Podcast Summary: The Matt Walsh Show – Ep. 1713

Title: The Somali Daycare Scam Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg. The Truth Will Shock You
Host: Matt Walsh
Date: January 7, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Matt Walsh dives deeply into the recent Somali daycare fraud scandal in Minnesota, using it as a launching point to probe broader patterns of systemic fraud in US welfare and disability programs. He connects public sector complicity, NGO involvement, and perverse incentives within corporate healthcare to a national phenomenon of dependency. The episode then pivots to other news, including Trump’s renewed Greenland ambitions, a critique of cultural decline in American patriotism, and closes with a pointed exchange exposing the failures of socialism.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Somali Daycare Scam: Scope and Questions

• Walsh recounts details of widespread Medicaid and daycare fraud in Minnesota, attributed to Somali immigrants.
  • Asserts these scams are not isolated, but rather “the tip of a very large, very evil, and very expensive iceberg.”
  • Questions whether low average IQ scores (citing disputed statistics about Somali immigrants) align with the sophistication of the scam.
  • Argues, “if the typical Somali is indeed very dumb, then how exactly were they able to scam taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in Minnesota alone?” (03:00)
• Key claim: “We know they didn't commit all this fraud on their own...who specifically held the hands of these Somalis as they set up these fraudulent businesses?” (07:34)
  • Points to American government officials and NGOs as complicit enablers.

Notable Quote

“Who exactly helped the Somalis? ...Who are the people that helped, that facilitated, that helped them do it?”
— Matt Walsh (07:34)

2. NGOs, Insurers, and Incentivized Complicity

• Blue Cross, as Minnesota’s Medicaid administrator, produced Somali-language videos encouraging Somali-run daycares.
  • Walsh lampoons identity-based targeting:

    "There's no video about white daycares preserving white culture...They're all about Somalis and only Somalis. What's going on here?" (13:00)

  • Suggests insurers may benefit from increased fraudulent claims due to the structure of Medicaid reimbursements and administrative fees.
    • Hypothetical math: with more claims (even fraudulent), Blue Cross earns a larger admin/share.
• NGOs further lubricate fraud pipelines:
  • Highlights “Child Care Wayfinder” as an example of a state-funded nonprofit that directly assists and funds Somali daycares.
  • Cites Amy Bach, a white nonprofit director, as a “middleman” who enabled and profited from fraudulent daycare schemes.

Notable Quote

"At some point, you need to start raiding the NGOs and conducting some investigations into what they knew or did not know."
— Matt Walsh (22:45)

3. National Welfare & Disability Fraud

• Fraud is not unique to immigrants or one group:
  • Points to VA disability programs and SNAP (food stamps) as massively abused.
  • Example: Politician Graham Platner with 100% VA disability rating, yet works full time and runs for Senate.
    • “If you’re capable of becoming a US Senator…you are not 100% disabled and you don’t need $60,000 from the taxpayer.” (33:40)
• Claims that a shocking number of able-bodied, childless adults receive SNAP benefits:
  • "66% of SNAP recipients do not have children in their household...that’s 26 million people!" (39:08)
  • Argues rampant questionable claims for disability (e.g., PTSD, unverifiable ailments) drive this.

Notable Quote

“Disability fraud in this country is rampant, and it's extremely expensive...We're talking about a very large percentage of tax dollars that we are forced to pay every year.”
— Matt Walsh (40:23)

4. Societal Shift Toward Dependency

• Links normalization of disability to a broader leftist agenda:
  • Cites Harvard’s increase in disability accommodations (3% in 2014 to 21% in 2024) as emblematic of “normalizing dependency.”
  • Describes “a generation of professional victims” resulting from these incentives.
• Advocates a thorough federal crackdown not just on Somali fraudsters, but the entire welfare fraud industrial complex.
  • “Yes, swarm Minnesota with ICE and DHS and the FBI...but go after the NGOs...anyone…defrauding the taxpayer by pretending to work or pretending to be disabled or pretending to be starving.” (44:00)

