SBA Freezes Minnesota Funding After $430M Fraud, CIA Strikes Venezuela, Bible Sales Surge

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Hey, what is up, Patriots and Happy New Year's Eve. Can you believe we are about to close out 2025? What a year it's been. I hope you're getting ready for whatever New Year celebrations you've got planned tonight. Me, I'll probably be working on some aspect of my podcast. The fiance has been under the weather the past few days, so I think the two of us are just going to have a quiet night in. Maybe watch the ball drop if we can stay awake that long. I'm getting old, Patriots.

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Well, this is O'Connor's Quick Strike and I'm John O'Connor. Three stories the mainstream media won't cover or will completely twist beyond recognition delivered in roughly 15 minutes or so. No fluff, no BS, no filler, just the unvarnished truth peppered with my own take on what's really going on. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Quick announcement for my Rumble and YouTube followers. And yes, I prefer Rumble, but I'll take what I can get.

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The full episode now drops at 9 a.m. Eastern on video platforms. Podcast listeners still get it at 6 a.m. Nothing changes for my podcast audience. Then throughout the day, I'll release story one at 11 a.m., story two at 2 p.m., and story three at 5 p.m. as individual clips. Same material, just chopped up to improve discoverability. Make sense? If not, DM me on X at O'Connor Podcasts.

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So today is Wednesday, December 31st, the last quick strike of 2025. And boy, do we have some stories to close out the year. First, we are covering the bombshell that dropped yesterday. The Small Business Administration just froze all federal funding to Minnesota after uncovering $430 million in fraudulent COVID loans. And get this, some of that money may have been funneled

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to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Then we are talking about Trump Venezuela campaign, because the CIA just conducted the first land strike inside Venezuela, hitting a drug port used by the same Trendy Agua gang Biden released into America. And we are closing on something hopeful for the new year. Bible sales have surged in 2025, and I think we all know why. The Charlie Kirk assassination woke

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people up. Let's get into it. Alright, Patriots. Remember on Monday when we talked about Nick Shirley exposing $110 million in Minnesota daycare fraud? Well, the federal government just dropped the hammer. Yesterday, December 30th, Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler announced she is pausing all annual funding to Minnesota. Not some of it, all of it. Why?

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because SBA investigators uncovered $430 million in fraudulent COVID-era loans. They found 13,600 loans that were flagged for fraud, but approved anyway. That's just what they found in the first few days of investigating. Loeffler put out a statement that absolutely destroyed Tim Walz. This administration will not continue to hand out blank checks to fraudsters.

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Minnesota cannot be trusted to administer federal tax dollars. But here's where this gets really dark, patriots, and I want you to pay close attention to this part. Some of that stolen money, your tax dollars, may have been sent to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is now investigating whether Minnesota welfare fraud money was funneled to Al-Shabaab through a network of informal money traders called Hawalas.

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These are clan-based systems that the Somali community uses to send money back to Somalia. According to the City Journal, which has been doing incredible investigative work on this, an estimated 40 % of households in Somalia receive money from abroad. In 2023 alone, the Somali Dyspora sent back 1.7 billion. That's more than the Somali government's entire budget.

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And here's the quote that should make your blood run cold. A confidential law enforcement source told the City Journal, the largest funder of Al Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer. Just think about that. Americans in Minnesota, hardworking people paying their taxes, are unknowingly funding a terrorist organization. The same kind of terrorist organization that killed Americans in Benghazi. The same kind that we've been fighting for two decades.

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So how did we get here? DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sent ICE agents to Minneapolis. They are going door to door at suspected fraud sites. The FBI under Director Kash Patel has surged personnel. And now Kelly Loeffler at SBA has cut off the money spigot completely. Loeffler also revealed that $3 million in PPP loans went to organizations that have been indicted.

