by Frank Holmes, reporter
Democrats believe they have a right to have their voters live off hard-working taxpayers, and one of the Democratic Party’s top leaders just got busted in a new scam that paid off thousands of fraudsters.
The newest rip-off takes place in scandal-riddled Minnesota, run by Governor and former 2024 vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.
The Land of 10,000 Lakes has almost 8,000 “ghost students,” which have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars…and the money has gone to a key Democratic voting bloc.
A “ghost student” is someone who registers as a college student but never shows up to class. Once registered with a university, the “student” applies for state and federal financial aid, like the Pell Grant.
Once approved, the federal government deducts the funds from your paycheck, and college administrators—one of the most liberal demographics in the country—reach in and take the biggest cut to pay the cost of ever-increasing tuition. But after that, whatever is left over goes to the “student.” These are run by people under false names, potentially by illegal aliens or Somali “migrants.”
So, the Ivory Tower gets more federal graft than it’s entitled to, someone living off taxes gets hundreds or thousands more, and Democrat-run states get to see the ill-gotten gains spent in their failing communities.
Big fraud has been a big money-maker for Minnesota.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon exposed the state’s pandemic of “ghost students” just before last Christmas, saying Governor Walz failed in his duty to protect federal funds. Her letter identified 1,834 “ghost students” who received $12.5 million in federal funding in Minnesota.
“Given your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,” wrote McMahon in a letter to Walz dated December 15, 2025.
But it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The Department of Education, under President Trump, forced Minnesota to make a full accounting. Minnesota officials have identified 7,700 “ghost students.” If the fraud levels held consistent, that would come to an estimated $75 million of fraud out of the taxpayers’ pockets.
And the American people get shafted, in more ways than one.
Like foreign students, “ghost students” freeze out real students.
An online class in another state had the ability to enroll 50 students, and “as soon as it opened up, within two minutes, all of the spots were taken,” explained Jennifer Kerber, a fraud expert at Socure. “It turns out only two of the students enrolled in the class were real. The rest were all fake.”
“So, the student never existed, but the money is real,” she said.
Minnesota defrauded American taxpayers of $12.5 million through a “ghost students” scam where 7,700 fake students applied for financial aid.
In one example, an online class filled 50 seats in 2 minutes, but only 2 of the students actually existed. pic.twitter.com/FYYBFJzH9c
— Scott Adams (@scottadamsshow) June 17, 2026
The fraudsters also target community colleges—places blue-collar Americans can go to learn to become a mechanic, nurse, or electrician—because the smaller schools are open to all and have fewer employees to check for fraud.
Guess who has to make up for the community college’s financial losses? Paying American students. House Republicans have been trying to root out fake students for some time. They passed the No Aid for Ghost Students Act, which requires colleges to summon students suspected of fraud to their offices to present proof of their identification in person, on June 10.
“The previous administration turned off nearly every single fraud prevention measure, allowing billions of taxpayer dollars to be stolen by ‘ghost students’ and other criminals,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon upon the bill’s passage. “Since Day One, the Trump administration has been committed to restoring existing fraud detection capabilities while building the most comprehensive fraud-detection system in the Department’s history. The No Aid for Ghost Students Act would build on our efforts that prevented more than $1 billion dollar in student aid fraud and ensure that no future administration can be derelict in their duties to protect students and American taxpayers.”
Even before signing the bill into law, President Trump took all the anti-fraud measures he could via regulation and executive actions. The Education Department “has already prevented more than $100 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters” since April, according to a DOE press release.
Minnesota has disputed the White House’s claims. “The Department of Education claims that ‘ghost students’ in Minnesota cost taxpayers $12.5 million, but the Minnesota State system said it never sent money to the bogus students and removed them from its rolls,” reported Fox 9 in the Twin Cities.
That’s a typical Democrat lie: The money does not go directly to students. It goes to colleges, and the colleges then give it to “students.”
Whatever the bill “ghost students” pocketed directly, Minnesota definitely cost taxpayers $3 million extra. The Education Department gave $3 million in grants for the state to identify and crack down on ghost students in the future.
What’s more important, the Democrats continually look for new ways to fleece taxpayers to prop up their failing, quasi-socialist economies. Minnesota famously stole hundreds of millions of dollars from a federal food program. Some of the stolen funds went to al-Qaeda’s Somali terrorist affiliate, Al-Shabaab.
That touched off scrutiny of Somali-run daycares around the country, which Walz and the Democrats did nothing to stop.
Hundreds of staffers in Minnesota’s Department of Human Services—480 in all—accused Walz of ignoring and cover up fraud in his state. He even briefly arrested a Minnesota fraud investigator. The Horn told you about similar schemes in California, Maine, New York, and many other states nationwide—and the rip-offs just keep happening. On Thursday, the Trump administration busted illegal aliens in four cities for committing $1.4 million in federal benefit fraud.
President Trump wrote The Art of the Deal; Democrats perfected the art of the grift.
The Left has buried “ghost student” fraud long enough. It’s time to exorcise these ghosts and grifters from our wallets forever.