Trump Blames Minnesota Governor for Cyberattacks without Evidence

During a Cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that recent cyberattacks in Minnesota were the fault of the state, including Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.

Trump also repeated myriad false claims that have become part of his regular talking points, about topics such as immigration, foreign conflicts and prescription drug prices.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

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TRUMP, on cyberattacks in Minnesota: “I think that Minnesota is behind it. You know who’s behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I think the governor is behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyber attack.”

THE FACTS: Authorities have not yet publicly identified the source of cyberattacks targeting over 30 water systems in Minnesota on Sunday and Monday.

However, the attacks came as security authorities have warned that Iranian hackers have been focused on targeting such systems. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies said in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls of other critical infrastructure sectors.

Trump offered no evidence for blaming Minnesota, including Walz in particular, who have been at odds with the White House on immigration enforcement and other issues. Asked for evidence to support Trump’s allegations, the White House referred to his comments at the Cabinet meeting.

Cynthia Kaiser, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division and current senior vice president of Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center, told The Associated Press that Iran has the “geopolitical motivations” and a recent history of targeting water systems.

She added: “I think most credible researchers and responders would be right to treat it like it’s Iran until proven otherwise.”

Iran’s interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New York City.

Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how to install the latest software patches or take other security steps. That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.

After the Cabinet meeting concluded, Walz posted on X: “Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too. This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.”

Walz also blamed the Trump administration’s short-lived Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, for gutting the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and leaving the U.S. “exposed to cyber attacks.”

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TRUMP: “The prescription drugs were going through the roof for many years, and now we’re getting record discounts with price differences of 300, 400, 500, 600%.”

THE FACTS: This is impossible, and a claim Trump makes often. Although the Trump administration has taken steps to lower drug prices, cutting them by more than 100% would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications.

Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center, said last year that this claim is “total fiction” made up by the president. He agreed that it would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around.

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TRUMP: “The biggest thing, the worst thing that Biden did is allowing 25 million people into our country.”

THE FACTS: This figure is highly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports more than 10.8 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through December 2024, under former President Joe Biden.

That’s arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

Trump has repeatedly made similar claims, often with varying numbers.

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TRUMP: “I ended eight wars.”

THE FACTS: This statistic, which Trump cites frequently as one of his accomplishments, is quite exaggerated. Although he has helped mediate relations among many nations, his impact isn’t as clear-cut as he makes it seem. In at least two instances of peace he claims credit for achieving, there were no wars to end.

The conflicts Trump counts among those he has solved are between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Jamie Stengle contributed to this report.

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.