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Groups like Feeding Our Future and Action for East African People, these aren't just under investigation, they have been charged. And they got $3 million in federal loans. Do know what Loeffler said about this? She said, Minnesota's welfare system is designed to pump out funding without accountability. Those are her exact words. So here's my question for you, Patriots. If your state government was enabling fraud on this scale,

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If your tax dollars were potentially funding terrorists, wouldn't you demand that every single person involved gets prosecuted? Wouldn't you demand that the governor be held accountable? Because here's what bothers me. This isn't just about money. This is about safety. Al-Shabaab isn't some street gang. They are legitimate terrorist threat. They have killed Americans. They recruit in Minneapolis. We've covered this on the show before.

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And our tax dollars may have been funding them. CNN's Abby Phillip tried defending Minnesota Monday night. This isn't a cover-up. The Star Tribune has done over 300 stories since 2015. Really? 300 stories over 10 years and the fraud got worse. If the media and state officials were doing their jobs, why did it take one YouTuber to expose $110 million in just one day?

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The federal government is stepping in because Minnesota has failed. And now every single federal dollar going to that state has been frozen until they can prove they are not just handing taxpayer money to criminals and terrorists. This is what happens when Democrats prioritize political correctness over law enforcement. This is what happens when you are more afraid of being called a racist than you are of a billion dollar fraud scheme.

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And Patriots, I'll tell you this, I don't think Minnesota is the only state with this problem. You think California doesn't have fraud like this? New York? Illinois? Washington state? The only reason we know about Minnesota is because people finally started looking. How much fraud is happening in your state where nobody's paying attention? Two. All right, let's shift to Venezuela because Trump just escalated this fight. Monday.

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President Trump confirmed the US struck a drug facility in Venezuela. Not a boat in international waters, we've done 30 of those already. This was Venezuelan land. A CIA drone attack on a coastal drug port. The first known US attack on Venezuelan soil. Trump revealed this in a radio interview Friday and confirmed more details Monday during his press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Here's what Trump said, quote,

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They have a big facility where ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out. There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. We hit all the boats and now we hit the area. It's the implementation area that is no longer around. The target was a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast used by the Tren de Agua gang. Remember them? That's that brutal Venezuelan gang that Biden's administration let into America.

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They are responsible for murders, kidnappings, human trafficking across the United States. And they use this dock to load cocaine onto boats for smuggling. According to CNN, which got the story from anonymous sources, the CIA carried out the strike and there were no casualties because nobody was at the facility when it was hit. Now the White House won't officially confirm this because it was covert, but Trump told us what we need to know.

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We have covered Venezuela extensively on this show as well as the O'Connor's Right Stand podcast. The 20 billion they owe us, the blockade, the 15,000 troops deployed. But this, this is different. This is Trump following through on promises he's been making since November. On Thanksgiving, Trump told military personnel, quote, we'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon.

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On December 11th, he told reporters at the White House, operations are going to be starting on land pretty soon. And 13 days later, it happened. So here's the question. What comes next? Because if Trump just took out a drug loading facility, what's next? I drug labs, weapons depots, airstrips? The international support is growing. Argentina's President Javier Malé, who's been

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become one of Trump's biggest allies, publicly endorse these operations. He said the world would be a better place without Venezuelan communism. Chile just elected a conservative president, José Antonio Cast, who said if someone's going to take out Maduro, they would solve for us and for all of Latin America a giant problem. Even Brazil's leftist president Lula, who used to support Maduro, has turned on him over election fraud.

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Maduro is isolated and Trump is tightening the noose. 30 strikes, over 107 killed, two tankers seized, full blockade, and now land strikes. Trump's not playing games. He's collecting the $20 billion in debt Venezuela owes us. They have been ordered by international courts to pay us this. They have refused. So Trump is seizing assets and destroying their terror infrastructure.

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But here's what I want you to think about. Trump promised land strikes. They started. He promised a blockade. It's in place. He promised tanker Caesars. Done. What else has he promised? He said Maduro's days are numbered. Is this building towards regime change? Either way, America is done letting narco-terrorists operate 1,500 miles from our coast. This is what American strength looks like, patriots.

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All right, Patriots, let's close out 2025 on something hopeful, something that shows me maybe, just maybe, America's soul isn't completely lost. Bible sales have surged in 2025. According to a report from the Daily Caller, total print book sales hit 707 million units this year through mid-December. That's only three million less than the pandemic-era peak in 2021.

