive a free, no-obligation information kit, and you'll learn how to convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a gold IRA. Again, text PDB to 989-89-898. It's Tuesday, the 2nd of December. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, a major investigation out of the U.S. state of Minnesota, City Journal reports that massive welfare fraud rings may have funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars

through Somali money networks and potentially into the hands of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Later in the show, an update on Keeves' campaign against Russia's so-called shadow fleet. Ukraine claims another strike, this time on a Russian flag tanker off the Turkish coast. That's the third hit in less than a week. But first, today's afternoon spot. We're starting off with a fascinating piece of investigative reporting and a warning about how gaps in America's own social welfare programs may be opening the door to something, well, more nefarious than simple fraud.

City Journal has published a detailed expose, digging into what it calls a vast welfare fraud network operating out of Minnesota, one that allegedly siphoned off tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. And in some cases, portions of that cash may have been routed overseas to Somalia, where investigators believe some of it ultimately reached the terrorist group al-Shabaab. Now, we should be clear right up front. These allegations are still being investigated, and not every detail has been confirmed publicly by law enforcement. But the outlines of the story and the scale of the fraud inside Minnesota's social services programs are now well-documented, and the possibility that even a fraction of U.S. taxpayer money could have ended up in the hands

of a terrorist organization makes this more than a local scandal. It makes it a national security issue. At the center of the controversy is Minnesota's Medicaid-funded housing stabilization services program. Now, that's a safety net initiative designed to help seniors, disabled Minnesotans, and others at risk of homelessness. When the program was launched, state officials projected it might pay out around $2.6 million a year. Instead, investigators say those payouts exploded into the tens of millions and then kept climbing. According to the reporting, dozens of pop-up service companies, many registered by individuals inside the state's large Somali-American community, began billing Medicaid for, quote, housing support services that in many cases appear to have been minimal or entirely fictitious.

And it didn't stop with housing support. The reporters traced similar patterns across several social service programs, autism therapy programs, mental health rehabilitation, even food nutrition programs. In September of this year, the Justice Department unsealed multiple indictments tied to the housing stabilization services fraud. But according to the City Journal investigation, those indictments may only scratch the surface. Their sources, including a former federal counterterrorism task force detective, say that as much as 20 million in welfare-derived funds moved through Hawala networks in a single year. Now, if you're not familiar with Hawalas, they're informal money transfer systems, common in parts of Africa and the Middle East. In short,

a customer hands over cash to someone in Minnesota, a phone call is made, and someone in Somalia pays out the equivalent amount. They operate largely on trust networks, clan-based, family-based, and function outside of traditional banks. That means no swift codes, no bank records, no formal oversight. Sometimes they're used for legitimate remittances, but they're also notoriously difficult to investigate, and that's part of the concern here. According to the reporting, as investigators traced these money flows back to Minnesota, they kept finding the same pattern. Individuals receiving state or federal benefits who were also sending significant sums overseas. And once that money arrived in Somalia, some of those funds may have been taxed or skimmed

by al-Shabaab, which controls large parts of the local economy and often extorts fees from money transfer shops and merchants. Now, we don't have a public indictment accusing anyone in Minnesota of intentionally funding terrorism. But experts quoted in the article say the effect can be the same. If the money is moving through systems controlled by al-Shabaab, the group takes a cut. And if the source of that money is U.S. welfare programs, while the taxpayer ends up subsidizing a foreign terror organization. Beyond the terrorism angle, the investigation raises questions about oversight inside Minnesota's social services infrastructure. The report suggests that state officials ignored warnings, downplayed red flags, and in some cases avoided scrutiny of certain fraud

patterns out of fear of appearing discriminatory. And that, honestly, might be the most concerning part of all, not just the fraud itself, but the lack of political or bureaucratic willingness to acknowledge it. This story is developing, and we're following it closely. There are still major unanswered questions, of course, about how far the fraud networks extend, how much money actually float overseas, and whether other states may have similar vulnerabilities. As a As an aside, this weekend on the PDB Situation Report, we'll be speaking with Ryan Thorpe, one of the authors of this city journal Exposé. He'll walk us through what he uncovered, what investigators told him, and where this story goes next. You'll want to tune in for that.

