Video summary
Nick Shirley, a content creator who has been producing weekly videos for over two years, gained massive attention after releasing an exposé on widespread fraud within Minnesota's child care and welfare systems. The video garnered over 100 million views in just 72 hours, prompting reactions from high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, Kash Patel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Shirley alleges that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has enabled a scheme where fraudulent daycares receive millions in federal funding without serving children or adhering to regulations. He claims Tim Walz, Minnesota's governor who was nearly elected Vice President, knew about this fraud since at least 2019 but failed to act; Shirley asserts that Walz dropped out of his re-election campaign solely because he could not handle the exposure and attempted to deflect by labeling Shirley a white supremacist and conspiracy theorist. The investigation began when locals urged Shirley to investigate "adult daycares" in Cedar Riverside, an area with a significant Somali population. During filming on December 16th, Shirley visited facilities that received millions of dollars but had blacked-out windows, no children present despite being licensed for dozens, and staff who refused entry or provided brochures. Specific examples include the "Quality Learning Center," which he notes has misspelled its name as "Leering" due to a long-standing sign error yet still receives funding while operating with over 90 violations. Shirley highlights that autism center funding in Minnesota skyrocketed from $1 million in 2017 to $200 million in 2024, arguing this surge was facilitated by lax licensing requirements under the Biden administration and exploited by organized groups rather than organic growth in need. Shirley argues that while fraud is not exclusive to any single demographic, a specific playbook appears to be used by certain communities who move together to exploit loopholes in welfare programs like C-CAP (Child Care Assistance Program). He contends that political correctness has stifled local reporting and investigation for years, allowing the scheme to flourish. The mainstream media's reaction was largely hostile; instead of investigating the fraudsters as promised, outlets attacked Shirley personally, labeling him a conservative agitator or "MAGA" figure. However, he believes this hostility stems from legacy media struggling with declining viewership against independent creators who can reach audiences directly without editorial friction. He also discusses his visit to CECOT in El Salvador, describing the maximum-security prison as a place of soulless conditions where gang members are held indefinitely, contrasting it with the perceived corruption and lack of accountability he found back home. Following the viral success of his video, Shirley received numerous calls from federal agencies, including multiple attempts by the FBI to contact him before he could return them. He notes that while he is not a law enforcement officer, his evidence has triggered significant government action. In a breaking development mentioned at the end of the discussion, J.D. Vance announced the creation of a new Assistant Attorney General position with nationwide jurisdiction specifically focused on fraud, starting in Minnesota and expanding to states like California and Ohio. The Trump administration reportedly issued over 1,500 subpoenas and secured nearly 100 indictments against individuals involved in these schemes. Shirley concludes that his work has successfully shifted the narrative from political correctness to common sense accountability, aiming to restore economic opportunity for American citizens by stopping taxpayer money from being defrauded while advocating for better oversight of welfare programs across the country.
Read the full video transcript
Who are you on the phone to this
morning? A lot of people have been
calling me. I actually can't even keep
track of all the numbers.
And so today I just got asked to go talk
in front of Congress just a moment ago.
So people are just calling me saying,
"Hey, we want some information. Can you
tell us about this? We're just trying to
gather information." And for instance
today someone just called me said, "Hey,
we have a
a meeting we'd like you to testify in
front of Congress on January 21st. So
I'll see if I'll do that.
Right. So it's starting to hit the
bigger levels of sort of real law, real
government now. Yeah, I mean within just
one day of me posting my video,
well, it got over 100 million views in
72 hours. Both in the first day alone
you had Elon Musk retweet it. You had
J.D. Vance retweet it. You had quite
literally every major politician retweet
it. The next morning Kash Patel puts out
a post on X about it. And then that same
day Attorney General Pam Bondi also puts
puts out a post uh
mentioning my name in that video. Same
day Mike Johnson as well. So it spread
across the entire internet and it's the
most viral video
that exposed fraud in Minnesota. It's
the most viral video by anybody not
named Mr. Beast in exposé format. Over
100 million views in 72 hours.
Did you end Tim Walz? I did end Tim
Walz. He's no longer running for
re-election of governor. Tell me the
story then. So Tim Walz, everyone knows
him. He
he was almost the Vice President of the
United States.
And [snorts]
he has a record going on in Minnesota
talking about fraud. Ever since 2019
he's known about fraud. He's been
talking about how that they've been
fighting fraud.
And he's been enabling this fraud to
happen. And so I go and make this video.
And what
I showed the fraud happening. And you
would think people would be like, "Oh,
amazing. This kid just showed that
fraud's happening." Instead Tim Walz
goes on TV. He calls me a white
supremacist. Calls me far right. And he
also calls me a delusional conspiracy
theorist.
Are you any of those things? No.
And so then Tim Walz, after calling me
all that, he drops out of running for
re-election of governor.
So I was right.
I show people the truth. And Tim Walz,
he couldn't handle it. So therefore he
went to deflecting mechanisms of calling
me far right, delusional conspiracist
delusional conspiracist
and um
a white supremacist. When I was just
talking about fraud.
Do you think that the reason that he's
not running for re-election is
exclusively because of this story? Yeah,
100%. He knows the baggage is so much
that he cannot he can't run from it. And
he's hoping probably people would think
less of it. And so he's going to step
step aside and not run for re-election.
How much is he culpable? Cuz Minnesota's
a big state. There's lots of stuff going
on.
He had an election campaign to look
after not long ago. Is it his job to be
paying attention directly to this sort
of stuff?
He's obviously part of it. There's
obviously larger communities like the
DHS inside of Minnesota. What's the DHS,
sorry? The Department of uh
Yeah, the Department of Homeland
Security. But then you also have DHS
that receives the money and they kind of
give the money money to
the welfare, Medicaid programs,
everything like that.
So not entirely unculpable then. No, I
mean his office kind of he's the he's
said it himself the buck stops with him.
He's said that multiple times and he's
known about the fraud forever. It is an
interesting challenge, right? Because
you have some people
anybody that is running for office wants
to show I've got agency and I make
things happen inside of my state. And it
kind of sounds powerful ubermensch to
say the buck stops with me.
But when it turns out that the buck is
kind of messy and on fire and deserves
investigation, you become culpable for
the promises that you've made in the
past. Yeah, and at the end of the day he
knows about he knew about it. He knows
that there's daycares all around
Minnesota. He actually bragged about
that in a debate with Tim Walz. He said,
"You can go visit them." I visited them.
There was no kids.
Give me the story from the start of how
this came about. So last June every week
for the past 100 weeks I've been doing
making YouTube videos about something
happening in the US or other countries.
And so back last June I went to
Minnesota to make a video about the rise
of Islam. Cuz I've heard how mosques
were replacing Christian churches and
how the Somali population was growing.
And so I wanted to go do a video on the
rise of Islam. And while I'm there I'm
talking with locals and they're like,
"Nick, you have to do a video on the
fraud. There's these daycares these is
there's these adult daycares there's
assisted living homes popping up right
next door to us. And they're all around
by Somalis.
You need to do a video on the fraud."
And I said, "Well, I can't just come and
just paint fraud to be happening and
bring no evidence." So I made my video
about the rise of Islam.
And I saw it firsthand. I saw
communities that had been overtaken by
Somalis.
Um actually me and my mom my mom was my
camera woman for that video.
She comes on to me she comes with me on
a lot of trips. We got jumped in Cedar
Riverside.
They snatched the camera.
And they threatened me and my mom.
And so I after that Who's they? Somalis
inside of Cedar Riverside.
Cuz inside there they also have rival
gangs and there's a kind of a whole gang
thing going on inside of these Somali
communities. And so I knew there was a
something there. And I went back home
and I kept trying to do my own
investigation to get the get down to the
fraud. And I couldn't really get the
number specifically.
And then a man by the name of David,
who's in the video, he reaches out to
me. And he says, "Nick, I have all the
information. I've been researching this
for years." Why did he reach out to you?
Yeah, so he's been trying to get the
story out for years. But did he reach
out to you before you did your
documentary?
Well, he had seen some of my other
videos on YouTube as well. So he kind of
just knew maybe this kid would be
interested cuz he's been trying to get
it from local people and local news has
been reporting on the fraud for years.
And a lot so they've been reporting on
it for years, but it's never blown up on
a national level. And this man David had
all the numbers. Somebody from inside
the capital had given him
the information on the C-CAP funding,
which is federal and state money that
goes to these programs.
It's called the I believe the child care
assistance program. So he had all the
information and he said, "Nick, I have
been looking into this for years. And I
have never seen a single child at one of
these daycares."
And so we went and made this video about
the fraud that was taking place. And I
When did you make it? Uh December 16th
is when we filmed it. Oh wow, so you
really turned it around quickly. Yeah.
Within just a few weeks.
And so I had no idea. I thought we were
just going to go to these daycares. I
thought you'd be able to open up the
door and go to the reception, receive a
brochure for your child. And at the
first daycare we go to, it's a one
building that has two of the same
daycares inside of it.
Had it was named Miko and there was
another one that's also inside of that
daycare. They had both been receiving
money from the government upwards of $5
million. And
it was strange cuz
all the windows were blacked out. The
sign above it said open 7:00 a.m. to
10:00 p.m. You open the door, nobody
would answer. You ring the doorbell,
nobody answers.
And then a Somali woman comes up and
we're asking her, "Where's the kids at?"
She says, "I don't know."
I was like, "What the heck? Like what's
wrong with these daycares?" She came out
of the She drove into the parking lot
and she went into a store next door.
And I was like, "What the heck is going
on with these daycares? That was weird.
Okay, let's go to the next one. Let's
see what happens." We go to the next
one. They also received a million
dollars. They're licensed for 40
children. All the windows were
completely blacked out. I knock on the
door and I hear a lady talk and I said,
"Well, hey, I'm trying to enroll my son,
little Joey, in the daycare." And she's
like, "No."
And she wouldn't give me any more
information.
And so you would think that
even if they didn't want to
talk with me
that they would maybe give you a
brochure.
Right? Just to kind of show that they're
actually a legit daycare.
And they're licensed for 40 children.
