The Matt Walsh Show – Ep. 1681

Title: The EBT Program Is A Massive Scam, And The Government Shutdown Just Proved It
Date: October 28, 2025
Host: Matt Walsh (The Daily Wire)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Matt Walsh takes aim at America's SNAP (food stamps) program, calling it a bloated, mismanaged welfare system whose true nature is revealed by the ongoing government shutdown. Walsh questions the necessity of having 40 million food stamp recipients, interrogates the moral and economic cost of SNAP, and uses viral reactions and news stories to build his case that much of the program constitutes waste and fosters bad behavior. The episode also touches on recent scandals involving public figures, the controversial killing of Ethan Liming, and critiques of both progressive activists and media personalities. Walsh's tone is pointed, combative, and heavily critical throughout.

Main Topics and Key Discussion Points

1. Government Shutdown & SNAP Panic

• [07:40] At the heart of the current government shutdown, Walsh observes that most Americans have not noticed day-to-day effects—except SNAP recipients and federal workers. He notes widespread alarm over the threat of food stamp funding running out.

• CBS News Clip [04:28]: Reports on fears among SNAP recipients, with politicians like Massachusetts governor Maura Healey blaming President Trump for lost benefits.

  "If you stop subsidizing someone else's grocery bill even for a second, then, according to the governor of Massachusetts, you're taking away their food. It's like you robbed them." (Walsh, [05:08])

2. Scale and Economics of Food Stamps

• [06:40] "One in eight Americans"—about 45 million people—are on food stamps, costing over $100 billion annually.

• Walsh’s Argument: The sheer size of the program artificially inflates food prices for everyone. He compares SNAP’s inflationary effects to those caused by government subsidies in higher education.

  "When the government spends a massive amount of money subsidizing the purchase of a particular product, in any context, the price of that product will go up." (Walsh, [08:50])

• [10:15] Data cited: Monthly SNAP spending grew from $4.5 billion (Dec 2019) to $11 billion (Dec 2022); estimates suggest a 1% rise in food prices for every 12% SNAP increase.

3. Who “Needs” Food Stamps?

• Walsh challenges whether the vast majority of recipients genuinely need SNAP, asking how many Americans would starve without it.

  "Has a single sane adult, through no fault of his own, shriveled and died because he couldn't afford to buy anything to eat?" (Walsh, [13:00])

• Cites availability of “lines of defense” (family, friends, local charities, food banks, other welfare programs) and questions why SNAP is necessary for so many.

4. Public Reactions: Social Media Meltdowns

• [15:37] Plays TikTok clips of self-identified food stamp recipients reacting angrily to the shutdown—threatening theft, violence, and entitlement.

  "People receiving food stamps who would rather rob you and even kill you and eat you apparently than have to pay for their own groceries for once in their lives." (Walsh, [18:30])

• Features include threats to steal groceries (“I'm going to Walmart. I'm going to rack up any damn thing I want…”), and explicit warnings to others to stay out of grocery stores.

  "I'm gonna be stealing like it ain't no tomorrow... if they don't give food stamps next month, we all just say fuck it and rob the grocery store and tell them make me a grill." (TikTok user, [16:30])

• Walsh uses these segments to underscore his claim that many recipients lack genuine need and appear “entitled, lazy, barely literate, and... frankly bad people.”

5. Further Criticisms of SNAP Recipients

• Drug Use: Plays a video suggesting SNAP payments are used to free up "weed money" ([21:47]), proposing drug testing for recipients.
• Criminal History: Questions why people with criminal records receive SNAP benefits at all.

6. Stories from the Media: Are They Sympathetic?

• Federal Worker 'Denise' ([22:21])

  • Walsh scrutinizes a news story about Denise Blake, a federal worker at the Department of Defense forced to use a food bank during the shutdown, noting her six-figure government salary and decades of job security:

    "There's no conceivable way that Denise is going to starve to death... taxpayers have no obligation in any universe to buy her groceries. We've been paying her bills for a decade." (Walsh, [23:10])

• Senator Klobuchar’s Testimony Clip ([25:38])

  • Critiques the choice of a visibly obese SNAP recipient as a heartstring-tugging example, arguing it backfires as proof of SNAP excess.

    "She could clearly afford major cutbacks to her food spending...it would clearly be beneficial to her health." (Walsh, [26:06])

7. Illegals and SNAP: Expansion and Abuse

• Walsh highlights how government documents confirm thousands of non-citizens (including those eligible to work but unemployed) receive EBT in Maine; nationally, 1.4 million non-citizens and 2.2 million children with non-citizen parents are on SNAP ([28:40]).

