The 24-year-old from Utah has been described as a "right-wing" YouTube influencer, and as an independent journalist, since playing a key role in exposing fraud within taxpayer-funded childcare programs in Minnesota.
Last year, the day after Christmas Day, Shirley posted a roughly 43-minute video describing how he visited 10 childcare facilities in Minneapolis. Many of them are operated by residents of the city’s sizable Somali immigrant population, and Shirley was there at the invitation of city resident David Hoch to investigate whether the businesses receiving public funding were actually caring for children.
Hock, a local businessman, told Fox News Radio he was an eyewitness to the fraud that was happening, out in the open, with any government punishment, in his city. After getting Shirley to come there, he lead the young man around Minneapolis to point it out.
Shirley alleged the sites he visited were part of a broader scandal involving more than $100 million in fraud.
“When I posted that Minnesota fraud video, I went to the gym. Everyone was talking about the video. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get back and post it on X.’ I got it on X, and within two days it had 100 million views. Within a week it had over 4 billion views across the world,” Shirley told a gathering of the University of Mississippi Turning Point USA chapter Tuesday night.
The video went viral, drawing attention from Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and other Trump administration officials.
Federal authorities were already investigating fraud in Minnesota, and the video intensified scrutiny of childcare providers.
It caught the attention of the state auditor in Mississippi, too.
“We in the state auditor’s office, we now watch Nick’s videos. We’ll take what he does, and we’ll look for the same stuff in Mississippi. Now other state auditors are copying our audits. Nick was the first domino to fall in what I think will be a generational movement against fraud in government,” Shad White said.
As Shirley’s video lit up the internet, federal scrutiny increased as investigators uncovered serious fraud including at two of the 10 places named by Shirley.
One center in the video, Quality Learning Center in Minneapolis, closed in January, according to state records. The center received $1.9 million from Minnesota's Child Care Assistance Program in fiscal year 2025, the state said.
A guilty plea
The Feeding Our Future case, involving approximately $300 million in alleged fraudulent federal child-nutrition claims, was not targeted by Shirley — though some sites he visited operated meal sites associated with the program — but became a focal point of federal findings. Investigation into that case had been ongoing for years, according to The Associated Press.
Fahima Egeh Mahamud, a childcare operator featured in Shirley’s video, would later plead guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy as part of the Feeding Our Futures case.
In April, federal and state authorities executed 22 search warrants at childcare centers and other businesses including at least two locations featured in Shirley’s video. Agents seized records and other evidence.
In May, federal prosecutors announced findings of more than $90 million of intended losses in alleged fraud. It was unclear how much of the uncovered fraud was directly related to Shirley’s video.
State officials on Dec. 29 said they had 55 open investigations related to the Child Care Assistance Program. They also said previous investigations involving some of the centers Shirley featured had not produced findings of fraud.
State review finds compliant daycares
Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown said each of the 10 facilities featured in Shirley's video had been visited by state officials at least once during the preceding six months as part of routine licensing checks.
Brown said the previous visits were unannounced, children were present at each facility, and the number of children was consistent with what the state expected.
After Shirley's video was published, the state initiated follow-up reviews of all 10 facilities. By Jan. 2, investigators had conducted on-site compliance checks at nine of them, finding that the centers were operating as expected. Children were present at eight sites; the ninth had not yet opened for the day. The remaining facility had been closed previously.
The state earlier this year had 55 open investigations related to the Child Care Assistance Program.
That everything-is-fine conclusion was met with intense skepticism by the Trump administration, which has launched investigations into the Feeding our Future program and the Child Care Assistance Program.
Shirley told the Turning Point crowd that Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar, the subject of an ongoing federal investigation, is at the epicenter of fraud in Minnesota.
“Ilhan Omar is the queen leader. Like, literally. She is the one who passed the bill to get all the money to the place that has like $250 million in food frauds. She is extremely corrupt, and I do hope she gets deported,” he said.
The fact that Shirley’s Minnesota video has caused a stir worldwide is significant, he said.
“Everyone has to be looking and saying, ‘Oh my God, look at all this fraud taking place in the U.S. Aren’t they the beacon of success?’”
The Walz effect
He began to more fully understand the magnitude of his work when he found himself in the crosshairs of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the former vice president candidate. After the video Walz voluntarily ended his reelection campaign for the Minnesota statehouse.
“Tim Walz said, ‘This kid is doing the work of white supremacy.’ But I was not, and I was not the governor of Minnesota who dropped a reelection (bid) after the fraud was exposed,” Shirley said.
Lacking formal journalism training, Shirley’s primary tools became his camera and his drive.
After the video, Shirley became the subject of at least a half dozen investigations from media outlets including CBS News, The Minnesota Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio.
Earlier this month, Shirley was at the White House to receive a $10,000 award when the Trump administration announced the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP).
The administration credited Shirley's video with drawing attention to alleged fraud in Minnesota.
“He’s the founder of a movement in the U.S. that started in Minnesota, then he went to California, to Brazil, to the White House … he’s the leader of a movement I believe will change this country,” White said.
Shirley, who had previously reported from the southern border, has modest goals for his work.
“I’m not going to put a twist on it. I just show people what’s going on.”
He encouraged Ole Miss students to be aware of their surroundings and work to make them better.
“I’ve seen first-hand you can actually go out and make a difference. I feel I have accomplished something pretty significant, just to show people you can make a change in your own community. That’s what I like to do,” he said.