It's funny cuz then after that I post my
video
local news CBS then tells that daycare
they're going to go and they film a
video and there's 12 kids inside the
daycare. Well, either way
What? It's still not 40. Yeah, it's
still not 40. So what's the point of
giving them a million dollars?
Yeah, so
I believe it's fraudulent.
And then we go to the next daycare and
this one had received $3.45 million. Can
I ask about where this is? You mentioned
Cedar Cedar Park? Yeah, Cedar Riverside.
That's like the well-known community
inside of Minneapolis. But this is this
video I filmed is all throughout
Minneapolis and St. Paul. Right. And so
then we go to the next one. It's
actually right where George Floyd
happened.
Just a few blocks away from it. $3.45
million.
And this lady opens the door. I kept all
the I kept all my security. I kept other
vans. I I put David kind of far to the
side. I was like, "All right, we're
going to have a genuine interaction. I
don't want anyone to make any excuses."
So this lady opens up the door and I
say, "Hey, I want to enroll my son,
little Joey." And she says, "No." I'm
like, "Well, can I at least get a
brochure?" She says, "No." I said,
"Well, can well, would my son have
friends here?" She said, "No."
And there were no kids. No snow no no
footprints in the snow.
And she was the only one there. Broad
daylight I believe on December 16th,
which I believe was a Tuesday.
There should be children inside the
daycare. What time? We were there Hers
was around 12, I believe.
And [snorts] then also Quality Learning
Center.
The this one is so bad because they had
received $1.9 million.
They had over 90 violations and they're
just a few blocks away from downtown
Minneapolis, just a few blocks away from
where the Timberwolves play.
And their sign literally said quality
leering center.
Like imagine that you're trying to teach
children to learn
but you can't even spell learning right
on your sign.
>> been incorrect for 9 years or something.
For many years cuz they were originally
inside on the road and then
and then they like cut out this door and
they opened a restaurant where Ilhan
Omar has photos of her outside that same
restaurant.
And the the owner also has photos of her
and the mayor.
And the guy who came out saying that my
video was false, he has videos of him
partying with the mayor of Minneapolis.
Like it's all intertwined.
And so there's all this fraud happening.
Millions of dollars are
being given out to these
daycares. And then on top of that you
have adult daycares, you have autism
centers.
>> Adult daycares? Yes. What is that?
Adult daycares, place to for adults to
get taken care of. People with special
needs?
I don't know. There's no way to know.
>> Okay, how do you advertise an adult
daycare? What is that? It's literally
called adult daycare?
>> Adult daycare.
And then you have assisted living. So
that's kind of confusing. You have adult
daycare and you have assisted living.
Right. Yeah, cuz they can't be the same
thing if you've separated them out and
if you've got stuff cuz there's like
loads of stuff happening with autism.
>> Autism?
>> Yeah. Like there was not just a random
surge in autism, but there was an
increase from $1 million to $200 million
in funding.
For autism? For autism.
>> In Minnesota? In Minnesota. $200
million? Yes. In 2024 there's $200
million. Compared with I think in 2017
there's a million dollars. Oh wow. So
it's in what? 7 years Yeah, so just in a
short period of time it went from a
million dollars to $200 million.
Autism wasn't just springing up like
that.
And you don't And you didn't need to
prove that
Like you didn't need a license. Like it
came out just the other day that like
the Biden administration opened up
these systems you didn't have to really
prove much in order to get the funding.
And so a lot of people just took
advantage.
Yeah, I think my first question is
what is it about Minnesota or
Minneapolis in particular
and the
bylaws and the small print which has
caused this particular
scheme to flourish? Yeah, it doesn't
really make sense much sense why Somalis
would go to Minnesota.
Somalia, they're the temperature and the
climate's completely different than
Minnesota.
I think people realize
like Minnesota's known for being
Minnesota nice. Everyone is accepting.
They brought all these refugees and it
wasn't a problem until it became a
problem.
And so
then you get politicians like Tim Walz
and the mayor, little fry over there,
who start panhandling to the Somalian
community who's just a small percentage
of the population there. It's probably
anywhere from 80 to 200,000.
No one exactly knows. The ranges are
from 80 to 200,000 people. So it's not a
big number of people. No, it's not, but
they go on to certain areas and they
pretty much move out any other race or
religion and it just becomes a Somalian
area.
And so it's not so it becomes an issue
when
you don't feel like it's still your city
or you don't feel like you're being
represented by your politicians.
And so Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar
they kind of started panhandling to this
group of immigrants one for votes and
then
also they they attached onto the welfare
programs. Like I believe 81% of Somalis
in Minnesota are on welfare.
89% of fraud being committed by
people inside Minnesota is by Somalis.
And
then if you come out and speak against
the fraud
you'll be called a white supremacist.
Like Tim Walz did with me. He'll call
you far right. He'll call you a
delusional conspir-
conspiracy theorist.
And so all this political correctness
made it to where people kind of feel
like they couldn't speak out. That's why
David, he had been trying for years to
get the story out to tell people and I
was one of the only people who would
listen to him
and give him the time of day to go show
what's happening. So I understand that
you've got this
unusual microcosm of a very particular
demographic in a very tightly dense
area. What I don't understand is what is
it about Minnesota Tim Walz has been
saying you can come here, they're kind
of nice, but there has to be a specific
loophole or legal
I mean is this available everywhere? If
I just dumped 200,000 people from one
particularly innovative culture into an
area, would they be able to scheme and
do that across the whole country? Yeah,
well I talked to some of the Somalis and
they tell me well if one Somalian moves,
we all move essentially. So like they
kind of move in these groups. So there's
like groups of them in Texas, there's
groups of them in Minnesota and I think
they just saw how much money you can
make from these welfare programs they're
going unchecked. I mean
quality leering center, they had 90
violations. Stop calling it quality
leering center. That's what it is.
>> [laughter]
>> Quality leering center.
And they And they [snorts] LEERED THEIR
LESSON.
>> [laughter]
>> [ __ ] OKAY.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN to me
the exact journey of a dollar
where it comes from, where it goes to
and what you think is going on. I'm I
imagine that there's a variety of
different paths that it can take. But
money has to come from somewhere, go to
somewhere, get fed back to some What's
What's the What's the the story there?
Yeah, so for instance So
So for instance with child care, there's
a thing called the HHS and that's a
federal. It's a I believe it's health
and human services. So they allocate a
certain amount of funds to stuff like
child care. For instance, they allocated
$185 million to child care.
And then that money you then go submit,
you go get licensed for your daycare and
then you say we want this many children
and then you're able to receive this
money for these daycares cuz it's part
of their Like Tim Walz openly bragged
even on X and in the debate with
with J.D. Vance like
we're going to give child care and
daycare a raise.
Like why would you do that? There's a
lot of hard working parents that are
paying to put their kid in child care.
And so
that's kind of how they go about making
their money and then they realize well,
daycare is great. Let's do adult
daycare. Let's do assisted living.
>> Hang on. Hang on. So you've got this
fund that can help to
pay for daycare.
But
somebody needs to
create a business and file a business
and what's the structure of what's going
on on the ground there? Who's working
there? Are they being paid in cash? Are
they being paid Yeah, so that's kind of
the problem right now. That's why the
federal government has surged Minnesota
with investi- with investigators to
figure out what's actually happening cuz
it's been like this kind of weird liquid
thing where no one really knows.
And so that's kind of the problem.
That's why you're seeing it's kind of
hard to track down
what's actually happening. You know that
there's money going in, but you're
unsure where it's coming from or how
it's being distributed. Yeah, so I went
to a fraud community meeting and this
one lady, she's a Republican
representative for the state, she laid
out one of these frauds that was
happening. You had one man, he also he
also ran a daycare
assisted living and he had multiple
violations, but the government kept
giving him money. And so somebody from
inside the state DHS was cutting the
checks and they continued to
give these people money even though
they're violating and having violations.
And so that's why they had been enabling
this fraud to happen for so long. That's
why Tim Walz, he needs to be held
accountable for it cuz like he said, the
buck stops with him.
And so if someone's stealing $100,000, a
million dollars from your bank account,
how fast are you going to find out?
Pretty quick. And Tim Walz has been
saying they've been fighting fraud since
2019.
And so 6 years later
he's been enabling fraud.
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So you have
unlicensed that people don't need to
show
that they've got registered teachers,
any accreditation. Is What's the level
of scrutiny to be able to build If I
want to go now and start the Quality
Leering Center 2.0,
can I go do that?
Now it'd probably be a lot harder cuz of
all of everything, but I mean, people
are starting about starting them up
everywhere. I mean, if you just drive
around Minneapolis
and you pay attention to all the daycare
centers or whether it be daycares or
adult daycares or assisted livings or
home health services, you'll be shocked.
Like literally almost every block
there's some sort of welfare program,
whether it be autism daycare. You're
like, what's going on? And they're not
like nice buildings. They're like these
almost like warehouse style buildings
and they just slap a daycare on top of
it and
there's no children to be seen anywhere.
Have you looked at the landlords of
these buildings? Who owns them?
I haven't looked into who's the
landlord.
>> to work out
how culpable it sort of goes back. Okay,
so that's I suppose the business side
and it's kind of obvious. You
find a loophole inside of the government
and some of the subsidy money which can
be paid to these kinds of facilities.
You start one.
You gain all of the money to pay your
costs, but because you're not operating
it fully, you don't have to pay the
costs and you're able to arbitra- you
just scrape off the top of of whatever's
left.
>> tax exempt.
Right? And so like for instance, a lot
of the women working in there, there's
videos
of This is You can look this up. There's
videos of men going in, women bringing
their children, and then there's a man
who gives them cash.
And so a lot of these guys, and this is
also makes me I have some theories about
this, so for instance, Muslims they can
marry four wives. And so all these
people inside of these daycares, a lot
of the women are probably related or
married to the man who's receiving the
checks. Okay. Right? So he's receiving
Quality Leering, he's receiving $1.9
million.
He has all these employees. Well, I'm
not actually going to give them put them
on a W-2 or 1099 cuz then I have to
report their taxes and they're going to
have to pay taxes on that money. So let
me just pay them cash. Mhm. And then
what will we do? We'll collect welfare.
