Note: due to some text coloring issues in the original version of this story that made it difficult to read in some parts, I have corrected the problem in this version. - Editor
By Madison McVan-Minnesota Reformer. July 31, 2026 2:22 pm. Additional reporting added by John Earl of SoCal Water Wars August 5, 2026.
American intelligence agencies believe Iran is behind a cyber attack on more than 30 Minnesota water systems — plus an unknown number in other states — which came five months into the U.S.-Iran War, according to reporting this week from national news outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post.
“The tradecraft used, and the absence of a ransom demand, had led analysts to tentatively conclude that it was the work of Iranian hackers,” the Times reports.
But President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Minnesota government for the attack on its own critical infrastructure — instead of the country his administration has been at war with since killing its Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei and other top Iranian officials in February.
“We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent. There was a cyber attack of 30 water plants and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota… Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,” Trump said.
Trump’s war, which has destabilized the Middle East and world energy markets, has become deeply unpopular with the public. A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war has been a mistake. It’s among a slate of potential causes for Trump’s own sinking popularity ahead of crucial midterm elections in the fall.
When asked later by a reporter whether he could rule out Iran being behind the attack, Trump doubled down.
“Minnesota is behind it,” Trump said. “You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re incompetent. The governor’s really…I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together. It’s one of the worst-run states.”
Iran has repeatedly targeted American cyber infrastructure since the beginning of the war, including the attack on Stryker, the Michigan-based medical equipment manufacturer, which a hacker group said was retaliation for an American strike on an Iranian school that killed 156 civilians, including 120 children.
Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), the massive information and technology agency for the State’s executive branch, says it is “working side by side with our partners to share intelligence, support affected communities, and help utilities restore operations safely while strengthening defenses against future attacks.” [Additional content by SoCal Water Wars]
In a statement, Gov. Tim Walz thanked Minnesota experts for quickly identifying the vulnerability and assisting local communities in recovering. Minnesota authorities say the water supply remains safe.
“Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too,” Walz said. “This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.”
Minnesota Reformer reporter Madison McVan’s original story published on July 31, 2026.
Madison McVan is a reporter covering the impact of the Trump administration on Minnesotans, including issues like immigration, agriculture, Medicaid, food, housing and other safety net cuts. She’s also covering the 2026 Minnesota U.S. Senate race.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
John Earl is the publisher and editor of this newsletter, SoCal Water Wars.
By John Earl
Note: First, I object to the unanalyzed use in the above article of a quote from MN Gov. Tim Walz regarding Trump’s Iran war, that “it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.” He’s entitled to his opinion and it was right of the Reformer to use the quote. But, come on, doesn’t it demand a response? Does Walz mean that there should be a plan to win a war with Iran? If so, why? Most people believe that there shouldn’t have been a war in the first place. I agree and think that Trump should stop it now by withdrawing. Walz should have been challenged. J.E.
Trump’s claim that Iran has little interest in targeting Minnesota’s water agencies—despite its retaliatory strikes against U.S. allies following American and Israeli attacks on its infrastructure, directly contradicts warnings issued by his own Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
On July 22, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a DHS component, issued a press release underscoring an April joint Cybersecurity Advisory titled Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) Across US Critical Infrastructure.
CISA stressed that it has “consistently warned critical infrastructure stakeholders” that Iranian‑linked actors are actively targeting U.S. systems, including by compromising unsecured internet‑connected devices, and urged partners to review the advisory and implement its recommended defenses.
American national security experts have warned for at least 15 years that Iran—and other adversarial states such as Russia and China—pose a serious threat to U.S. infrastructure, including water‑management systems.
Those warnings long predated Trump’s decision to join Israel in the mass bombings of Iran on June 21–22, 2025 under “Operation Midnight Hammer,” and the massive military buildup that followed, culminating in the current and seemingly never-ending six‑month‑long war.
Between 2011 and 2013, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice indicted several Iranian hackers for cyberattacks that disrupted U.S. banking systems and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. In one case, an Iranian hacker was charged with breaching the control system of a dam in New York and manipulating a gate used to regulate water levels during maintenance.
Ironically, the New York Times reported on the legal tactics used by Republican‑led states and industry groups to block enforcement of a 2023 Environmental Protection Agency policy—introduced under the Biden administration—to strengthen cybersecurity protections for America’s water agencies.
Shortly after that proposal was struck down, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into the software of a small Pennsylvania town and accessed controls governing its water pressure, the Times reported.
The national‑security stakes of this vulnerability were underscored by DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, who addressed an audience of Southern California water officials at the Water Policy Forum and Dinner, hosted by the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) in Costa Mesa on June 26, 2025.
A Tangled Web of Hacker Opportunities
MWDOC is one of 26 member water agencies in Southern California that belong to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which supplies imported water for 19 million residents in six counties. MWDOC buys imported water from MWD and sells it to its own 27 Orange County member agencies, serving 3.5 million residents—its portion of MWD’s overall service population.
MWDOC has seven elected members on its board of directors. Three of them—along with one additional appointee who is not a board member—represent MWDOC on MWD’s 38-member Board of Directors.
In all, that board is composed of representatives appointed by MWD’s 26 member agencies, including the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), which supplies water to its own 22 member agencies serving 3.3 million of MWD’s 19 million customers.
The full array of water agencies operating in Southern California is too sprawling and absurdly complex to detail here. What matters is that the districts served by MWD, MWDOC, and SDCWA operate under similar mandates and rely on shared infrastructure, yet still differ in important ways in how they deliver water to their ratepayers.
Given the sheer number of separate agencies in Southern California—each with its own bureaucracy, budget, staffing levels, and water‑management systems—the region offers a wide web of opportunities for cyber intruders. And as Trump’s conflict with Iran makes clear, water can be weaponized from across the globe.
It can be weaponized at home, too.
Waging War on the Homeland
A president who can defy constitutional authority and international law to wage war against Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba can also turn federal agencies and domestic infrastructure—including water systems—against his own population. The same mechanisms that enable foreign conflict can be repurposed for political repression at home.
Weeks before the MWDOC dinner honoring Edgar, ICE raids terrorized immigrants in Los Angeles and clashed with roughly 1,000 protesters—some of it unfolding within sight of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s downtown headquarters.
Those clashes were soon followed by Trump’s deployment of more than 4,000 National Guard troops across Los Angeles. The issue remains unresolved in the courts: judges repeatedly ordered Trump to return the Guard to state control, but appellate rulings allowed him to delay compliance as the case slowly moves toward the Supreme Court.
In the 21st century, Southern California’s water buffalos do not float apart from politics of the world; they swim in it, just like the rest of us. They must be forced by the public to swim in the right direction.
Meanwhile, ICE agents continue to brutalize and detain immigrants across America—including children—without due process. They continue committing occasional murders with in-custody deaths rising to unprecedented levels across an expanding network of detention camps.
And beyond Trump’s brinkmanship with global conflict, DHS and the rest of his administration are dismantling climate science and gutting climate‑adaptation programs, including renewable‑energy initiatives—leading Earth into the ultimate climate catastrophe, second only to the atomic bomb.
It’s all part of democratic republicanism’s growing fascist rot. Meanwhile, your local water buffalos continue to calmly go about their business more or less as usual, giving an occasional nod to climate reality to move that business along, when they’re not cluster-fucking like they did at Edgar’s honorary dinner forum. More on that next.
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