Trump is giving Nick Shirley $10,000 and launching a $25 million fraud bounty program

Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was giving right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley $10,000 and launching a $25 million bounty program for members of the public to report fraud.

In December 2025, Shirley published a viral video alleging fraud at daycares in Minnesota that were operated by members of the local Somali community. Shirley lingered in parking lots and asked to enter childcare centers, taking refusals as evidence that the centers weren’t actually caring for children. The video quickly went viral, triggering a massive governmental response: Federal immigration agents descended on the Minneapolis area, and the Trump administration froze Minnesota’s federal funding for childcare. Shirley has since visited other states in the US under similar pretenses, showing up unannounced to grocery stores and hospice centers in search of evidence of fraud. Vance and others in the administration publicly praised Shirley, who has since become a mainstay in the MAGA-aligned content creator ecosystem. He’s helped popularize a genre of so-called independent journalism popular on the right in which content creators and influencers confront businesses or people they suspect of fraud or crime as the basis for their online content. Harassment — or even immigration crackdowns — often follow.

The administration told Fox News that it was also launching the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program (WHIP), a pool of $25 million open to anyone who believes they’ve witnessed fraud. A “particular emphasis” is placed on fraud in hospice, home healthcare, daycares, and special services, a government website says. A chatbot collecting responses instructs the reporting party: “Briefly describe what you saw, heard, or read. A few sentences are enough. Include names, dates, amounts, or records if you have them, and how you know. Note any details you’re unsure about.”

According to Fox News and the reporting portal, members of the public who flag fraud are eligible to get up to $30,000 if a tip submitted leads to a conviction or significant federal action. But speaking on Tuesday, Trump contradicted the $30,000 ceiling.

”If you turn somebody in and … you find $1 billion, we are giving a commission to that person of 1 percent,” Trump said today. (One percent of $1 billion would exceed the $30,000 cap.) “And if it’s $10 billion, $200 billion, $400 billion, we’re giving a 1 percent commission to that person,” Trump continued.

The White House didn’t immediately clarify how the $10,000 payment to Shirley was calculated or how the program is being funded in the first place.

Shirley’s methods have been criticized particularly in Minnesota, where sweeping fraud investigations were already taking place before he arrived to make content. He accused businesses of faking childcare services based on little more than being denied entry to facilities, and — to the frustration of many — acted as if his video was the first fraud investigation in the state. Subsequent state official visits to the centers Shirley featured found them operating “as expected.”

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.