81% of the population's on welfare
inside of Minnesota. And because
Somalians are on welfare. Because you
Cuz they're not haven't registered the
employees as employees, they still get
to be paid in cash from the front end
and receive the benefits from the back
end. Yeah, so now I'm thinking about it.
If they do put them on
taxes, they're probably paying them bare
minimums so they can still receive those
benefits. So whether it's like $30,000,
just the bare minimum to get by to still
be able to receive those benefits. And
you think the
multiple wives thing, you're just saying
that's kind of free and easy labor from
somebody that you know, which happens to
be
in your Have you got any evidence of
guys that have got a whole family of
wives that are working in a single
place?
Well,
it's kind of just a theory I have, but I
mean, they're able to marry four and
all the women inside the day- all the
people working inside the daycares are
women.
>> Mhm.
And
then when you think about how many what
percentage of people are on welfare that
are Somalians,
kind of makes sense. And then you see
like their economy they have there
whether with all of these welfare
programs,
how are there so many people living on
welfare still? Is this money being sent
back to Somalia at all? Have you got any
idea? Yes, so some of that money has
been traced back to go back to the
al-Shabab. A reporter found that out and
I actually talked to a man who worked at
TSA. This is coming out in my part two.
So
and there's a video from 2017 from Fox
local news there where they had reports
of millions of dollars, hundreds of
thousands of dollars in cash going
through TSA.
Literally in cash, hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
So [snorts]
they then take this money, they get it
through TSA, they then take them to the
back of the room, they then claim the
money,
whatnot. Cuz you can't you can't me you
we can't go through without saying me if
we have more than $10,000, you have to
let people know.
And so then they let them go through
and all they have to do is get to a
country like Dubai where they can then
send that money and wire it over to a
place like Somalia
and it can go through.
I was going to say cuz it's all cash.
This is cash cash cash, which is a kind
of a bit of a nightmare. It's good that
it's untraceable, but when you start
shifting big volumes of it around up to
900 $9,999.
Yeah, you're going to have to have a
pretty sophisticated operation to
distribute it. Yeah.
And so that's why
like for instance, that's why I think a
lot of the women there aren't actually
getting paid money or aren't getting
paid
legally cuz they just give them cash.
>> Mhm.
Um cuz it's the way you don't have to
report and
if you if you're working cash, everyone
knows that you don't you can kind of
move around taxes if you work in around
a cash primarily business. Have you got
any evidence that it's coming back into
the government at all?
Yes, so it is interesting for instance
that Ilhan Omar, she's outside of the
daycare with the lady who operates
another daycare who's then also giving
the mayor a tour of her daycare.
And there has been funneling to some of
these campaigns allegedly.
For instance, Tim Walz.
It was very weird when Kamala Harris
chose Tim Walz to become the vice
president to run with her. Nobody really
knew who he was.
And I wanted to make sure I had the
right stat for when I came and talked to
you about this.
So Tim Walz, the day he's chosen to
become vice president, he raises a
record high $36 million in one day
for his campaign with Kamala Harris.
Record high in one day.
>> of all vice presidents or all
>> Yeah, like the first day, that's like
the most money amount of money a vice
president has brought into a campaign.
Wow. $36 million.
Tim Walz, he's a football coach. He's
from Nebraska and
how does he raise $36 million in one
day? Mhm. Mhm. They're
anti-billionaires. They're anti-Elon
Musk.
I suppose the argument might be
maybe some rich donors on the left are
able to or they're they're concerned
about the
potential of a second Trump term, so
people are going to dump Do you need to
register where that money comes from? Do
people need to register donations in
that sort of way? Is it trackable? I
think so.
That should be pretty easy to work out
where that's come from then and if
there's a ton coming from Cedar River,
the Quality Leering Center,
you'd think, okay, we we could trace
that back. Or or
>> But we've also like how are they not
able to trace down all this fraud that's
happening right now? That's true. It's
just like kind of it's kind of been
disheartening to see on both sides,
Republicans and Democrats side. When you
had the Democrats come after me and to
start defending fraud and then you had
Republicans like, all right, how do we
crack down this fraud? It's like, well,
aren't you guys like government
officials? Like how did you guys just
let this happen as well? Mhm. So it's
like both side issue
and uh
nobody likes to see fraud to be
happening. Disheartening's a good way to
put it. I think that no matter what
your perspe- I mean, unless you're
somebody who is
benefiting from a scheme like this,
nobody everyone feels crappy about how
much money is taken from them for taxes.
Everybody does. And the prospect of
seeing so much waste go on
must just drive people insane. I know it
does for me. I mean,
when I was living in the UK, the
different deductions that we have for
taxes are so insane. I I would
people get pissed at the fact that the
roads aren't very good. You know, my
taxes go toward these roads and there's
potholes in my roads or my bins won't
get collected or etc. etc.
>> [gasps]
>> But when you see schemes like this,
that just feels like
how much of that could be back into the
pockets of people who really really need
it and are working hard to basically do
this weird like trickle-down pyramid
scheme where a small number of people, a
relatively small number of people who
aren't working, are taking tons of money
from a pretty big number of people who
are. Yeah, it feels like we're being
robbed, the hard-working, law-abiding,
tax-paying citizens. Mhm.
It it's it literally is robbery. I mean,
they're stealing our money.
It's happening everywhere across
America, come to find out. Elon Musk, he
tried to do Doge and
who was one of the proponents who was
most against Elon Musk?
Tim Walz.
He know
like all this stuff happening now, it's
like starting to make sense.
Well, with stuff like that, I I I get
what you mean. Um
Tim Walz realizes that there's skeletons
in his closet and I am going to push
back against a potentially very invasive
investigation which is going to find out
what's going on.
I I get the sense that especially if
you're
sort of caught up in the furor of
popular politics and you're on the front
page of CNN every day and you're
potentially going to be the vice
president, I think it's more likely to
be Elon is the bad guy, he's on the
other side, maybe this will benefit me a
bit behind the scenes. I always get a
little bit skeptical of like attributing
to real personal aspirations [ __ ] that's
going on when someone is
mega mega time because they're so
concerned about optics and and how does
this play?
Maybe maybe this is the the driving
force in the back of his mind. I just
get the sense that when there is a big
tsunami of stuff happening, you're
playing much more for kind of the big
game than the smaller personal stuff
back home, but I could be wrong. Yeah,
and it's just interesting because
for instance, something as simple as
government efficiency. That's what Doge
stand for, Department of Government
Efficiency.
Shouldn't that be something we all
celebrate?
And so when you hear these politicians
come out and speak against this stuff,
it's like, okay, has common sense left
your brain? Cuz we all just want more
efficiency inside of our government.
Like 3 to 7% of all taxes go towards
fraud.
Tell you what's interesting. I did the
first long-form podcast episode with
anybody from DOJ ever. And it's a guy
called Sam Corkos, who is currently the
CIO of the Treasury Department. So, we
did the episode on the same set as the
McConaughey one, but instead we had the
US debt calculator on the big video wall
behind us.
And um
I was asking him just how sort of
inefficient and he's he's very much on
the technical side of this. What are the
algorithms that we're using? How are we
tracking these things? Um you know, he's
very much sort of in the matrix of this,
trying to reprogram it to make it more
efficient from a technical standpoint.
He's got a big technical background.
Uh but if you just think, okay, that's
the system
which is designed and relatively easy to
be able to investigate, relatively easy
to to to investigate. We've got all of
these different systems. How Let's put
them all out on a whiteboard and we can
work it out. If you go, okay, you need
to fly [snorts] to Minnesota, go to this
place, investigate this. Is there a
person there? When did the kids arrive?
When did they leave? Has this guy got
four wives? What's going on? Is the
money being paid in cash? That's so much
more arduous. It's like that's
whack-a-mole as opposed to what Sam's
doing, which is much more like an atomic
bomb of trying to improve efficiency.
And he was having challenges. He was
hitting limits. So, I guess
the first thing it makes me think about
is when you have a country of this size
the diseconomies of scale of 330 million
people
there's going to be so much slippage in
the system and so many holes and little
exploits and speedruns that you can go
through. This is kind of inevitable.
This isn't me
excusing the fact that it happens, but
just
how could it not? How would it not? But
the point is now, okay, we have found
this. So, we play whack-a-mole. And this
is not a small mole, right? How What's
the total amount of fraud? It's
estimated above 9 billion with a B, 9
billion.
Right. Yeah, that's a significant amount
of money.
>> It's a lot of money. Just in just in
Minnesota? Just in Minnesota.
Wow.
And so it makes you think like one thing
I'm super proud about my video is it's
the first video you've ever seen where
where journalism really created
instantaneously change. You had feds go
and launch multiple investigations.
They decided to freeze all
childcare funding
for the state of Minnesota. Mhm. Or
frozen all childcare funding for the
state of Minnesota.
>> Yes. Okay, well, I mean, that sounds
good. That sounds good. But that that
has got to impact people who
legitimately trying to get their
children looked after. My next point is
they said, "We'll give you back the
funding once you prove you're a
legitimate business." Okay.
To this day, time of this recording, no
businesses have submitted to prove
legitimacy.
None? None. How are you tracking that?
The Department of the HHS made a video
about it just the other day. The HHS
made a video? Have they got a YouTube
channel? Uh they should probably They
they've been they've been tagging me in
their post on X. Okay, that's
interesting. So, are they are they Are
they adversarial with you? Are they
collaborative with you? How What's the
tone like with this? I think they're
appreciative of the effort because they
saw how obvious I made it to the
American public that fraud was
happening. And so, I think it's amazing
what they're doing and I think this kind
of could help combat fraud in a lot of
states and across America is all right.
Obviously, there's a lot of fraud
happening. Let's take a week break.
Let's freeze the funding.
And now everyone showed us proof of
legitimacy. And if you can't Mhm.
we're not going to give you the money.
Have you got any idea what proof of
legitimacy looks like?
Probably showing
like there's kids inside the daycares
maybe. Maybe that'd be a That'd probably
be a good place to start. Like, "Hey,
here's our video cameras of us receiving
our 90 kids that we have a capacity
for." Mhm. That'd probably help prove
they're a little bit more legit.
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Okay, so what's been the rest of the
fallout sort of structurally of what's
gone on in Minnesota?
