The Trump administration’s crusade against purported systemic fraud against liberals has largely looked like a racist project.
To promote such claims, the White House has relied in part on activists like Nick Shirley, who has targeted Somali Americans with unproven allegations of fraud and promoted a blatantly antisemitic video about a “Jewish invasion” in New Jersey. Trump, a man found liable for fraud in civil court and convicted of fraudulent activity in criminal court, has himself gone on repeated racist rants about Somali immigrants engaging in fraud. And his administration has launched a bogus fraud indictment against the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, charges that some conservatives are using to downplay the existence of racist extremism.
Amid all of this, Arizona Republicans are dealing with a scandal over a massive school voucher initiative they backed, with accusations of scammy and fraudulent behavior happening for years.
Arizona’s billion-dollar Empowerment Scholarship Account has set aside mountains of cash for parents and guardians to send children to private schools — which Brookings has described as a “handout to the wealthy.” Nevertheless, national Republicans, including at The Heritage Foundation, have portrayed the effort as a model for other states.
Unfortunately for MAGA world, the ESA program has become a public relations disaster. Just last week, an Arizona mother pleaded guilty to collecting nearly $30,000 in ESA funds after moving to Texas. And Arizona’s auditor general recently unearthed what a Phoenix television station described as “explosive findings.” As KPNX-TV explained:
The findings echoed previous investigations by 12News, which uncovered widespread misuse of ESA funds by tens of thousands of account holders.
According to reporting by 12News Investigates, at least 20% of ESA parents last year improperly spent approximately $10 million in taxpayer funds — including purchases involving luxury items like iPhones, widescreen TVs and Kenmore appliances.
The auditor general found questionable purchases of prohibited expenses, such as hotel stays, airline tickets and amusement park tickets. A school voucher program funding theme park visits? It’s hard to imagine a more on-the-nose example of taxpayers being taken for a ride.
In a statement, Arizona’s schools chief, Tom Horne, defended the ESA program, saying it was being “falsely and unfairly attacked by its critics.”
Before the auditor general’s report dropped, Arizona Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh gave an interview in which he essentially boasted that the ESA program was working as intended. But in remarks published Monday by KPNX, he reversed his stance, saying there were “substantial questions about the accuracy of my understanding.”
I believe that’s senator-speak for, “Whoops, me and my supposedly fraud-averse party backed a billion-dollar voucher program that rich folks are using to buy TVs and Disneyland tickets.”
Keep this in mind the next time Trump officials pat themselves on the back for thwarting purported fraud. The MAGA movement’s selective outrage on this front is quite revealing.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.