Trump calls Minnesota's food stamp program ‘giant Democrat scam’

US President Donald Trump on Thursday called the food stamp program in the state of Minnesota, known as SNAP, a "giant Democrat scam," following a federal judge's decision to block his administration from withholding $80 million to administer the program.

"California, Illinois, New York, and so many other places are equally as bad. It's all a giant Democrat scam, with protection from the fake news media," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

In Minnesota, investigations are underway into allegations of misuse of funds allocated under SNAP, particularly in Minneapolis, after federal authorities said that some businesses were not actually operating and were abusing federal funds.

"Does anybody believe that in Minneapolis (the state's largest city), these are the food stamp businesses? There's no food, there's no cleanliness, there's no service, there's no nothing, except fraud," said Trump.

"They get sent millions of dollars of taxpayer money, and laugh at how stupid the Americans are, but not anymore," he claimed.

Critics say that since Trump returned to office this January, his administration has used allegations of fraud with scant evidence as an excuse to cut off funding and cancel programs the Republican Party dislikes, or punish Democratic-led states. They say that in contrast, reports of corruption within Trump's Cabinet and the executive office are never investigated.

"These people should be sent back to Somalia, or any other country from where they came," Trump added.

Trump has long been critical of migrants from Somali and African migrants in general, and has used insulting language about the continent and its people, while saying there should be more white South African migrants and ones from "nice" countries "like Denmark (or) Switzerland."

On Wednesday Trump said that his administration will suspend federal funding for sanctuary cities and states-which limit or deny cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law-starting Feb. 1, as part of its ongoing immigration crackdown.

The move follows the fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, an incident that has sparked a political backlash and calls for state officials to be involved in the FBI's investigation.

Trump administration officials later described the victim, Renee Good, as a domestic terrorist.