Childcare stuff's been halted until you
prove and then you can get it back. Yes.
That's been a fallout. Just the other
day, there were protesters stormed ICE
and ICE actually killed a protester. I
saw that was that the lady in the car?
Yes.
Yeah, I mean That was very sad to see.
>> I wanted to talk about this, dude, cuz
I think
one of the concerns
that everybody has is we've already got
some pretty sort of
tight tensions around this sort of stuff
at the moment. The UK maybe even more so
than here.
Uh
do you think How much do you think your
video contributed to the tension of what
happened in Minneapolis the other day?
Well, they surged the city with federal
agents.
And they launched the investigations.
Which is a good thing. Do we want crime
to be happening? Do we want illegal
migrants running rampant in our cities?
Do we want millions of dollars being
funneled across to other places? These
are all good things. But now the left is
saying that you're a bad person for
trying to crack down and uphold the law.
And so if that lady to be out there and
impeding
law enforcement and then attempt to run
him over.
Like the video's pretty evident that she
was going to her target was to run him
over.
And he shot her. Super tragic. I was
super sad when I saw that video. I saw
like that didn't that did not need to
happen.
She didn't need to put law enforcement
in risk. She could have supported law
enforcement. And she could have abided
by what they said. They told her to get
out of her door, to get out of her car,
and then she goes and
hits the ICE agent and he's fearful of
her his life and he shoots her.
Super sad. Right? No one wants to see
that happen.
And uh it's just gotten to a point where
people need to really come to their
senses and think, "Okay,
this is law enforcement. If they're
going to tell us to do something, we
should probably do it."
>> Listen, yeah.
But now you're But then you're seeing
these politicians come out and say
"ICE, get the F out of our city." Little
Little guy Frey says that, the mayor of
Minneapolis.
And then Tim Walz is calling this a war
against the federal government. Why
can't they de-escalate and say, "All
right, you guys,
fraud's bad. Illegal migrants, if you're
here, local law enforce federal law
enforcement's here.
If they get you guys
you're going to go back to where you
came from." How many of the
Somali people
are there legally versus illegally? Is
there any idea? I don't know. What's
your estimation?
Well, with Biden, a lot of people came
into the country over 10 to 20 million.
And so, there's a lot of them. And then
people undocumented, people have been
doing their asylum cases.
So, who knows exactly how many.
>> You had no indication of how many people
were actual citizens versus illegal. No.
Yeah. But cuz for instance, some of them
came out here, like Ilhan Omar, she's
naturalized citizen of the United
States. She was born in Somalia, brought
over. She became a US citizen. Now she's
in Congress. And so, there's a lot of
people who are naturalized citizens. And
because this happened a long time ago,
people like Ilhan Omar then have kids
and then those kids are born citizens.
Mhm. And so, that's what makes it super
complex um with the topic of illegal
immigration cuz you have parents who are
illegal, kids who are illegal. And the
option is, well, if we find you, you
have the option to go back with your
children. Mhm.
And
or your child will be here. It's very
like the topic of illegal immigration is
super hard. That's why you should do it
right.
>> Yeah. Yeah, it's it's it's a a brutal
situation. So, the the influx of ICE
agents
that was specifically kind of in
response to this. Yeah, and ICE was
already there. They had been there for
since back in June. When I was there for
the first time back last June, there was
a ICE raid that took place and they've
been operating there for months
since Trump took office cuz a lot of
people that came over the border, we
didn't just have immigration from
Latin America. We had people coming all
the way from Africa, all across the
world they came over. And so, there's a
high likelihood that tens of thousands
of people from Somalia also came in and
where do they go when they get here to
the United States, a place where they
feel like they're being represented?
Mhm. Somalia. Mhm. Or to not Somalia, to
the It might be now. Little Little
Somalia, yeah. Um
have you got any idea who masterminded
this? Are the Somalis that innovative
that they just kind of played the system
over and over until they found an
exploit and stood next to a spawn point
and started to generate like free
government money? Yeah, I'm sure someone
just saw that
it was easy. No one was really checking.
I mean, they had
They had fraud tourism. People were
coming all across the country to move to
Minnesota to commit fraud. Mhm. Cuz they
wasn't getting stopped. Well, I think
I remember when I was in downtown
San Francisco for the first time
and I was looking around and I couldn't
believe how many homeless people there
were. And you know, I come from Austin
where there's a pretty big homeless
population, but it's not that much. And
I realized that well, you've got
basically the perfect climate. Like
meteorologically, you've got the perfect
climate. It's not going to get too cold
that you freeze. It's not going to get
too hot that you get cooked alive. And I
suppose this is kind of the equivalent,
but it's a
fiscal, financial, legal loophole
weird that's perfect. Yeah, and
>> [clears throat]
>> that was kind of my big my big question
coming into this is like why Minnesota?
Why Minneapolis? And it just seems like
well, maybe this is available elsewhere,
but someone found it and then just
rinsed and repeated and told their
friends and told their friends and now I
mean, there there very well may be some
sort of blueprint playbook that
someone's got printed out on this is
exactly where you need to submit. This
is exactly what you need to say. This is
exactly what you need to do. Oh, I'm
sure of it. And also like that people
are very scared to speak up in
Minneapolis, Minnesota in general.
You had George Floyd that happened there
and you saw what happened. They let the
city burn.
And so people politicians especially
they're afraid of being politically
correct in calling things out for what
they are.
And so
I think that kind of helped cultivate
that fraud and enable it to continue.
>> scared of being called racist. So no one
wants to call out something legitimate
for being seen as being xenophobic.
Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, that happens
all across the world. That happened in
the UK with the grooming stuff that
happened that took place. And I've
talked with Tommy Robinson before and he
he's like it political correctness got
so bad that British men and women let
their children
get you know what? Mhm. And it's it's
sad that people are afraid to speak
truth. But now I believe since we have
freedom of speech back with X,
Trump he will say whatever. And so
people feel like they can say what how
they really feel and if it's a fact,
it's a fact.
>> Are you concerned that this could result
in xenophobia around a particular like
an entire community of people when it's
only one small portion of them, the
Somalis that live in New York or Somalis
that live in Austin, Texas or whatever?
Well, I don't think if you're if you're
not committing fraud, you shouldn't be
worried.
It's just kind of a blatant fact that
you shouldn't be worried unless you're
committing fraud. Some man came up to me
in part two and he comes after me. He
says, are we the only community that
commits fraud?
I'm like, well, you just
admitted you commit fraud. [laughter]
Like come on, man. And so it's like
>> Stop investigating my fraud. Investigate
their fraud.
>> Exactly. I'm like, well, it just happens
89% of the population
that are committing the fraud are
Somalis here. And there was a lady who
got who's who got charged for
committing fraud with it's called a
Feeding Our Future. And she was the head
head honcho of it. She got charged and
she's in jail. However, there was a man
inside Minnesota who got caught for $7.2
million.
Somalian man, he was charged, found
guilty, and the judge overturned it and
let the guy walk.
Why?
I don't know.
Interesting, right?
Why would you
after finding a man being charged guilty
of $7.2 million in fraud, why would you
let him walk? When was this? Just a few
months ago, maybe a year or so ago. Wow.
Medicaid fraud, I believe.
>> Have you seen any displays of this sort
of wealth? Cuz if we're talking about
millions, tens of millions, maybe even
hundreds of millions of dollars going to
a community of people which is at most
200,000. Well, I have to assume that
some other communities It's not
the Somalis aren't going to be able to
completely ring fence this around
themselves. I have to guess that there's
going to be some other groups that have
done this, too.
Have you seen Is there anyone driving
around in a Lambo? Someone got a a big
house? Outside one of the daycares,
there was a three BMWs and one Range
Rover.
Okay. Midday during a weekday. That was
interesting. I believe some kid
>> No no kids, but three cars. No kids
here, but four really nice luxury cars.
Someone here also in LA, they did a
video and they went and found a daycare
and it was an Iranian man who was in a
Rolls-Royce.
Okay. That's pretty good. And so it's
kind of like there's that one movie. I
can't remember what it's called, but
there's that one movie where they steal
all the money and they start buying
houses and then then people are all
wondering, well, how do these hicks
start getting rich? And then they find
the fraud. Mhm. And I mean, the lady who
got caught for Feeding Our Future scam,
that was a $250 million fraud scam. She
was driving around a Porsche.
I'm pretty sure that the
in the the lady or one of the ladies
that founded BLM, she got investigated
quite aggressively. She
>> Huge huge houses everywhere, yeah.
Yeah, what a shame, dude. What a shame
because I think
>> [clears throat]
>> two things can be true at once. There
can be loads of fraud and we should
actually invest more to make these sort
of legitimate versions of these sorts of
businesses available for people who
really need them. And you know, my
question about is there going to be a
challenge if you're a normal law-abiding
Somali?
What if you're a normal law-abiding
daycare? You're going to get
scrutinized. The kids are maybe going to
be a little bit disrupted or maybe a lot
disrupted. You're going to be worried
about security concerns. And yeah, I
It's weird when you think about this cuz
what people would say, I can imagine one
of the criticisms would be something
like this is going to make it harder for
legitimate businesses to do the thing
that they need to do. Like yeah, that's
true, but I I don't know what the
solution is. I don't know how you step
in and investigate misuse
without there being a
blast radius of scrutiny around people
who aren't misusing. Yeah, I think
transparency is very important. So if
you're operating a daycare and you're
operating legally, if someone ask you
for a brochure, have that brochure for
them. Mhm. Don't come after them and
then
cry victim after it happen, but be
running your business
legitimately. And so that's why I was
like I was really happy to see that they
froze the funding cuz that gives every
opportunity for every business to prove
they're legit business. Well, I mean, it
does sound like
>> [laughter]
>> in retrospect because the businesses
have already been running, it sounds
kind of
intrusive or restrictive in some sort of
a way. But if you were to say from the
get-go,
in order for you to get funding to open
up a daycare, you need to prove to us
that you have adhered to this list of
things, you go, that seems like a
reasonable request for a daycare. The
problem is that these daycares have been
operating without that and then when you
bring the scrutiny in, you just have
anchoring bias. Exactly. I mean, Biden
[snorts] literally like
it came out just the other day like the
the restrictions the guidelines to get a
daycare going was very low
when he was in office.
