A day after multiple U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News that investigators are looking into whether Iran or hackers associated with the country were part of the cyberattack on dozens of local Minnesota water systems, President Donald Trump placed blame elsewhere.<\/p>\n
During a cabinet meeting on Friday, Trump denied that Iran played a role in the attack that Minnesota officials said impacted more than 30 communities. Instead, the president blamed the state.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Cyberattack on over 30 Minnesota water systems may be linked to Iran<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d Trump said when asked about the Iran connection. \u201cYou know, I think Minnesota is behind it. You know who\u2019s behind it? Minnesota, because they\u2019re grossly incompetent. I think the governor is behind it. I don\u2019t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together. It\u2019s one of the worst-run states.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, Gov. Tim Walz posted on social media<\/a>, \u201cTrump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too. This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there\u2019s no plan to win a war with Iran. DOGE took an axe to CISA and left the U.S. exposed to cyber attacks. Thankfully, our experts in Minnesota were able to identify the vulnerability quickly and work with local communities to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: Hackers aren\u2019t just stealing data anymore \u2014 Minnesota cyberattack shows they\u2019re targeting your water<\/a><\/p>\n Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) said the attacks on Sunday and Monday targeted \u201coperational technology.\u201d While it wouldn\u2019t publicly say which cities were impacted, some \u2014 Plymouth, Braham, Maple Plain and South St. Paul \u2014 acknowledged they were affected.<\/p>\n All of those localities, some with state help, were able to switch to backup plans and resolve any issues without any real disruption to public water service.<\/p>\n Additionally, several federal agencies, including the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Homeland Security have put out warnings about \u201ca significant increase in cyber threat actors targeting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in the Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector\u201d across multiple states. Some of those, CISA said, have resulted in boil water notices.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udea8 FBI PSA: Malicious Cyber Actors Targeting Water and Wastewater Sector PLCs<\/p>\n The FBI warns that malicious cyber actors are conducting cyber attacks targeting operational technology devices. These threat actors are remotely accessing internet-facing PLCs, changing IPs and\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/SqWwzJy6bz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 FBI Minneapolis (@FBIMinneapolis) July 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Trump, who has frequently targeted Minnesota and state leaders like Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, also added that Vice President JD Vance \u201cfound tremendous corruption in Minnesota\u201d and \u201cjust gave me a report: Massive, massive future things having to do with corruption in Minnesota are happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump didn\u2019t provide any details regarding that statement and also didn\u2019t share if he\u2019d received any intelligence from federal investigators about who is responsible for the water system attacks across the U.S. However, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has reached out to the White House for clarification and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Cyberattack<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cybersecurity<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Minnesota Politics<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0President Trump<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t