Additional Segments

5. Trump, Greenland, and American Expansionism (50:00)

• Trump’s renewed interest in acquiring Greenland is discussed approvingly:
  • "If we can acquire Greenland, we should. There’s almost no downside. It is that clear."
  • Strategic/military value, natural resources, and “spiritual value” of continued American expansion.
  • Critiques both left and right for losing sight of America’s history as an expansionist power:

    "America was born in expansionism. You cannot claim to be an American patriot and have some kind of fundamental problem with expansionism." (54:14)

Memorable Rant & Quote

“If we are not exploring, if we are not expanding...then we're dying, right?...The American spirit is one of expanding, exploring, conquering—not being satisfied, not just looking at, ‘well, this is our little plot of land here.’”
— Matt Walsh (58:00)

6. January 6 and Progressive “Forever Grievances” (1:10:00)

• Mocks Democratic politicians for their January 6th “candlelight vigil,” calling it a performative display of perpetual victimhood.

• Lampoons Chuck Schumer’s singing voice:

  "If you're totally tone deaf and you can't sing, you should never sing where anyone has to hear."

• Sees “nothing is ever over” as the left’s core rhetorical strategy:

  “Jim Crow continues. Slavery continues. The civil rights fight continues...Every bad thing that's ever happened continues to happen.”
  — Matt Walsh (1:14:40)

7. Socialism’s Real Record: The Cuba Exchange (1:19:00)

• Plays a clip from the Undivided Podcast:
  • Democratic Rep. Sean Scott struggles to name a successful socialist country, cites Cuba for public health and literacy.
  • Host Brandi Kruse presses: “People flee on makeshift rafts and die in the ocean to flee Cuba for the United States.”
• Walsh’s commentary:

  “If you want to establish a socialist country, the first thing you got to do is build a wall—but not to keep people out, to keep them in. That kind of sums it up.” (1:22:30)

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• “If their IQ is really hovering around 68, you’d think they wouldn’t even get that far.” — Matt Walsh (04:40)
• “More fraud means more money for Blue Cross in the long term.” — Matt Walsh (17:23)
• “You go after them, but that’s just the beginning...you have to look at who funded them, who helped to create them, and what were their incentives.” — (22:10)
• “66% of SNAP recipients do not have children in their household. That’s roughly 26 million people.” — (39:08)
• “The left has done everything in its power to normalize dependency and empower the government...They want a generation of professional victims.” — (41:44)
• “America was born in expansionism...To sit here now and say, ‘expansionism is wrong’...This country would not exist without it.” — (54:14)
• “If you claim to be an America first patriot...you are opposing America itself.” — (57:00)
• “If any country can do that to us, then we deserve it...our existence as a country is a mirage.” — (1:16:50)
• “If you want to establish a socialist country, the first thing you got to do is build a wall—but not to keep people out, to keep them in.” — (1:22:30)

Tone & Language

• Direct, combative, irreverent. Walsh frequently uses sarcasm and blunt humor to drive home points, especially when lampooning political adversaries or what he sees as cultural absurdities.
• No-holds-barred, polemical, intentionally provocative when discussing ethnic groups, welfare recipients, or leftist policy—and often employs gallows humor or mock incredulity for emphasis.

Conclusion

Walsh’s episode threads together high-profile fraud scandals, critiques of systemic welfare abuse, and a call for a more aggressive, expansionist national ethos. Using provocative language and framing, he argues that American taxpayers are victimized not just by immigrant or minority-linked fraud, but by a vast interlocking system of government, corporate, and NGO actors, with complicity stretching across social classes. The show closes with a scathing takedown of both leftist grievance culture and the persistent myth of successful socialist states.

For Further Listening

• Recommended for those interested in skeptical, acerbic conservative commentary on US social programs, identity politics, and the ethics of government intervention.
• Noteworthy for its unapologetic tone and willingness to court controversy in both language and subject matter.