So a lot of this fraud has been been
enabled to happen and now people are
saying, Nick, you need to go to fraud
here in California. You need to go to
Ohio. All Seattle, Washington. There's
all this fraud taking place. And so I
think now you're going to start seeing a
lot of people speaking out against fraud
cuz I mean, some people are paying
upwards of
more than 50% of their paycheck
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What are the places if you were to
create based on the messages you've got
and you were to make a a hit list of the
top few places that you would go to,
where would they be? California, really
bad, obviously.
The next one would be Ohio. I heard that
one's really bad. And New York's bad as
well. So those would probably be the top
three. What have you learned about those
places? Has someone said it's a
particular It's a different Is it the
same scheme, different one?
>> A lot of it is the welfare scams. Here
in California, you had $24 billion
randomly randomly go unaccounted for for
homelessness. You have that train
they've been trying to build for years
upon years.
>> Cali fraud, yeah. And then Ohio, you
have welfare programs as well. New York
City got welfare programs as well where
people are just kind of
stealing from the government. Who would
be
highest profile politicians or
departments that are working with you
now or that have reached out? Well, I'm
not working with any of them. People
have reached out. For instance, I was on
Patrick Bet-David. He's like, Nick, put
out a tweet right now calling out Cash
Patel and Pam Bondi. Ask them how you
can help. And so then I'm like driving
to the airport and I get a phone call
and I could
I scree screened it before and it said,
"This is the FBI calling." And uh I was
in Uber, so I didn't want to answer and
have the Uber guy over hearing it. And
so I was like, "Okay, I'll wait to
answer it." By the time I had gotten to
the air- airport, by that time I had
received
five or 10 other calls and I couldn't
figure out what one it was.
And so like a lot of you have been
reaching out to me, but also at the same
time I'm like, "Okay, well, I'm not a
fed. I'm not going to do you guys' job
for you."
Um I gave I showed you guys what was
happening. I'm willing to talk, but I'm
not a fed. Like this is kind of you
guys' job to go in I'm willing to do my
job as a citizen to give you guys as
much information as I can, but
at the end of the day you guys are the
ones with the papers and you guys are
the ones with all the
who who have all the the laws in your
power to go and find these fraudsters.
So you ended up speaking to the FBI? No,
I didn't actually.
>> Oh, you got so many missed calls, but
just never could call them back.
>> it. Like this week my phone I can't even
keep up with it cuz
if I fall asleep for 2 hours or go to
bed at night, I wake up and I have 100
text messages. Like I could show you. My
phone's in the other room, but I have
just like 300 messages I haven't gotten
back to.
Wow. Just cuz there's so many people.
Yeah. What's been the response of the
mainstream press to this? Yeah, so you
think they'd be happy that somebody goes
in and
goes and shows what that fraud is
happening.
But instead of investigating the
fraudsters, they investigated me.
They tried to come in and debunk my
whole entire story. They couldn't do it
cuz it was true.
And uh they labeled me as a MAGA
YouTuber, conservative, right-wing
journalist. Would you call yourself
conservative? Yeah, I am conservative. I
think a lot of the values from
conservatives are stuff I just share
equally as well.
I just think it makes the most sense.
But um
But I had this conversation with a
left-leaning journalist. I said, "Well,
are you a journalist or you a left-wing
journalist?"
He's like, "Well, I'm a journalist." I'm
like, "Okay, same thing here. I'm a
journalist, too."
And I'll talk to the liberal. I'll talk
to the homeless man. I'll talk to the
guy running the daycare. I'll talk to
the person who's been living in the
neighborhood for 8 years. I'll talk to
everyone inside my video. And that's why
my video
I think it resonated with so many people
cuz I was showing and I was talking to
quite literally everybody from the
daycare owner to the man who's been
doing his own inves- investigation for
years. To the guy who's been living in
this living in Minneapolis for 8 years
who never seen a kid inside Quality
Learning Center. And then the crazy
liberal who's yelling at me telling me
I'm ICE.
So I'll talk to everybody and I'll go to
these protests. I'll do these live
streams. I'll talk to the protesters.
And I just let people talk.
And if they want to come after me, so be
it. I'm there to give each and every
single person I interview an opportunity
to explain what they're doing, what they
think, and why they're
ultimately why they're behind the cause
that they're behind.
Why do you think it is that the
mainstream press had such a problem with
it? Is it just a
good optics to seem like you're sort of
fighting for the underdog brown person
or is it is there something deeper going
on? I think it's cuz they're trying to
delegitimize me.
Cuz I pose a threat to everything that
they are. I pose a threat to their
viewership,
to their dollars, to their fan base. And
so why would they want me to get credit
for a story that they should have been
reporting on? They have thousands of
employees.
I have me and myself
my mom
>> [laughter]
>> That's pretty much it. I'll have my
cameraman.
And that's it. And we just hit over 100
million views on an exposé that they
should have covered as well.
But instead they come after me.
So I think that's kind of why. And so
that's why you're seeing that and they
know that the mainstream media it's
dying.
Like
their viewership is getting less and
less each and every single year. And so
if they can come in they find somebody
like me who goes and does this story,
gets way more views than they did,
why would they want to say, "Oh, good
good job, Nick Shirley. Like that's
amazing reporting you did you just did."
Let's do everything to make people know
that.
At least try to make them know that
whatever Nick Shirley did was not true.
But it was true. Yeah, I think
there's certainly a
a rivalry between independent and legacy
media in that way. I would say at least
again, the the immediate benefit that
these people get in the same way as the
immediate benefit that Tim Waltz perhaps
got is the optics.
That if you're not seen to be pushing
back against this, you're seen to be
implicitly
agreeing with and endorsing the worst
possible explanation of why you could
have done it. That you don't like brown
people. That you're a the
secret agent for Donald Trump. That
you're a fed. That you're a whatever. Um
I think that to me makes the most sense,
but I don't I don't disagree that um
for the first time ever is really funny.
There was some
uh gossip in the evidence-based fitness
community a couple of months ago. And um
it was the first time that I'd ever seen
the press
commenting on a really niche internet
story. So typically YouTubers, we would
react to [ __ ] that happened in the real
world or that's in the press. Press does
an investigation, we talk about it,
right? Today in the New York Times, did
you see the article about such and such?
This is the first time where it happened
the other way around. It was like some
niche internet beef had gotten
sufficiently big
that the press had gone, "Oh, that's a
story that we can have." And that was
when I I really realized that sort of
the flow of traffic is moving in the
other direction. It very much is that
the independent media stuff. I'm still
hesitant about like completely sucking
off everybody who's doing independent
stuff. Mainstream press still gets a ton
of reach in places that we simply can't.
Like we just can't reach most of middle
America soccer mom people. It's not
they're not going to hit your algo no
matter how many times Elon Musk retweets
it. The only way it works is if NPR pick
up on Musk's tweet.
But
there is definitely a rivalry going on.
And as with any sort of
dying institution, it tends to not go
down without a fight. There's a rivalry
going on and
it's competition at the end of the day.
For them, they're trying to keep up with
people like me and you. I mean, we're
able to run our
operatives a lot smoother and smaller
than they are. Just think about what
they have to do to go out and get a
story. They have to
book a cameraman. They have to carry
around this huge backpack. They have to
get approval from the senior editor. And
then when they want to post a video,
then it goes through two different
hands. And then they have to approve it.
And then it goes live. Versus me, I book
my flight. I get to the location. I
film. I edit. And I post.
Well, the frictionlessness is is a
massive advantage. It's why you were
able to basically turn it around in 10
days. Um the criticism of that would be,
well, because you're not going through
the appropriate amount of scrutiny with
having higher levels. This could go
There will be an error, some sort of an
implication error or many in the video
that you put out. And in the next one
and in every podcast that I have ever
done because it's not going to go
through an entire team of fact-checkers.
I think the reason that people feel
particularly aggrieved when the
mainstream media make errors, it's the
same reason that you feel super pissed
if you ever to see a cop texting while
driving. Like, "Hey,
>> [snorts]
>> you're supposed to enforce the law.
Because you enforce the law, you're kind
of meant to adhere to it more
rigorously than we are.
But you know, the concern that people
have about citizen journalism is that
it's fast and loose with the facts and
if it just gets clicks, it doesn't
matter. So I think
you know, if I was to give you a piece
of advice, I think
certainly as you move forward, which
you're probably already doing,
you need to unfortunately become
increasingly squeaky clean with your own
fact-checking as you go on because the
amount of scrutiny, the amount of
eyeballs now is just going to keep
getting more and more. And if you [ __ ]
up, what's going to happen is that's
going to be used that
uh is going to be
a microcosm to try and smear the rest of
the world. Oh, see? See the error that
was in that that actually he's not a
such and such. And then
that's the rest of it. I mean, I've made
my mistakes, too. And when you're going
through making a video like that, the
editing process is long and it's takes a
lot of time to edit. So you're also
doing back checks as well when you're
editing it. Cuz I edit all my videos.
I'm also going through and if
something's not true, I'm not I'm going
to call it out for what it is.
And uh
everything in that video that I posted
was true. And have I made mistakes
before? Yeah, I have. I'm 23 years old
and I've been doing this sort of
journalism for about 2 years now. Like
I'm not going to say I've never made
mistakes, but
in this case of the Minnesota fraud
video, it's been proven to be completely
true. Not only by me, but by the
government, by the locals. I mean,
Quality Learning Center
it just [snorts] got shut down
the other day. Got closed on January
6th. And also when the same the same day
that that guy came out and he was
talking about Quality Learning Center
were open.
And
that same time the commissioner of
children
Tikki James was doing a live stream and
she announced that the daycare had been
closed while he's out there telling
people it's open. Wow.
Talk to me about the security concerns
that you've got now.
Yeah, so
security now
I have to have it
because I exposed fraud. And right now I
have somebody with me 24/7. I have
somebody at the house as well. It's
super expensive. And as a YouTuber, I
don't make enough money to be able to
afford it, unfortunately. So I was able
to to raise some money.
