Share This Episode
The Todd Starnes Show Todd Starnes Logo

Leftists Rage Against Memphis Parents Over Playhouse On the Square Coverage

The Todd Starnes Show / Todd Starnes
The Truth Network Radio
December 30, 2025 9:09 am

Leftists Rage Against Memphis Parents Over Playhouse On the Square Coverage

The Todd Starnes Show / Todd Starnes

00:00 / 00:00
On-Demand Podcasts NEW!

This broadcaster has 1206 podcast archives available on-demand.

Broadcaster's Links

Keep up-to-date with this broadcaster on social media and their website.


December 30, 2025 9:09 am

Congressman David Kustoff discusses the need for a temporary pause on immigration to address the massive abuse of the system, while also highlighting the economic benefits of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' and the importance of giving back to people at all income levels. Meanwhile, a controversy erupts over a production of The Wizard of Oz at Playhouse on the Square, with some parents expressing shock and outrage over the inclusion of drag queens in the show. Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, joins the show to discuss his decision to run for governor of Minnesota, citing his desire to address the Somali fraud and other issues plaguing the state.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

America's about to lose the AI arms race. Not because of chips or code, but power. AI runs on energy and we don't have enough. China's building a new coal plant every week while Democrats cancel pipelines and block drilling. No power, no progress, no AI future.

That's why we need you. Sign up now for free at oilfacts.com to get your free report on the AI arms race before rolling blackouts wipe out our future. Oilfacts.com, powered by Prairie Operating Company, a high-growth, low-cost producer of safe and responsible American energy. From the Mighty 990 Broadcast Center, you're waking up in Starnes Country with Todd Starnes. All right, it is 23 degrees outside, six minutes past the hour.

Hello, everybody. I'm Todd Starnes. Welcome to Starnes Country. We are broadcasting in the principal Toyota Memphis studio. Good morning to the busiest man in.

The Mid-South, Harold Grader, he's getting ready for the big Liberty Bowl, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, kicking off in just a few days. Lots of excitement. We understand both teams now in town, Navy and Cincinnati. As a matter of fact, one of the teams doing some practicing over at Rhodes College.

So if you're over in that area and you see some football players, that's what's going on there. You will also have an opportunity to win tickets to the Liberty Bowl exclusively here on the Mighty 990. Those tickets valued at about $80 or $90 a piece.

So we've got some great tickets for you, and we'll be telling you more about that in just a little while. Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, joins us later on this morning as well. Going to be a great conversation with the man who gave the nation My Pillow. But right now, we're honored to have in studio our good friend and our Congressman David Kostoff. Congressman, hello and a happy new year to you.

Todd, thank you very much. Happy New Year to you. Thank you for. everything that you've done here in the Mid South and uh spreading information and You know, I was just thinking. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has been a month ago and you know, it was a month ago that you hosted and fed All these men and women who are in town with the Memphis Safe Task Force.

I know they really appreciated it, and we appreciate all the work that the task force has done. for you to put on that giant spread of of of food for Roughly a thousand officers and agents was really significant and really important. And I was glad just to be able to help serve the food. You paid for it, but I was glad to do what I did. They wouldn't let me even serve.

I was allowed to pass the plate.

So I was between Green Bean Station and Coleslaw Station. But it was a lot of fun. And it was just, look, I think all of us here in the Mid-South want to do something. And it's been so encouraging to see, you know, just regular folks out there getting pictures with the National Guard troops, taking care of their meal if they're at a restaurant around town. And a lot of restaurant owners.

And of course, Jim Lesapio, who owns a lot of restaurants, made all of that happen. Him and his wonderful team there. And of course, they're great sponsors here at KWAM as well. You know, Congressman, there is so much going on. Before we get to that, though, I'm just so excited about the people coming into Memphis.

And we've been hearing so many reports. I know Senator Brent Taylor has been documenting a lot of this, where people are going back. Downtown. People are coming to Memphis to visit. I was doing a radio segment with a station in Georgia this morning and told them: look, Memphis is where you need to come for a day trip now.

