Tim Walz’s daughter says family targeted with ‘hate and bot’ campaign

Minnesota Governor and former vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s daughter, Hope, has said that her family have been targeted with a “hate and bot” campaign.

In a video shared to TikTok on December 29, Hope Walz said, “I’ll be honest in saying, having the entire right-wing infrastructure launch a hate and bot campaign against you and your family, really sucks.”                    

Newsweek has contacted a representative for Hope Walz outside of regular working hours via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Tim Walz was Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket in 2024. The eldest child of Tim Walz, Hope, made multiple appearances on the campaign trail with her father, with content she shared regularly going viral.

Hope Walz herself does not work in politics, but following the reelection of President Donald Trump in 2024, she amassed more than half a million followers on TikTok, sharing content which her followers have used as a how-to guide on how to navigate Trump’s second term.

Hope Walz’s video comes amid a mounting fraud scandal in Minnesota, which in turn has seen a significant amount of criticism leveled at her father. The scandal erupted after more than 60 people were convicted over involvement with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a federally funded nutrition program during the coronavirus pandemic, which involved the nonprofit “Feeding Our Future.”

The fraud case has drawn criticism from Republicans and the Trump administration. The case has become culturally fraught: 82 of the 92 defendants are Somali Americans, as per The Associated Press. Trump referred to Somali Americans as “garbage,” and accused Minnesota’s Somali population of “ripping off” the state, as the case began to make national news.

What To Know

Speaking in the video, which as of press time has been viewed over 140,000 times, Hope Walz emphasized that she is a private citizen, but has received what she described as an “extreme” and “overwhelming” volume of direct messages, emails and comments, which she said were “peddling propaganda,” and “pushing agendas.”

“I guess, with this administration and at this point in time, harassing people on the internet is OK,” she said.

She then shared a warning about the impact that negative online comments of this ilk can have. “This is how people get hurt,” she said. “It really is.”

“I honestly never thought it was going to be me,” she added. Hope Walz highlighted that she has a “great support system,” and said that she is “very confident in who I am as a person and the work I do.”  

“But living in like a post-truth world is really scary,” she said.

Hope Walz has regularly spoken out against Trump, the administration, ICE raids, and recently called Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, “embarrassing and gross.” Beyond sharing political content, Walz shares outfit videos and sports related content.

It’s not the first time that she has spoken about bots on her TikTok. In a video posted on December 4, she said, “The bots on this app lately are insane.”

In that video, she referenced the Minnesota fraud fallout and the response from the Trump administration. “I’ve literally never had so many bots in my comments. I don’t know, I think it’s because Trump decided that Minnesota is something he’s gonna go after and be, like, extremely racist to a really awesome community in Minnesota.”

While Hope Walz did not explicitly reference the fraud scandal in this most recent TikTok video, social media users have interpreted her comments as a reference to that fallout.

Hope Walz has comments turned off on her videos.

What People Are Saying

Hope Walz, speaking in the TikTok video: “I am hopeful for the future, we have a lot of work to do to like get to a point where people don’t just believe what their leader tells them to and like spin reality to fit that, and instead like have empathy and critical thinking. But yeah, I’m gonna continue to do my own thing, I just felt the need to say that.”

Tim Walz, addressing the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, on December 12: “We are a state that chooses not to let people go hungry or homeless or uneducated. However, that generosity has been taken advantage of by an organized group of fraudsters and criminals. Minnesota’s longstanding high standards of integrity of public funds go hand in hand with a culture of generosity. You can’t have one without the other.”

Gunther Eagleman, a right-wing political commentator who has over 1 million followers on X, in a post on X: “Tim Walz’s daughter Hope is now LOSING HER MIND after the entirety of the internet is LASHING OUT over the massive fraud discovered by Nick Shirley. She claims it’s all a “hate and bot campaign.” Americans HATE corruption and will speak out!”

Brian Krassenstein, a left-wing political commentator, in a post on X viewed over 100,000 times: “Hope Walz hits the nail on the head here. The people pretending to be concerned with fraud and somehow blame Walz for it are the ones who literally voted for fraud.”

Eric Daughtery, a media personality and right-wing commentator, in a post on X viewed over 400,000 times: “Fraud Father Tim Walz’s daughter is now FURIOUSLY accusing MAGA of stoking violence by exposing Somali fraud under Tim’s watch.”

President Donald Trump on Truth Social: “Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!”

What Happens Next?

FBI Director Kash Patel has said that the agency will continue to investigate fraud in Minnesota.