I don't know if you know him. His name's
Officer Tatum. He has a non-profit side
of a security company. And the people
can go ahead and donate to that donate
to that where it's helping me. It's
called Black Line Guardian and they have
a security side
I go they have like a non-profit side of
it where people can donate.
>> So you got a big scary dude with the
beard outside is
organized by him? Yes. Well, cool. So
that helps a lot and so
that's been critical because they're
just like the threats that I've received
where Talk to me about those. What have
you got? Yeah, so for instance somebody
sent me a photo of somebody in a ditch
dead and they say well this will be you
on a A text? Just on a
just through private messages like DMs.
People are
posting you'll be Kirked.
Um
people on certain platforms just went
ahead and doxxed me. So that was great.
Which is why you now need the security
at your house. Yes. Yeah. Luckily we got
the info taken down but it just sucks
that there's people who get so mad about
you doing something where the point
where they want to kill you. I mean we
saw it with Charlie
Rest in peace to Charlie Kirk.
And now it's very dangerous like
being well-known in politics is
different than being well-known for
having an amazing song.
Cuz politics is now very polarizing.
And so I thought on an issue of just
fraud happening I didn't think
to me I was just making another YouTube
video for my weekly uploads. I've
uploaded a YouTube video every week for
the past 100 weeks.
And so for me to post that video then
all of a sudden kind of my life to be
changed overnight to the point where
I have to have a 24/7 security guy with
me right now and it's not the funnest
thing to have to go through and try to
navigate and plan stuff. It feels like
you're just going from point A to point
B now.
And you're kind of have to figure out
how to live life a little bit different
for at least this these past few weeks
and
going forward for the next few weeks as
well. What's it been like emotionally to
navigate?
Weird.
I'm not a very emotional person.
I think what was harder was going
through like
constantly defending yourself and like
fighting back against all this fake news
that was coming out or people trying to
debunk me. It just felt like you're kind
of like fighting a war online and that
was just it was weird cuz you feel like
cuz I actually never really gave my
opinions on the internet before this. I
was just interviewing people and talking
to people and then when everyone comes
after you you feel like you have to
stand on business and so I had to do
that. And um
I gained millions and millions of
supporters literally who support me.
And it's been amazing and it's also been
pretty exhausting. I like I think
the three days after I posted that video
I maybe slept for 10 hours for the three
days combined.
And so I just have barely been catching
up on sleep.
And uh yeah it does take a bit of a toll
on you emotionally but
it's just a battle you have to fight.
Does it make you hesitant about doing
more if it means that your life's going
to be in jeopardy?
Yes.
And now you're trying to think of
different ways to do it or if you're
going to go film this video what
security measures do you have in place
beforehand. It's just stuff you didn't
have to think about before. Before it
was just I'd run around I'd grab my
GoPro and
my camera and I would No one knows who
you are. No one cares. No one cares and
increasingly started to get like a
little bit more dangerous. For instance
the riots here in LA people were
singling me out trying to kick me out of
the of interviewing people and then I go
to
>> Because they know who you are. They've
got an idea about the sort of
perspective you're coming into this
with. Yes. Protest in New York City I'm
live streaming it I'm live streaming a
protest that's happening in New York
City just asking people questions not
even giving my opinion.
NYPD has to pull me out cuz a bunch of
protesters surround me. They start
throwing stuff on me. NYPD pulls me out.
And so it had increasingly been getting
to that point and then someone also in
this field they're like well Nick it was
just a matter of time before this
happened especially with the topics
you're covering. Mhm.
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I think
I don't mean to call you naive. I think
you're right. Um
doesn't need to be said.
Death threats aren't
uncool.
But if you're talking about taking away
hundreds tens of millions hundreds of
millions and up to billions of dollars
from people who are potentially
criminally minded
the prospect of you having death threats
does not surprise me. Like this is
I mean
there will be there is an 100% certainty
that organized crime like proper proper
proper organized crime is involved at
some point in some portion of this or
maybe in a big chunk of it because no
one is able to come up with a scheme
allegedly that is this good that
is able to churn out this sort of cash
and it not be picked up on by some
big burly guy covered in tattoos who
wants to have a piece of that. So yeah
man I mean
I get it. I get that it feels and it is
um
that scary and unfair but yeah if you
start
if you start attacking that kind of
resource
there's going to be a lot of people that
are going to be upset. Yeah, no one
likes to get their money played with.
No. Well, including the taxpayer. Isn't
there a
movement at the moment for a tax strike?
Are people tax striking? Whatever that
means. Yeah, we'll see if it happens.
Yeah, well I mean it it is kind of a bit
like I'm not giving you my money because
you're giving it to the daycare centers
that I don't like. It's like okay go to
jail. Like you need to pay us your
taxes. I don't I don't know whether a
tax strike works. You can't ethically
object to your taxes being taken. You
can just try and then the law comes up
against you.
It's going to be interesting if people
actually hold their word on to it
because no one wants to go to jail.
I mean the Boston Tea Party we fought
over just a few percentages.
>> That's a very difficult day for me. Be
careful with that. Um have you got any
lawsuits coming your way?
As of right now no. No lawsuits. Well, I
guess it's still kind of early days.
What I did was it was true and if
someone wants to prove me otherwise
Well, I think
the issue that you have is lawsuits
don't need to be predicated on anything
that's untrue. They can be predicated on
truth and just drown you in paperwork,
try and send as much
worry and concern your way. I mean you
saw do you see um Shawn Ryan and Dan
Crenshaw that are in a big
fallout at the moment? Um and then it
didn't happen.
It felt like I'd been edged up to the
point of orgasm and then it didn't it
didn't end up occurring. [ __ ]
nightmare.
Uh
that entire process and on Shawn's side
is somebody is using the legal system to
bully me in a way it bully a journalist
bully someone who's investigating uh
in a manner that is not because I
crossed the line but is because I'm just
inconvenient. Yeah, I pray it doesn't
ever get to that point and that's why I
had
avoided stuff like this for so long and
that's why I always feel like in my
videos I just
kind of give other people the option to
voice their opinion whether it was the
daycare lady or whether it's
whether it's at talking to people at the
border. Just giving people their
opinions and so
I really hope I never have to get into
any of that. Have you got a legal team
or is people reviewing stuff that you
put out now?
Like the next video is that going to be
filtered through or is it still just you
again
camera Premiere Pro caffeine and just
shaking it? Lots of caffeine.
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll put you on the rotation for new
tonic it'll help. I'm uh
I'm changing a little bit how I go about
things.
>> a smart idea. Yeah, it's kind of
necessary. I think that's a smart idea.
But it's been amazing to see the support
as well. Lots and lots of people want to
support me.
Cuz a lot of people's lives being
affected by this fraud stuff.
A lot of people are getting pushed out
of places for Mhm.
Tell me about part two.
Part two. Yes, so the daycare fraud's
only one part of the fraud.
And what [snorts] really holds the fraud
together is these transportation
companies.
And so Like shipping?
No, they're called non-emergency
transportation.
Okay. And so for instance these daycares
and these home health care companies
adult daycares they need to be able to
prove that they're doing stuff. So they
have created these
um transportation companies. You'll see
them all across Minnesota all across
Minneapolis. You'll drive you'll see a
van and there's never anybody in these
vans. It's just always a driver.
So
in order to make it look like they're
doing stuff they get these drivers
they'll send they'll say all right
here's our client. So imagine you have
an adult daycare center Okay. and then
you have a health care clinic.
In order to kind of prove that you're
doing legit business okay well we're
going to take this adult adult
to
health care clinic.
And we're actually not really providing
a service and there's no person to
actually take so we'll have the
transportation company
we'll write it up that they took that
person there, they got that service, and
then they brought her back.
And nothing actually ever happened. It's
just the transportation moving from one
place to the next to be able to
[clears throat] continue
this fraud.
So, [snorts] it's like that it's like
what keeps the hamster wheel going. Why
is the transportation so important? Is
that Is that a crucial part of logging
the activities?
>> Yeah, it's so it's basically so they can
log the activities and then the
transportation company also makes money
and it's logging what's happening.
Right. So, it makes it a lot harder to
kind of prove that
something fishy is going on because no,
we we we we had the transportation
company take the client. This is the
proof. Mhm. I suppose the problem is
because
uh
every business doesn't talk to every
other business, what you would pretty
easily be able to do is say, "Well, go
to the health care and say, 'Did this
person come in at this time?'" That's
not It's not the job of the health care
company to work with the benefit company
to see that the day care company dropped
the person off with the transport
company and you know Yeah, but they're
all in on it.
Including the health care?
In one building in my video
22 health care companies inside of one
building. Right.
Okay. Okay, so
So,
is it right to say that the transport
thing is part of the crux of this
because it is one of the areas that's
scrutinized by
the the government? what's going on? I
just don't understand why the vans and
the mini buses are so important. Yeah,
so like you said, it helps log.
>> Yep. And so that way they can then if
someone is like, "Well, show us the
proof." Oh, well, look um
Safari transportation
took
Mohammed to the doctor.
Like it makes it harder, but in my part
two, we go to these transportation
companies to their
addresses where they're listed on the
state of Minnesota website and there's
no company.
There's no vans. Mhm. Yet
they are then
we did the math, it's about $50 per
travel from one way to the next and an
average
NEMT transportation company has about 20
vehicles. So, on average every day
Minnesota about $2 million are being
sucked out from these companies.
Wow. So, it's just part of the welfare
fraud.
Wow. So, the next part two is primarily
about the transport stuff? Yes, and some
day cares as well. Okay. Okay.
That's already been filmed? It's already
been filmed.
>> Cuz there's no way that you're getting
back into Minneapolis.
>> No, just to go back I had to have four
security guards. Yeah. You couldn't get
And when was that?
Just the other week. Okay.
And so I had legit people stopping at
intersections at a red light. Their cars
parked in the middle of the
intersection.
They're coming out
coming for me and security is like,
"Woah, woah, woah, woah." And stops the
guy.
This is what's funny. They Meanwhile,
I'm speaking to a black man
and then this other black Somalian is
calling me a racist. I'm like, "Yo, I
just talking to I've got a black friend.
>> Yeah, I got a black friend right here.
This isn't a race thing. Like it's it's
all just about fraud. Mhm.
But it got political it got political
for some reason.