  "You're being robbed at gunpoint by the state and forced to subsidize foreigners." (Walsh, [31:35])

• Cites Economic Policy Innovation Center and Center for Immigration Studies to show outsized SNAP use among immigrant and refugee households.

8. Walsh's Final Argument: Abolish SNAP

• Concludes the government shutdown exposes the inherent waste of SNAP, and calls openly for its total abolition:

  "Let's listen to these people for once. Let's abolish the SNAP program altogether... Nobody's going to starve as a result, but a few million people, against their will, might have to learn the all-important twin concepts of budgeting and dieting." (Walsh, [33:45])

Additional Segments

9. Zoran Mamdani & Identity Politics ([34:57])

• Walsh revisits the story of Zoran Mamdani and the changing tale about his "aunt" suffering Islamophobia; accuses Mamdani of lying for political advantage and calls out the manufactured nature of these anecdotes.

10. Media Feuds: Mehdi Hassan

• Shares details of an online spat with Mehdi Hassan, mocking his career failures and the left’s “two tactics” (calling people bigots and trying to get them fired).

11. Karine Jean-Pierre & Representation ([48:27])

• Mocks White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s repeated self-identification as a “queer Black woman,” framing it as performative and outdated identity politics.

12. Ethan Liming Case and "Hood Justice" ([52:00]–[61:45])

• Revisits the 2022 killing of white teenager Ethan Liming in Akron, OH. Details how one assailant, DeShawn Stafford, served little time and is now implicated in a new murder.

• Critiques the criminal justice system for leniency towards violent offenders when they are from favored demographics.

  "Our justice system will basically spot you one murder as long as you're in the right demographic." (Walsh, [62:00])

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On SNAP Argued as Theft:

  • "The actual robbery occurs when you are forced against your will to pay for other people's groceries every month." (Walsh, [05:14])

• On Supply and Demand:

  • "The subsidy creates increased demand, but it does not increase the supply, and therefore the cost goes up under the basic principle of supply and demand." (Walsh, [09:02])

• On TikTok SNAP Reactions:

  • "I'm gonna be stealing like it ain't no tomorrow." (TikTok clip, [16:30])

• On the Need for Drug Testing:

  • "Can you imagine the horror of having to tap into your weed budget to buy food for yourself? I mean, it's unthinkable, really." (Walsh, [21:57])

• On Non-Citizens and SNAP:

  • "We are inviting people to come to this country and live off of the labor of its citizens. Words cannot describe how evil this is." (Walsh, [31:25])

• Call to Abolish SNAP:

  • "Let's abolish the SNAP program altogether. Let's make this government shutdown the first shutdown in the history of this country that's actually been productive." (Walsh, [33:45])

• On Criminal Justice:

  • "Our justice system will basically spot you one murder as long as you're in the right demographic... It's total madness." (Walsh, [62:00])

Summary Table of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic |
|---|---| | 04:28–05:08 | News reports and political blame over SNAP funding | | 06:40–11:15 | Economics of SNAP, scale, and inflation argument | | 15:37–21:00 | TikTok reactions, threats, and Walsh's criticisms of recipients | | 22:21–26:06 | Critique of media examples (federal worker Denise and Sen. Klobuchar's witness) | | 28:40–31:45 | SNAP spending on non-citizens, abuse, and government documents | | 33:45 | Full-throated call to abolish SNAP | | 34:57–47:00 | Identity politics (Zoran Mamdani, Mehdi Hassan, Karine Jean-Pierre) | | 52:00–61:45 | Revisiting Ethan Liming case, “hood justice,” and criminal leniency |

Final Thoughts

Matt Walsh’s episode is a polemic against the SNAP program, painting it as wasteful and prone to abuse, with little proof that people would starve without it. He uses inflammatory social media examples, critiques sympathetic media portrayals, and rails against the expansion of benefits to non-citizens. Walsh frames the government shutdown as a unique opportunity to question spending priorities and advocates outright abolition of SNAP. Subplots include commentary on progressive identity tactics, media figure feuds, and high-profile criminal justice controversies.

Listeners are left with a vision of a welfare state run amok, harming responsible, working families, and benefiting the least deserving—an indictment Walsh says the shutdown has brought into the open.