AP News70%
FACT FOCUS: Trump blames Minnesota governor for cyberattacks against the state. Cites no evidence 23%
By MELISSA GOLDIN30%
7/31/2026, 12:50:39 PM
Keywords: Tim Walz, Donald Trump, Minnesota, Joe Biden, Cybercrime, Maryland, Iran War, Fact Check Trump Minnesota Prescriptions Immigration, Elon Musk, Utilities, Iran, Politics, Consumer Prices, Prescription Drugs, Health Care Costs, Immigration, United States Government, U S Federal Bureau Of Investigation
BS Summary: This article contains 22 faulty reasoning types, including Post Hoc (False Cause), Appeal to Authority, and Overconfidence Bias, with Burden of Proof as the most egregious example at 35.4% saturation with 171 hits. Analysis detected 879 faulty-reasoning hits from 483 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 31.9% and a BS Rank of 23% (19,399 of 25,189 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 77.00% of the article peer group.
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.
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.”
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.
Analysis
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