It's so much fun. The whole vibe has changed thanks to the Memphis Safe Task Force. You know, there's no, in fact, vibe is the exact word I was thinking of: that there's a different feeling in Memphis. Among people who who live here. And, you know, I regret The people who've tried to make this political that because President Trump Identified Memphis.

to try to clean up and make safe. that that that that became political. And you know, even the Wall Street Journal, there have been a number of publications that have talked about. That This task force and the National Guard Has really been welcomed by people here, and it doesn't matter their political ideology, their race, what have you. The bottom line, Todd, is Everybody wants to live in a safe neighborhood.

Everybody wants to Be able to go to the grocery store and the gas station and not worry about being robbed or. Carjack And there is a different feeling in the in Memphis in its in its all positive. It really is. By the way, Amy writing in on our live stream this morning. Good morning, Congressman Kustoff.

So you've got some fans out there. When you look at all the things that have been happening this year, it's been a really busy year politically. The Big Beautiful Bill, which I thought Scott Bessett yesterday really framed the conversation so brilliantly. He said 2025 was really about setting the table economically in this country for what's about to happen in 2026. And the indicators are already shocking a lot of people out there.

And that's, I think, I'm encouraged by it. And I hope that you're encouraged as well. I mean, you have a front row view to all of this.

So the one big, beautiful bill, which really encompassed so much, you, you Talk about The economic benefits uh what we did for the for the border what we did on energy policy, allowing energy to be unleashed. in this in this nation Which is one reason that you're seeing Gas and energy prices come down significantly, which helps people in their pocketbook. I serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, which I'm honored. to do. We had a big part in the one big beautiful bill.

And I think about What we did in Congress, Republicans, to set the table for next year. We permanently lowered everybody's taxes. Everybody taught every income level. giving a permanent deduction for small business which is significant. But then you think about Uh every class of people, the working people, No tax on tips.

No tax on overtime. the benefit for seniors receiving Social Security, they're going to start seeing that benefit next year in the first and second quarter of next year. And that goes to what Secretary Bessett was talking about. It's allowing people to keep their hard earned money and In their pockets. They can invest it how they want to.

They can spend it how they want to. And Todd, that's going to be a tremendous boom for our economy. I'm really excited about this. And then you've heard the President say at Mar-a-Lago just a few days ago: we are going to see Americans getting huge tax refunds as well.

So that will kick in, I guess, towards the spring here.

So certainly more good economic news leading into the midterms. It's all about helping people. And I've got to tell you one thing that we've done on the Ways and Means Committee is we've done these. hearings across the country, field hearings. About three weeks after we passed the one big beautiful bill, Which we passed on July 3rd.

President Trump signed it into law on July 4th at the White House, and I was there. with him when he signed it into law. We went to a sign factory, the Yesco Nihon Sign Factory in Las Vegas, where we had a field hearing inside the plant. And the plant foreman Talked about How the no tax on overtime is going to incentivize his employees to want to work more. And to your point, they're going to be able to keep more of their money.

We heard from one witness Todd, and it's great to hear from real people because it reaffirms what you did. We heard from a DoorDash driver, a woman, Who said, you know, no tax on tips for me with my husband being a cancer patient and he can't work. That's more money that I get to keep. And to your point, People are going to start seeing that.

Next year, they're going to see it in their tax refunds. They're going to see it. in uh extra money in their withholdings And that's what it's all about. It's about giving back to people at all income levels. Congressman David Kustoff is joining us in studio this morning, and I want to play some audio.

This is from Congressman Chip Roy, and he's not the only person that is now saying this out loud. We're hearing from a lot of other folks in the Republican movement here about immigration. Number one, please. Empower the American people to do what they do best. And we've got to pause immigration.

