In a move that surprised absolutely nobody currently breathing, Donald Trump has once again deployed the 'distraction' card, accusing Minnesota’s political elite of using ICE protests as a convenient smoke screen for state-level fraud. It’s a masterclass in recursive irony: a man who has practically patented the art of the tactical diversion is now accusing his rivals of being too good at the same game.

Let’s look at the players. On one side, you have Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar, politicians who know exactly which buttons to press to keep their base energized. Protesting ICE is the political equivalent of playing the hits; it’s loud, it’s visible, and it keeps the cameras pointed away from boring things like balance sheets and administrative oversight. On the other side, you have Trump, who isn’t exactly a stranger to using a megaphone to drown out a subpoena.

The accusation is that the Democrats are using the emotional high-ground of immigration protests to bury investigations into massive state fraud. Whether the fraud is as 'massive' as claimed or just the usual bureaucratic leakage we’ve come to expect from any government office is almost beside the point. In the theater of the absurd we call modern politics, the reality of the fraud matters less than the utility of the accusation.

Trump isn’t pointing this out because he’s a champion of fiscal transparency; he’s pointing it out because it fits the narrative of the 'radical left' being both incompetent and devious—a neat little trick if you can pull it off. Meanwhile, Walz and Omar get to play the roles of the persecuted progressives, standing up to the big, bad federal machine. It’s a symbiotic relationship. They need his attacks to prove they’re doing something, and he needs their 'distractions' to give his supporters something to be outraged about.

In the end, the American public is left watching a game of three-card monte where every card is a joker. The fraud remains unexamined, the ICE operations continue their grinding gears, and the political class continues to swap accusations like trading cards. It’s not a conspiracy; it’s just the business model. And business, as they say, is booming.