Exclusive – ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams Rips Tim Walz over Heartless ‘Orphan Tax’

The Trump administration’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is calling out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for hypocrisy as his state is among those diverting the Social Security Survivor Benefits of orphaned children to pay for child welfare costs.

ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams brought attention to this issue in December, writing a letter to 39 states calling on them to protect the benefits of these children rather than using those funds to offset other costs. Oftentimes, state welfare agencies will take these earned survivor benefits — intended to go directly to the children — and use them to reimburse themselves.

A 2025 document titled “Benefits for Children” from the Social Security Administration explicitly states that, “If a child receives survivors benefits, they can get up to 75 percent of the deceased parent’s basic Social Security benefit.”

Essentially, Adams, under the leadership of the Trump administration, is urging governors to step it up and work with their respective states to ensure that orphans actually receive the survivor benefits they are entitled to receive.

Failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who is currently embroiled in Somali fraud scandals in his state, is among those the ACF is calling out, particularly given the fact that he gushed over how helpful the benefits were to his family personally.

Speaking at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Walz mentioned the “mountain of medical debt” his family faced from his father’s battle with lung cancer, remarking, “thank[s] God for Social Security survivor benefits.”

Yet, his state continues to take these benefits out of the pockets of these children. While other states have taken steps to rectify this, to date Minnesota has failed to take any meaningful action under Walz’s leadership.

“Governor Walz has talked openly about the dignity of receiving Social Security survivors benefits, and the Administration for Children and Families has advocated that that same dignity be extended to orphans in state foster care,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams told Breitbart News.

He continued, “To the extent Governor Walz views this moral issue as a budget issue, Minnesota could easily close any perceived budget gap by eliminating even just a tiny fraction of the widespread fraud observed in the state.”

According to the Imprint, Minnesota counties actually received “$2.79 million in benefits meant for foster youth in 2022, according to a legislative report released last year.” And with failure to act before the end of the state’s legislative session, which ends May 18, orphaned foster children will have to wait even longer to get the benefits that they are rightfully entitled to.

“At HHS, our guiding principle is simple: every child deserves a home and a fair chance to thrive. But when state agencies stack the deck against children, we step in,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement last year amid Adams sending that letter to 39 states, urging them to stop this practice.

He added, “In the Trump Administration, we are committed to ensuring every child in America has the chance to reach their full potential.”