The Trump administration is preparing to slam the door on a practice that should never have been tolerated in the first place: welfare recipients wiring American tax dollars out of the country — potentially straight into the hands of terrorists.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out the plan Thursday night on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, announcing a new requirement aimed squarely at cutting off international money transfers tied to public assistance.
From now on, anyone attempting to wire money overseas through a “money service business” will be required to disclose whether they are receiving public assistance. And if they are? The days of sending that money abroad may be over.
“From now on, anyone who wires money out, from one of these money service businesses, has to check a box saying whether they are on public assistance,” Bessent said. “And if you are on public assistance, we’re going to start pushing that you cannot wire money out of the country.”
Yes — common sense has officially re-entered the Treasury Department.
When host Laura Ingraham asked what happens if welfare recipients simply lie on the form, Bessent didn’t hesitate.
“We’re going to follow it up and we’re going to push [so] that you can no longer do that,” he said. “The American people — our generosity — has been taken advantage of.”
That may be the understatement of the year.
Ingraham noted growing concerns that U.S. taxpayer dollars could be indirectly funding al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist organization aligned with al-Qaida, or even Iranian-linked interests. Bessent’s response was blunt and revealing.
“The money is supposed to go for alleged asylum seekers and their families and children,” he said. “And if you are wiring the money out of the country, one of two things must be true: you are getting too much money and your benefits should be cut, or you are part of this conspiracy.”
“And either way,” he added, “we’re going to find out. That’s what Treasury does.”
Indeed, Treasury has already been following the money — particularly in Minnesota, where investigators are probing what Bessent has described as an estimated $9 billion Somali-linked fraud scandal involving welfare and public benefit programs.
The department has been examining for more than a month whether taxpayer funds siphoned off under the Biden administration and Gov. Tim Walz were sent overseas — possibly to terror-linked networks.
In a December tweet, Bessent put it plainly: Treasury was “investigating allegations that under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.”
At a Friday press conference in Minneapolis, Bessent confirmed that Treasury investigators are already tracing where the money went and auditing financial institutions that may have failed to follow basic anti–money laundering laws.
Translation: the era of looking the other way is over.
For years, taxpayers were told to shut up, pay up, and trust the system — while that same system quietly allowed billions to disappear overseas. Under President Trump, that scam is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves.
And for welfare fraudsters wiring cash abroad? The message from Treasury is crystal clear: your loophole just closed.