Well, of course it did cuz everything
gets political. Nowadays it does, but
wouldn't you think it'd be like a good
thing to kind of show that fraud's
happening? Look, I I I totally get it,
man, that inefficiency and anybody
manipulating the system, especially if
you're the sort of person who really
cares about the working class. If you're
supposed to be raising those up out of
poverty who don't don't deserve to be in
it, shouldn't be in it. Well, if someone
is illegitimately taking funds
and using them, that is fewer funds
going to the people who genuinely need
them. And then I
when you start to sort of
spin in, "Well, these people might not
be here legally. They might be sending
money back Okay, so we're literally
exporting potentially allegedly
US taxpayer dollars
through Dubai back to some country in
the Middle East."
It doesn't surprise me that people have
got super passionate about it. Like if
what you're saying is true
this is
this is wild. I I mean you you have to
have predicted that this is basically
going to be an entire new content matter
for probably the next 2 years. That
there are going to be mini Nick
Sherleys.
The the one in New York and the one in
There'll be one in Toronto and there'll
be one in LA. People need to be careful,
too, cuz I did my due diligence when I
went and did that video. I've seen a lot
of people just like going to day cares.
I'm like, "You guys
no, you don't just do that." What was
your due diligence? What did you do?
So, I've been investigating it for a
while and then David had all the
paperwork and I had testimonies from
other people as well. So, I knew that it
was happening and I wasn't just showing
up to random day cares. We had all the
numbers with us in hand when we went to
them.
And we had done our
due diligence.
What would be your
What are the ways to do it right and do
it wrong if there's a mini Nick Sherley
that thinks I'm going to go and give
this a crack in Austin, Texas?
What should they and shouldn't they do?
You I would look up, do all my due
diligence. A lot of information's on the
state's websites.
You don't just go to a day care and say,
"Hey, are you guys committing fraud?"
>> [laughter]
>> That's what CNN did though.
Yeah. Is in my They came after me and
they're like, "And then we called seven
other day cares They didn't say that
they were committing fraud. And only one
of them answered and they said they
weren't committing fraud. Okay. But um
yes, be very
wary of what you do and make sure you do
your due diligence because one, you
don't want to accuse somebody of doing
something that they're actually not
doing
and you don't want to put yourself in a
place of danger. So, people should be
very careful and that's why you just
don't go up with a camera and microphone
start talking to people and about fraud.
If you have to
know and there's a way about carrying
carrying yourself about it. A lot of
people come across confrontational.
It's not good. You don't want to come
across across confrontational. You just
want to act like you're going and
to get the truth cuz that's what you're
are doing.
And uh
people I've learned something over the
past few years as I've been doing this
just people will kind of show themselves
for who they really are after a few
conversations, after a few sentences
and uh after a few questions. So
know a lot
I feel like I'm very well socially. Like
I can kind of get the gist of the vibe
of places and who I'm talking to and a
lot of people don't. So, it does take
You just can't go and do it.
>> Mhm.
Test the temperature a little bit before
you steam in. I thought it was
interesting that you mentioned you you
try to be kind of low profile with
filming equipment as well. I think
that's a smart move. Yeah. I just want
people to feel like they're inside the
video. Mhm. And
I mean having a big camera, this is why
the news isn't successful. If you watch
any news person, they got these huge
cameras. They got another guy holding
the microphone on top. They got a light.
They're putting a You'll see them in New
York City, the news anchors. They're
like standing on a box. They got a light
brightening up their face.
>> Changes the dynamic of everything.
>> Changes the dynamic of everything and
What do people want more than anything
nowadays? Just pure authenticity.
And so
I like to do that by my style of filming
where it's just kind of like running
gun. Like I know it's not the best
quality, but we're running.
>> Yeah, it'll work. Uh
I heard that you'd also been to CECOT as
well. Yes. What was that like?
Craziest experience of my life probably.
>> Tell tell tell people the the story
behind that.
>> So, CECOT's this maximum security
prison.
It's actually
like the central of terrorism in El
Salvador. El Salvador used to be ran by
gangs completely.
Grandmas couldn't go from one street to
the next to go visit their nieces and
nephews cuz gangs controlled the areas.
So, Nayib Bukele
he actually created his own political
party inside of El Salvador called New
Ideas. And part of this was that we are
going to go down and he doesn't He's
He's rich, so he actually doesn't need
funding. So
he that's like how you can tell a
political person isn't can't be really
corrupted because they don't need the
money. So, Nayib Bukele he he goes and
he says, "We're going to fight the gangs
and we're going to lock all the
prisoners up. All the gangsters we're
putting inside of CECOT and they are
never leaving." So, [clears throat] they
go through and they lock up all the
prisoners. They turned El Salvador from
the most dangerous country in the world
to the safest country in the Western
Hemisphere.
And they put all these prisoners inside
of CECOT.
And this prison
it's like a bunch of massive Costco's
for prisoners and they're never leaving.
And no uh American YouTuber had ever
gone in and I saw that Luisito Comunica,
the
he's the most popular Latino YouTuber,
he went in. So, I was like, "Oh, there
has to be a possibility to go." And so I
went to El Salvador. I made a separate
video and I had in the back of my mind
like I need to find a contact so I can
figure this out. And I end up meeting
with one of the mayors in my video. He
said, "No, but maybe here's this phone
number. Contact this person." That
person says, "No." I'm like, "Well,
where do I go?" They're like, "I don't
know." Kind of just gave up on me. And
so then I started following people on X
and I started sending messages like,
"Hey, I want to come into this prison."
And finally just random person was like,
"Okay, I'll put you in I'll put you in
contact with the secretary of press."
And I was able to go in and
in that video, you'll see me walk in.
And right as you right as you walk into
CECOT
anything
that you were feeling good about before
just leaves your body.
Wow. complete complete
complete emptiness fills
fills your body.
And then you look these prisoners in the
eyes.
Just
emptiness. Why? Pure emptiness.
I think uh
any goodness of them had been taken away
from what they committed.
And so like whether it be like the light
of Christ or just any good vibes they
had, gone.
Is it designed in a way that's meant to
make it more soulless than a a normal
place? 100%.
>> Right. The lights never turn off.
You're given a sheet. You eat the same
meals every day. You get no protein.
Mhm. Like you get rice and beans and
tortillas, I think, and milk.
And you have no form of entertainment.
You don't have books.
And the only time you actually get to
leave your cell
is to touch your toes and do some
push-ups
and work out a little bit or to listen
to somebody preach the gospel.
If you want to go pee or poop, you have
to do it in front of everybody inside
your cell. And these gangs, rival gangs,
MS-13, Barrio 18,
they're all in the same room.
You're locked up with your enemies.
How many people are on site? Do you
know?
I think upwards of a thousand probably
inside. I think there's around seven I
can't exactly remember the number. I
don't want to say, but I think there's
more than 10,000 of them. Wow. And they
used to literally control that country.
I remember
when it first happened,
uh I watched some videos about it and it
basically looks like football stadiums,
right? These huge like monstrous
constructions.
And then this morning, I wanted to have
a little [clears throat] look at what it
was like inside and it does
Look, these
people are allegedly criminals and have
done horrible things and the country is
undeniably better now. Is there some
collateral damage? Yes, I'd absolutely
heard that you know,
two people are criminals in a house and
five other people are also whisked away.
Uh
not great. Would it be nice to be more
precise? Yes, it absolutely would.
But when I looked at that photo and
it's, you know, the bunks are super
high, the four or five bunks high. If
you fell off the top, you would really
damage yourself.
And it's just this sort of
wall of humans sort of peering and
looking through the bars. I was like,
[ __ ] me, man. Like the fact that human
civilization has got to this stage. It's
a really shocking image. I like that's
how prisons work. I get it, right? But
to just see that image of
hu-
humans locked up a lot like animals. In
fact, animals have got better conditions
in some ways. Again, not excusing
[ __ ] criminals do at all.
But I found that I found that image to
look at pretty difficult to see. Like,
holy [ __ ]
Yeah, it's a lot. And by the time when
you're about to leave, you do almost
feel sympathetic for these people.
The conditions are so brutal.
Well, you're like, dang, that would just
suck.
Like, could you imagine that? Like no
lights, you never see your family, you
have no contact with outside world.
>> never getting out? Never getting out. So
everyone's in there for a life sentence?
>> And if you are if you do have proof that
you're in are innocent, you can then all
you can then prove that you are innocent
from inside there. So there is like a
system cuz they did just go round up.
They checked for tattoos. If you have
MS-13 on your chest, goodbye.
One of my friends tried to get a free
trip to El Salvador by getting MS-13
tattooed on his thigh. Didn't work. Oh,
that's a bad idea.
>> But he still got the tattoo. Oh, no.
That's a bad idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And
uh they do have a whole separate prison
system that rehabilitates these people.
Not the gangsters, but there's also a
lot of other criminals as well. And uh
that's pretty amazing to see how country
had once been controlled and ran by
these gangsters to a country being
entirely entirely liberated by one man.
And the people there are just like
ecstatic. Like you go there and it's
like the weirdest feeling because it's
like
we have freedom here in the United
States, so we take it for granted. These
people didn't. Now they do and they're
able to live
great lives. They're able to just to
live free like how we are able to live
here.
And so it is like
you do feel
like there was liberation that did play
take place. Unreal. What's next? You've
got part two. Got part two. Any idea of
a published date?
I'm hoping for
this coming week. Cool. It's been super
hard to even edit with all everything
I've been going on. I've went from
Nashville to Florida back home to here.
Tomorrow I'm going back to Florida.
And it's just been Someone's called me
right before this podcast to have me go
testify in front of Congress.
So it it's just a lot and I need to
maybe up my team a little bit.
>> Mhm. So, part two at some point in the
next week, hopefully. And then what? I
would love to go to Venezuela.
Mhm.
But we'll see what happens there. Okay,
that's I think that's El Salvador on
steroids at the moment. Yeah, I do have
a lot of other videos planned, but now a
lot of things have changed as far as how
I go about filming. Um lots of fraud to
expose here in California.
