The FBI, the EPA, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have stopped short of officially blaming Iran for a spate of cyberattacks on Minnesota’s water systems, but consensus is that Iran is likely behind them. That, of course, hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from sharing his own theory — that Governor Tim Walz is to blame and telling reporters that “I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.”
Trump’s comments come shortly after the FBI issued a warning that the cyberattacks on American infrastructure were spreading to other states. In Minnesota alone, at least 30 community water systems had been targeted in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. The CISA has linked similar attacks earlier in the year to Iran, which has been the target of an on-again-off-again war waged by the US government. With limited military options, Iran has repeatedly turned to digital efforts to become a thorn in the side of the Trump administration and wage a PR war.
Trump has lashed out frequently at Minnesota and Walz during his second term and even threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act against it during a surge of ICE enforcement efforts in the state that left multiple people dead.