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and it's 57 million more than 2019. But here's the really important part. Bibles specifically are one of the top selling categories. Now, the mainstream media won't tell you why this is happening. They'll just report the numbers and move on. But I think we all know exactly why Americans are turning back to faith. September 10th, 2025. Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University.

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shot and killed in broad daylight while speaking to a crowd of roughly 3,000 people. And that moment, that horrific moment, shocked conservative America to its core. Charlie Kirk wasn't just a political activist. He was a leader. He built Turning Point USA from nothing into one of the most influential conservative organizations in America. He brought conservative voices to college campuses where they'd been silenced for decades.

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and someone murdered him for it. I remember where I was when I heard the news. I remember the sick feeling in my stomach. I remember thinking, they actually did it. They killed him. And I think millions of Americans had the same reaction because we all knew what this meant. We all knew we were living in a time where political violence wasn't just possible anymore. It was real. But you know what else happened after Charlie Kirk died?

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I think people started asking deeper questions. Questions about meaning, about purpose, about what we are actually fighting for. Because if you're willing to kill someone over politics, politics has become your religion. And if politics is your religion, then you have lost your soul. And I think a lot of Americans, especially conservatives, realized we need to get back to what actually matters. Faith.

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family and truth. I'll be honest with you, Patriots. I've busted out my Bible over the last few months. I haven't been as consistent with reading it as I should be, but I've been trying. Because after everything that's happened this year, the assassination, the political chaos, the division, I need something solid to stand on. And I know I'm not alone. Independent bookstores are seeing massive traffic.

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The CEO of the American Booksellers Association said people are shopping in alignment with their values. But I think it's simpler than that. I think people are searching for truth in a world full of lies. The mainstream media lies, social media lies, politicians lie, all lies. But the word of God, that doesn't change. That's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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I think Charlie Kirk's death reminded people of that. Because here's the thing, Charlie Kirk lived his faith. He wasn't perfect. None of us are. But he stood for something bigger than himself. He stood for truth and he died for it. His assassination wasn't just a tragedy. It was a wake-up call. It reminded us that we are in a spiritual battle, not just a political one. Spiritual.

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And you can't fight a spiritual battle with political tactics. You fight it with faith. So as we close out 2025 and head into 2026, I want to ask you something, Patriots. What are you standing on? When everything else falls apart, when the politics get ugly, when the media lies, when the world feels like it's going insane, what is your foundation? Because if it's just politics,

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you are going to crumble. But if it's faith, you will stand firm. Charlie Kirk's legacy isn't just turning point USA. It's not just the millions of young conservatives he inspired. His legacy is reminding us what we are really fighting for, truth, freedom, and faith. And judging by these Bible sales, I think America is starting to remember that. So here's my challenge for you as we head into the new year.

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Pick up a Bible, read it, even if it's just a few verses a day. Find a church, get involved. Because the real battle isn't Republican versus Democrat, it's good versus evil, truth versus lies, light versus darkness. And we are going to need more than politics to win this fight. So there you have it, Patriots, three stories to close out 2025.

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The Small Business Administration froze all funding to Minnesota after uncovering $430 million in fraud. And some of that money may have funded the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The FBI and ICE are now conducting raids. And guess what? Tim Walz? He's silent. The CIA conducted the first land strike inside Venezuela, destroying a drug port used by the Trende Agua gang. Trump's following through on his promises. And Maduro's regime? Well...

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They are running out of options. And Bible sales have surged in 2025 as Americans search for truth and meaning after the Charlie Kirk assassination reminded us what we are really fighting for. These are the stories the mainstream media either won't tell you or will completely distort when they do cover them. That's why you're here. That's why O'Connor's Quick Strike exists. I want to thank you for an incredible 2025. This show wouldn't exist without you.

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Every listen, every share, and every message of support, it means the world to me. We will be back on Friday, January 2nd, 2026, with the first Quick Strike of the new year. This is O'Connor's Quick Strike and I'm John O'Connor. Hold the line, Patriots, and Happy New Year!