Lots of fraud to expose across the
world. Has Well, yeah, I was going to
say, do you want to rinse and do you
want to become known as kind of the
fraud investigator guy for a little
while to keep on rinsing and repeating
that before you move on to something
else? Yeah, I'll do another fraud video.
Those just take a lot of time cuz you
don't Like I said with my video I did my
I did the due diligence. David had done
his proper investigation. I had done
mine. You need to find a David for each
city. A little bit, yeah. Yeah. And uh
you can just you can also just continue
to find that information. It just takes
a lot longer. Well, if you had a
even partially competent team behind
you, they would very easily be able to
NickShirleyTips.com,
submit your stuff here. They can go
through and verify everything and you've
just got a pipeline of portfolios of,
wow, we've got this many from this
particular street in this city. It seems
like this is the next place to go. But
yeah, dude, the rapid ascension from
being degenerate solo YouTuber with
mama's camera person to needing security
around you is a I think you'll look back
on this period and
kind of just look at it like a fever
dream. It's going to be It's going to be
the wildest month and few months of your
life. Yeah, it's been super weird and I
mean I already had a million subscribers
before
and now I'm like 1.5 almost.
And like on X I had 200,000, now I have
1.2 million followers. YouTube Instagram
I had 800 and now I have 2.3 million.
Wow. So I was already
somewhat popular on the internet before.
Like that that's still a lot of people
watching you, but now it's
new level because you had
the whole entire mainstream media come
after me. Like
for that entire week you couldn't turn
on the news without hearing my name or
seeing my footage.
You had the leftists on X coming after
me.
You had people like Elon Musk sharing my
videos. You had J.D. Vance sharing your
videos. So
it was almost undeniable impossible to
not see my video that week.
And it turned out to be controversial.
Tim Walz decided to step down
from running for re-election because of
that video. Yeah, anybody that says that
the internet doesn't cross over into the
real world just needs to check out the
last couple of weeks. Yeah, one video
and then the subsequent aftershocks
of that is crazy. Yeah, a lot of people
were calling it like modern-day David
and Goliath just from you have the
Goliath who's Tim Walz and you have a
little David just throwing some stones
and took out one of the one of the top
Democrats in the United States.
Yeah.
What
What do you want to achieve? Because it
it it seems to me like there is an
obvious like anti
woke or anti-progressive bent to some of
the stuff that you're doing.
Um
What is it What is it that you want to
achieve? Let's say that you look back on
2026. What would success look like to
you?
I think helping more people come to
sense on common sense matters such as
fraud,
providing and creating real change
within the country.
I mean, no no video has ever created so
much change in such a short period of
time. Literally, millions, potentially
billions of dollars could have been
saved for that one video.
>> Yeah.
And so I think creating that change
uh
helping people see stuff for common
sense, bring some more common sense into
the world. You know, and just make it a
better place.
And it stinks that stuff's getting
politicized by this because I really
just want to be able to live in America
where I feel like I can afford things. I
feel like
my fellow friends and people around me
can afford things, that we have hope
that our taxes are going to the right
place and that for generations like
myself that we can have the same
opportunities that our parents and
grandparents had. And we're seeing this
corruption
making it very hard. Between corruption
and the influx of migrants and
it's made it very very hard for people
to be able to buy houses, to
just live in a country where you feel
like you're being represented. You have
people on the left who are more
passionate about protecting illegal
migrants than going after fraud.
And we just want to be able to have the
same opportunities that our parents and
grandparents had. And so when I think
about what I want to accomplish, I just
really do want to see America be better
than where it's been.
And to support and to get behind causes
that really do make changes cuz I know I
have the opportunity to. We just saw
what I just did and we'll continue to
see me make effects in other ways,
whether that be through talking to
people one-on-one, giving a speech,
presenting a video that gets millions of
views or simply just helping that old
lady
get it into her car, pick up her
groceries, just being a good person
and creating real world change. And I
think that's possible.
>> [snorts]
>> Yeah, man. I look, I I don't know if
exclusively corruption and migrants are
the reason that the cost of living is as
high as it is at the moment. I think
it's a great factor and I think it's
something that we can talk about.
>> It's something you've got more control
over than what's the price of milk.
Uh so I agree in terms of that. Dude, I
I
We have breaking news.
>> We have got breaking news. Holy [ __ ]
J.D. Vance announces the Trump
administration will create a new
assistant attorney general position who
will have nationwide jurisdiction over
the issue of fraud focusing first
primarily in Minnesota and then
expanding nationwide. If you're a young
parent struggling to afford child care
in the United States of America, there
are programs that we have to make it
easier for your kids to get in daycare,
for your kids to get in preschool. Those
programs should go to American citizens,
not be defrauded by Somali immigrants
and others. Make it hard for you to get
the access to the resources you need.
But number two, making it easier for
people who shouldn't even be in this
country to fleece the United States and
our taxpayers to begin with. We've
actually activated a major interagency
task force to make it possible to get to
the heart of this fraud. We have
Department of Agriculture resources that
are focused on SNAP fraud so that people
who need food benefits can get them, but
illegal aliens and other fraudsters
don't. We have over 1,500 subpoenas
Department of Justice has issued to get
to the heart of the fraud ring. We've
done almost 100 indictments, mostly
Somali immigrants but also a few others.
And of course we're looking in with
broad investigatory authority to a
number of the
instances of wrongdoing that we've seen
in Minneapolis. But we also want to
expand this. We know that the fraud
isn't just happening in Minneapolis,
it's also happening in states like Ohio.
It's happening in states like
California. And so what we're doing in
order to help coordinate this remarkable
interagency effort from the Trump
administration, but also to make sure
that we prosecute the bad bad guys and
do it as swiftly and efficiently as
possible is we are creating a new
assistant attorney general position who
will have nationwide jurisdiction over
the issue of fraud. Now of course that
person's efforts will start and focus
primarily in Minnesota, but it is going
to be a nationwide effort because
unfortunately the American people have
been defrauded in a very nationwide way.
What do you think when you see that?
Journalism that's creating change.
I mean, the issue of fraud has been
there.
It's not new that we've been being It's
not new that we've been being defrauded.
It's a complete result of my video
showing that fraud's taking place to the
point where
the Vice President of the United States
needs to
create a new role for assistant attorney
general to go after fraud.
It's crazy, actually.
Dude. I think Think about that. Like
Have you ever thought ever seen a video
We've been There's been lots of reports
for years.
Has there ever been a point in time
where they froze funding, sent in feds
to launch investigations, and created a
new job for the attorney I was I was
thinking about some stuff maybe during
COVID where
but people that had scrutiny around mask
efficacy, transmission rates, vaccines
stuff, perhaps, but it was nowhere near
as direct. It was much more kind of
little
pebbles here and there as opposed to
this massive boulder
that's just created it. Yeah, dude. I
mean
this this could be the beginning of a
a really huge tsunami of of
investigations around this stuff. So
Nick Shirley, ladies and gentlemen,
dude, get some sleep for me, please.
>> tired? No, I just want you to sleep. I
think that you I think that it's
important for you to sleep so that you
can keep on doing You look fantastic. Um
I
I think
the other the other lesson at least to
take away
uh that I have from this is that you
cranked out a video a week for 2 years
and then you had the one that hit. And
that's kind of the way that it tends to.
Not that you hadn't accumulated an
audience before, but this is the one
that really really hit. Yeah, I think
it's just like I remember listening to
your podcast with Hermosi and it's just
like you need to treat yourself. I
remember one thing that really struck to
me is he's like you need to treat
yourself like you're the best athlete
and whatever it may be, whether it be
making YouTube videos or making sure
you're the best person at your job
wherever it may be. But just like I've
dedicated
essentially all my time in
past few years of my life to
making these videos and
creating conversation and it wasn't a
surprise that it would just happen to be
the fact that I made this video.
It was just inevitable that something At
some point it was going to happen. Yeah,
dude. Yeah, that's that's the way it
works. All right, where should people go
keep up to date with your stuff, support
you, do all the rest of the things? Nick
Shirley on all platforms. Shirley
Defense if you want to leer in a hoodie
to leer a little bit. But yeah, just
Nick Shirley everywhere. Okay. Nick, I
appreciate you. Thank you, man. Thank
you. Got any advice for me?
Get some sleep.
Um I think that's important. Honestly,
dude
get some sleep and go for walks. That
like will just keep you fresh. What
other advice would I give you?
>> [clears throat]
>> You're a wise guy.
I think
you need to try and delegate as quickly
as possible uh in order to allow you to
keep doing the thing that you're the
best at because the sheer volume of
inflow that you're going to get is going
to cause you to miss the stuff that you
really need. So what you What you could
do with is
an assistant who is just with you at all
times. And again, this is going to be
hard cuz you need the money and you're
going to get it funded from something,
but assuming that you had the resources
to do it. And [ __ ] me, text Elon. I'm
sure he can spare you a couple of mil.
Um
somebody who's just always on your phone
and is scrutinizing everything, sending
it through a team. You probably need I
know two or three people that would be
really great to run in the background.
Uh and then it means that you can focus
on where am I going to go, what's the
story, how's the edit look.
Uh so I would look to delegate. I would
definitely get some rest as best I
could.
Uh
I would see this period
as kind of like your Super Bowl because
you're not going to be you may be, but
the likelihood is that this is the most
relevant that you're ever going to be.
So I think continuing to put your foot
on the gas, which is why getting the
sleep as best you can is good so that
you can keep on going pretty hard, keep
on publishing at a rapid clip. Be
careful about what you say. You don't
want to have some
horrible sound bite of you saying
something horrendous that kind of smears
the rest of your
your image because that's exactly what
opponents are going to look for.
And I would say keep on reaching out to
people because it's evident that people
want to support your work. So if you
have the desire to try and make
something happen, just keep on You've
already You've already got like the
shameless
DM gene that I also have, which is good.
So just keep on sending that out cuz I
think people are going to want to keep
supporting you. Awesome. Thank you. I
appreciate it. [ __ ] yeah. Appreciate
you, man.
>> Words of wisdom, babe.
Thank you very much for tuning in and
congratulations for not being so TikTok
[music] brained that you actually made
it to the end of a full podcast. Hooray.
Uh maybe another podcast with the one
and only Naval Ravikant
would also be good for you to watch.
That's right.