All right, coming up next, another blow to Russia's shadow fleet. Ukraine says a tanker off Turkey was damaged overnight, part of Keeb's effort to degrade Moscow's under-the-radar oil trade. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here with a tip on how to feed your family right this holiday season. Look, this time of year, everything gets busier, of course. Schedules get busier, travel, shipping, and the grocery stores. If you want to take one shopping burden off your plate, well, Tritale's beef is the place to go, and they've got a straightforward solution. Look, you've heard me talk about Tritails. It's a fifth-generation Texas ranching family delivering the most delicious beef you've ever had from their property to your door. Now, this holiday season, the Triedails all be home for Christmas box, well, it's all about steaks.

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sunflower oil, but operating in the same waters as Moscow's shadow fleet. When we left off, Ukraine had used naval drones to strike two Russian-linked tankers, the Keros and the Virot near Turkey's northern coast. Both were described by Western sanctions databases as part of Russia's shadow fleet. It's the murky sanctions-busting workhorses that move crude outside the Western financial and insurance system. For Ukraine, the goal was clear, hit the oil logistics that keep the Kremlin's war machine funded. Now, we're in the quote, what happens next phase, and it's unfolding almost exactly along the lines that we had talked about. Today, Turkey's maritime authority said another Russian flag

tanker, the Mid-Volga 2, was attacked via a drone about 80 miles off the Turkish coast while sailing from Russia toward Georgia. Ankara said the 13 crew members were unharmed, and it did not request assistance. That makes the mid-volga, too, the third Russian tanker targeted in a week's time, after Ukraine's naval drones hit the Keros and Virad inside Turkey's exclusive economic zone over the weekend. But the sunflower oil manifest is, in part, what's raising eyebrows. The Turkish authorities are emphasizing it, but analysts who track sanctions of Asian

say the designation reads like a familiar cover story in an ecosystem built on misdeclared cargoes and falsified paperwork and opaque ownership structures. Russia's shadow fleet, the same gray market network that Keros and Virot were part of, runs on tankers that routinely switch flags, operate under shell companies, turn off their transponders, and obscure their cargo origins through ship-to-ship transfers. In that context, a tanker moving similar routes in the same operational patterns, At the exact moment, Ukraine's targeting sanction-busting crude carriers is naturally being viewed as part of the same illicit logistics chain. So on paper, yeah, it's sunflower oil. In practice,

it looks like a lot like a shadow fleet vessel. What's changed since the first two strikes is not just the number of tankers, but who's speaking up. Turkish President Erdogan condemned the attacks on the Keros and the Virot as a, quote, worrying escalation, arguing they threaten navigational safety and the environment in Turkey's exclusive economic zone. The Turkish president is sending two messages at once, signaling to Ukraine that Ankara does not want its waters turned into a battlefield, and to Russia and everyone else, that Turkey intends to maintain control over the Black Sea corridor that feeds the Bosporus and Darden else. This morning, I said the key thing to watch was whether Ukraine would repeat the tactic,

whether this was a one-time message or the opening act of a new front. Three tankers in roughly a week, well, that's beginning to look less like a signal and more like a pattern. You have to remember what's at stake. According to data, cited by a Helsinki-based think tank, more than 100 vessels tied to Russia's shadow fleet sailed under false flags in the first nine months of this year, carrying more than 12 million tons of crude worth over $5 billion. This is an industrial-scale workaround that keeps billions flowing into Moscow's war chest despite Western caps and embargoes. If Ukraine can steadily impose real risk on that network,

it can squeeze the revenue stream that has proved resilient under sanctions. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, the 2nd of December. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, well, that's simple. You can do that. It's very easy. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting PDB Premium. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here with a great holiday opportunity from our friends over at Birch Gold Group.

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