I introduced a bill to pause immigration because we've got to stop this massive abuse of our system using H-1Bs, using diversity visas. President Trump is exactly right to have frozen the diversity visas, to have stopped that, to freeze the flow from countries of concern. Remember that in 1920, when we had a high percentage of people that were foreign-born, we froze immigration for 40 years. And our country vanquished the Nazis in Germany, freed the world. We did great things in those 40 years.

We can do it again. That's why I introduced legislation to pause immigration. The president's right to do that, and I'm supporting him in that effort. Here locally, we have gotten so many complaints at KWAM about what's been happening at FedEx, for example, where a lot of people are losing their jobs or being replaced by H-1P visa holders. And Congressman Roy is out there saying we've got to do something about this.

When you look at what's happening in Minnesota and Ohio right now, is that the right move? Do we need to put a temporary pause on immigration until we can figure out what's going on here?

So we do need a temporary pause because. Look, we saw what happened for the four years prior to President Trump coming back. And the abuses Across primarily our southern border. Um I'm proud that President Trump has shut down the southern border. And that Congress has done what we need to do again through the one big beautiful bill to give him the The funds and the tools that he needs to be able to do that.

But we've got to get a hold of where we are right now.

So, Congressman Chip Roy. is right President Trump is right. Let's figure out where we are. Let's get a handle on things. And then we can reassess.

Trevor Burrus: And again, H-1B visas, I'm fully supportive of those if you're wanting to bring people in with a specific, unique skill set. But when you're just bringing in folks that are marketing executives, are you telling me we don't have any marketing executives here in Shelby County that can do the job over at FedEx? I find that very hard to believe. Right. And so, President Trump.

Has his finger on the pulse. I think he. Secretary Christy Noam, who Was here last year. He's now the Secretary of Homeland Security. Have a good uh a good pulse, if you will, on what's going on.

And let's Let's get a hold of it. Let's see where we are and then we can reevaluate. Your friend, the Hebrew hammer, as you identified Randy Fine, you know, he's really, and I get what he wants to do. I don't think you can actually do that under the Constitution, but he's got a pretty good point here: we've got some, we've allowed dangerous people to come into our country and people that want to hurt us, people that want to harm us. You know, Tucker Carlson is out there saying that, you know, in the past 24 years, we haven't had any Islamic terrorist attacks.

I can rattle off about a dozen. We've got a dangerous problem in our country right now when it comes to radical Islam. We do. And I think about this a lot. I think about 9-11.

You know, next year will be the 25th anniversary of of 9-11. And the the farther we get away from it, The the less people remember. I've got uh you may have people that work for you that weren't alive on 9-11. And so Look, those threats are always out there. We know that they planned they are methodical.

their deliberate And we've got to keep a watchful eye. Do you remember what you were doing on 9-11? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was a lawyer in downtown Memphis.

And I remember as uh the first plane hit and then the second plane hit and then we all knew what was happening, But downtown, which at that time was pretty active and certainly an active legal community. was just uh It was dead. It was frozen. And some of the courts shut down. I remember I went into one court And there was one judge, I won't say who it is.

And He was absolutely frozen, Todd. Uh Nobody could believe what happened, that something like that could happen. In this nation, but downtown, which at that time in 2001 was active with employees and whatnot. It was a ghost town. I was on my way to the airport in Nashville.

I was supposed to be covering a Janet Reno speech that night at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. And of course, they shut down all the airports. And so they sent us with the I had two photographers and sent us. We drove all the way to New York City. I mean, straight through the night.

And, you know, was spent about a week and a half, two weeks there covering the story. And it's just, you never forget, you know, those moments. And I think young people, especially, they need to remember what happened on that day. You know, when I was elected to Congress. In my 20 counties of of West Tennessee.

There would be a number of nine eleven. remembrances, if you will. The last several years we have not had one. And I suspect that this year with the 25th anniversary We will infect the fire museum. In downtown Memphis, used to traditionally do a uh a 9-11 remembrance ceremony They have not done it for a few years.

