by Frank Holmes, reporter
Democrats have few beliefs, but there are a few things they will do anything to protect: fraud, grift, and their political futures.
California Governor Gavin Newsom just proved it when President Donald Trump exposed the way Newsom has been fraudulently leeching off illegal immigrants’ welfare checks. And based on the governor’s over-the-top reaction, that may just be the tip of the iceberg.
“Today, my wife and I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us,” said Newsom in a social media post Monday.
“He isn’t coming after me because of mean tweets,” said Newsom, “but because I am considering running for president.”
Sources have confirmed the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento has opened multiple investigations into Newsom and his wife, “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Naturally, when it comes to fraud, Democrats from all over the country—including Newsom’s leading opponents—circled the wagons.
Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime – they are simply trying to find one.
He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President.… pic.twitter.com/tVYk3WUvO8
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 15, 2026
“This attack on Gov. Newsom represents a dangerous escalation by Trump,” said Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who may run against Newsom for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in two years’ time.
“Welcome to the BS investigations club, Governor Newsom. You’re in good company,” said Minnesota Governor and 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who saw
“We are defiant and unbowed,” puffed fellow California windbag Adam Schiff.
Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari of Arizona accused the president of “emulating (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan.”
But Republicans
“No one deserves jail more,” said Nick Searcy.
“The fact that he’s announced this says a lot about what he knows they’ll find. Let’s go!” said one conservative online figure.
“This is great news for California,” said the Montgomery County, California, Republican Party.
But there are three problems with Newsom’s defensive-sounding video.
This is GREAT news for California. https://t.co/LrlD53eeXZ
— Monterey County Republican Party (@MCGOP_CA) June 15, 2026
First, according to sources, the investigation began under President Joe Biden.
Second, Newsom’s presidential hopes are going down the drain on their own: The governor placed a distant second place behind fellow California liberal Kamala Harris in a new poll from The Center Square. And the poll showed him losing significant support.
But Newsom’s biggest political problem won’t be the polls: It could be prison.
So far, federal prosecutors are remaining mum about what’s driving the investigations, which are said to include Mrs. Newsom’s taxes and actions taken by a former Newsom staffer. But a little-known government agency just blew the lid off yet another way the California governor is using illegal aliens to rob a program intended for the poorest Americans.
Almost one in every 10 dollars spent on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) goes to households headed by non-citizens who aren’t even eligible for the program, according a new report from the Office of Administration for Children and Families, nestled under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The money spent on foreign-born people in this program alone amounted to $759 million, send to 85,277 houses, in the 2024 fiscal year. Between FY 2001 and 2024, foreigners raided the TANF program for a cool $18.3 billion.
These welfare programs are only supposed to go to U.S. citizens, but Democrats found a loophole: If illegal aliens have an anchor baby, everyone in the house can cash in on federal tax dollars.
In fact, Democrats give illegal aliens on welfare better service than Americans. Under federal law, U.S. citizens can only receive TANF for a five-year lifetime limit, and many recipients must maintain a certain level of work or community service.
But since illegals name their U.S.-born child as the beneficiary, none of these limits apply.
“The result is a striking disparity: needy American families are held to TANF’s central work and time-limit rules, while households headed by immigration-status-ineligible parents can receive child-only cash assistance under a structure that bypasses those rules and can allow support to continue from birth through age 18,” the report says.
As a result, non-American adults account for more than 15 percent (or one in eight) of all California state TANF spending.
The number of illegals receiving welfare illegally has nearly doubled, the HHS report finds, from 5.8 percent of all TANF cases in 2001 to 10 percent in 2024. “The number of affected households increased from 123,941 in FY2001 to a peak of 221,203 in FY2010, and stood at 85,277 in FY2024,” it states.
At the same time, 91 percent of houses headed by non-citizens—77,982 houses in all—received taxpayer-funded food stamp benefits, known as SNAP.
Every Democratic state abuses these technicalities, but none worse than Gavin Newsom’s administration.
“California is the primary driver of the national totals. In FY2024, California accounted for about 59,622 affected households, or roughly 70% of the national total,” says the report. “No other state approached California’s combination of scale, concentration, and fiscal impact.”
Three-quarters of all non-citizen adults receiving TANF, or 76,428 of 106,148 non-recipient parents, live in California. Newsom’s California bags $617.5 million out of $759 million TANF spends on non-citizen households. The rest of the states don’t even approach Newsom’s level of extortion. New York ranks second, with $47.5 million, followed by Massachusetts and Washington state.
The taxpayers’ bill keeps rising, because the average California TANF check more than doubled over the last 11 years, from $408 in FY 2013 to $875 in FY 2024.
How does Gavin Newsom benefit? Those billions of dollars in ill-gotten cash plug the holes in Gavin Newsom’s terrible economy.
“Every dollar distributed through SNAP generates about $1.50 to $1.80 in economic activity,” said Sara Bleich, professor of health policy at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The Trump administration claims about the same is true for SNAP benefits.
In fact, illegals are major-league abusers of multiple federal welfare programs, according to the nation’s leading immigration experts.
The Center for Immigration Studies pored over data about the people who received U.S. taxpayer-funded welfare programs including TANF, SSI, SNAP, WIC, free/subsidized school meals, Medicaid, public/subsidized housing, or use of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). And it found that, between 2021 and 2025, illegal aliens were far more likely to use welfare than native-born Americans.
California isn’t alone; non-citizens take advantage of American taxpayer-funded welfare benefits more than U.S. citizens in 48 states.
But in California, nearly two-thirds, or “62 percent of non-citizen households use traditional welfare and/or are EITC/ACTC eligible compared to 38 percent for U.S.-born households, according to the CIS study published June 11.
All this means California’s stagnating economy is even worse than it seems, and that’s pretty bad.
Gavin Newsom’s liberal policies have caused a statewide affordability crisis. As a result, California has seen more people pack up and leave than any state in the union every year Newsom has been governor, according to U-Haul’s annual report.
Losing fraudulent money means losing even more people.
Will the last one out of California turn out the lights?
That explains why Newsom is fighting the Trump administration’s federal fraud crackdown.
In May, the Trump administration formed the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, led by Vice President J.D.Vance, closed about 800 hospices and home health agencies in Los Angeles for suspected Medicaid or Medicare fraud.
It had been a long time coming. “Americans across the country are paying for California’s rampant hospice fraud and vulnerable patients are being exploited,” members of the House Oversight wrote Newsom back in March. “Your administration has been aware of credible reports of hospice fraud for at least four years.”
It’s not just money. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich admitted Democratic governors use welfare fraud to buy votes—votes Newsom will need in 2028.
To make Newsom’s future even more hopeless, President Trump is also targeting immigration fraud for “refugees.”
Claims “like asylum are intended to cover unique and narrow circumstances, but it is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country,” said Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival in a press release announcing the new policy late last month.
Money, votes, and his future: Gavin Newsom could see it all go up in smoke. Still, he’s trying to act tough under pressure.
“Mr. President, come after me,” Newsom challenged President Trump on Monday.
After President Trump dries up the well of illegal alien welfare fraud, he very well may celebrate by putting Newsom, his wife, and his entire crooked administration behind bars.