Trump Blames Minnesota, Not Iran, for the Cyberattack That Hit More Than 30 of Its Water Systems

At a Cabinet meeting held at Camp David on July 31, President Trump rejected reports that Iran-linked hackers were behind cyber activity that affected control technology at more than 30 Minnesota community water systems earlier that week. "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack, and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so," he told reporters. "I think I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent." He added that "Iran should be so lucky," and directed criticism at Gov. Tim Walz. Minnesota IT Services said the state had not attributed the activity to any specific actor and that the investigation was active. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned on July 30 of a significant increase in threat actors targeting programmable logic controllers at water utilities, and the FBI said it had received reports of similar incidents in at least seven states.

Attribution of a cyber intrusion normally follows technical analysis that investigators said was still under way. A president assigning public blame to a state government while federal agencies decline to name an actor sits awkwardly with the incident-response process his own agencies were running, and shifts a critical-infrastructure question onto partisan ground before the facts are settled.

Walz responded on X that Trump "knows exactly who is responsible for this attack" and separately argued that Department of Government Efficiency cuts had weakened CISA. No federal agency has publicly attributed the attack. Minnesota officials say no drinking-water supply was compromised.