I think they will be doing it this year for the 25th anniversary, as I understand. I've got about 60 seconds here. The big story, we talked about this yesterday on the show, on the national show, and tomorrow as well. The situation in Minnesota and Ohio with these Somalis, and really it's predominantly Somalis, but there's a lot of fraud. We did a little bit of research here at K-WAN.

We have over 300 child care centers just in Memphis, Shelby County that get some form of government aid or assistance. Are you concerned that the fraud might be here in Tennessee as well?

Well, we don't know what we don't know. I'm obviously extremely concerned about what we've seen in Minnesota. I'm glad that Cache Patel And Christy Noam. And uh and also the Small Business Administration. Our coordinating efforts to try to uncover the fraud and see how deep it goes.

And my experience being a former federal prosecutor If there can be one significant federal prosecution, and I think there will be. That sends a strong deterrent message, but we've got to find out How widespread it is, whether it extends beyond those two states. Aaron Powell, you know, I don't want to go bonkers crazy here, but ultimately, Congress does have the power of the purse. And you guys, there are statutes in place that would allow you to put a pause on federal funding. The White House can't do it, but Congress can.

I mean, we're talking $9 billion in fraud. If the state's not going to address that, do you see the possibility of stepping in and saying, you know what, we're going to put a freeze on your federal funding until you guys get this figured out? Aaron Powell, so we've already seen earlier this year, we got a lot of pushback from liberals where we were sending money. that had been previously appropriated primarily for PBS and NPR.

So I think rescissions is certainly an option. All right, Congressman Kustoff, they're yelling at me quietly in my ear. Rap, rap. We really appreciate you coming on. We got a lot of ground covered today.

We'd love to get you back soon. Thank you, Todd. Thanks for having me. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to everybody listening on KWA.

All right, got to take a break. Let's check in with Commander Chuck. Americans have a big health care problem. Over 100 million U.S. citizens carry medical debt, but that's not the whole story.

With health insurance, your out-of-pocket and monthly costs are way too high. You get surprise bills, denied claims, and poor customer service. That's a serious burden. As Christians, we don't have to pay for a broken system. Christian Healthcare Ministries is an alternative to health insurance at half the cost.

You can enroll at any time and join a proven faith-based solution that's both reliable and affordable. CHM isn't just help, it's financial and spiritual support when you need it most. Families across the country. Count on CHM to step in during their hardest moments. And it works.

Stand up to health insurance with a low-cost, biblical solution. Join CHM today by visiting chministries.org/slash wellness. That's chministries.org/slash wellness. And it is already a very busy morning here in Starnes Country and our principal Toyota Memphis studio, Congressman David Kostoff, joining us. By the way, you can actually listen to the entire interview.

You can do that by downloading our free podcast. Go to toddstearns.com. That's toddstearns.com. And you can download our daily podcast. And the breaking news item there, the congressman saying that he will support a temporary freeze on immigration here in the United States.

So, our other story, and we're going to get into more of this in the next segment of the show. Yesterday, we told you that parents had reached out to us regarding a performance of The Wizard of Oz at Playhouse on the Square, and this was meant for children. It was a children's day, and a lot of the parents were very shocked to discover what they described as drag queens in the stage production, men wearing dresses. And so, several of them reached out to us to raise their concerns. We have reached out to Playhouse on the Square.

We wanted to get some sort of background context, and they have yet to respond to us. And if they do, we will pass along that information to you. In the meantime, we have a lot of folks on our social media pages that are actually taking the parents to task for not being well-educated. But I do want to read some of the comments. We have well over 100 comments right now on our story.

One person writing up, Melissa, says, My child was in the play, and the look on her face when I mentioned you idiots thought a poppy was a drag queen. To the parents confused what an actor thinks they are doing when they're playing the role of an inanimate. sexless object like a flower steer clear of the nutcracker might just rock your already confused mind.

Okay. Albert writing in, calling them perverts. Jeez a loop. Um Lisa says the absolute stupidity of people in this town theater is supposed to present material to make you think. Really?

Okay, Lisa, we're talking about little tiny kids here. We're talking about kids going to see what they thought was The Wizard of Oz, not a drag show.

So anyway, Don writing in, thank you, KOM, for pointing out what was an obvious mistake on the part of the Playhouse on the Square. As you correctly pointed out, they are free to sell the product they want to sell, but the public should be so informed of what is being offered. And there you have it. And then one guy said there is a special oh, here we go, Bruce. Bruce writing in on our Facebook page: There's a special place in hell for Todd Starns.

All right. Thank you, Bruce. We just try to present the information here, ladies and gentlemen.

So we'll be taking your calls on this. Do you have a problem with the fact that Playhouse Presented this sort of material to kids without any sort of warning or just a notification to moms and dads: hey, this is not, you know. This is not your regular Wizard of Oz performance. 901-260-5926. What do you think about Congressman Kostoff?

Our wide-ranging interview. We'll take your calls on that. 901-260-5926. This is Starnes Country. Mm-hmm.

Health insurance rates in America are surging, leaving millions without affordable options. But Christians don't need to waste money on a broken system. Christian Healthcare Ministries is an alternative to health insurance at half the cost. With CHM, fellow believers contribute monthly to help pay each other's medical bills while lifting one another up in prayer. It's financial and spiritual support when you need it most.

Join CHM today by visiting chministries.org/slash wellness. That's chministries.org/slash wellness. All right, reading through the All of these comments on the K-WAM Facebook page.

So apparently the poppies were all the folks, those were the flowers dressed as drag queens in the Wizard of Oz. Knocked me over with a feather, I would have guessed pansies. But again, you just never know.

So who are we to judge? But anyway, what I find fascinating here is the reaction because we've got parents that were actually there. And I want to make a point here about all of this in just a moment. But I do want to read some of the comments. This is from Kristen writing in.

I was there with my first grader and the rest of her class. The little boys behind me said out loud: why are there boys with dresses on? All the moms could do at that point was to say, shh! Hush. I kept my fingers crossed that the one guy in the dress had shorts on underneath his dress because he was doing a lot of moving up and down on that stage.

Jeez, hello. What was going on over there at Playhouse on the Square?

So anyway, um there was. There was another comment in response to that. Here we go. Savannah also writing in, she's a parent. My boys in my group were one of the ones who said it.

We just told them it's acting, and sometimes actors have to pretend to be a girl if there are not enough boys in the plays. I'm glad that's it, and they didn't talk about it anymore. And then Melissa writes in, and she's very upset about these moms who complained. She said Uh wow, as a mom with a boy who also dressed as a poppy and a girl. And Wizard of Oz, and a boy that dances professionally in Memphis, the fact that you think these professional actors would go on stage to flash you is just so disrespectful.

You should be embarrassed to even post such a thing. Plus, use the opportunity to educate your child who obviously has never been to the theater. That this is acting. Oh, okay.

So What the parent is saying here is what we all thought to be the case. That They knew that this was going to generate controversy because they wanted it to generate controversy because they wanted those children to ask questions. And the mere fact that you had children in the audience is immediately raising questions. Like, dude, what the hell's going on here, mom? No, no, no, well, kindergartens didn't say that, but they were thinking it.

And if you've got kids in the audience. that are wondering what's going on, that tells me you got a problem here. That to me is the bigger issue. It's not that the moms were like, oh, geez, a loop. It's like the kids were like, What the heck is going on here?

I mean, we got some weird stuff going down, freaky stuff going on down on the Yellow Brick Road.

So we'll keep the conversation going here. But again, you know, as this parent said, you should expect this kind of. Of indoctrination, you should expect this type of grooming on a stage, on a theatrical stage. That's part of what theater is nowadays. It's really not so much about entertaining, it's about shoving, cramming an agenda down the throats of the people there in the audience.

That's what it's all about. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. If you'd like to weigh in on this, also, we have two pairs, two pairs of tickets to give away to the upcoming AutoZone Liberty Bowl. These tickets are worth $90 a piece. It is just a wonderful, it's going to be a wonderful game, Cincinnati against Navy.

And we want to fill up the Liberty Bowl because we want to send a message to the rest of the nation that Memphis is where it's at now, that crime is at a 25-year low.

So we're going to take caller number two and caller number three at 901-260-5926. Again, that number, 901-2022. two six zero five nine two six. Interesting survey coming out of CNN. They're already looking at 2028 and JD Vance has a massive lead, cut number four.

First in the nation primary. I mean, take a look here. J.D. Vance at 51%. The next closest is Nikki Haley, who's at nine.

Who's at nine? I mean, what is that? That's 42 points ahead of the pack. Tulsi Gabbard is at eight. In the First in the Nation primary, J.D.

Vance, you know, running 42 points ahead. There's a reason why he's such a heavy favorite in the prediction market so far, because if you win the GOP primary in New Hampshire, chances are you're going to be the Republican nominee for president. All right, there you go.

So, J.D. Vance already. Can we get to the midterms? Is that possible?

Well, let me say something about J.D. Vance and Turning Point USA. Got a big problem with TPUSA jumping in and announcing that they're going to be using their massive national platform to advance J.D. Vance's presidency. I think it's way too early for that, and quite frankly, very inappropriate.

This is supposed to be a student organization, not some sort of a political action committee. And the fact that they're already throwing in with J.D. Vance when we don't know who's going to be running, and a lot could happen between now and election day.

Okay. And I will just say this: Marco Rubio has been doing a phenomenal job.

Well, multiple jobs in the Trump administration. And I think he makes a great candidate. All right, let's go to the phone lines. We'll start with Linda in Germantown. Hi, Linda.

How are you today? Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year. I'm so excited. What a great.

Day. It'll be on the second. It's going to be a lot of fun, Linda, and you're going to be a part of all of that fun because you've just picked up two tickets to attend the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Yay! Yeah.

Wow, congratulations, Linda. Hey, Linda, let me ask you. We were talking um we were talking about this earlier uh about uh New Year's traditions. Are you like a a collared green or black-eyed pee family? Do you guys do those traditions?

Well, yes, my husband shoves black IPs. to our family. But what we do We gave up on that years ago, and we do our traditions and make our. Um New Year's resolutions on March fourth. March fourth.

We march fourth. Ah, oh, that's very clever, Linda. I like that. You get all the stuff out of the way, you know, because usually when you make a New Year's resolution, it's gone by the week. And so, you know, you reset.

Usually the kids are getting ready to be out of school for the spring break. And we just kind of look at the spring coming up and we march forth and we make our resolutions then. I love that. Linda, what a great idea. And what a great family tradition.

Well, look, congratulations. We're going to put you on a hold and we're going to get all your information. And we hope you have a great time at the football game. Oh, I will. Thank you so much.

Go Navy. All right, there we go. Big Navy fan there. Hang tight, Linda, and let's go to Bartlett and say good morning to Vince. Vince, hope you're doing great today.

I am doing great. How are you?

Well, you're about to do better because you just won yourself a pair of tickets to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, sir. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you very much. Yeah, Vince, it is they really do a great job, Harold and the whole team over there at the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. And every year, it's nice to see Memphis so well represented on the national stage with this great bowl game.

It is. It is. And I think they've been doing some upgrades to that stadium, too.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what they got going on. Yeah, you're going to like it. It's not quite done yet, but it's shaping up, and you're going to be able to see exactly what it's going to look like, hopefully in time for the opening season opener for the Memphis Tigers in the fall. But it's pretty spectacular.

Well, Vince, first of all, congratulations. And second, thanks for listening to K-Wham. Thank you. You have a great day. All right.

Don't go anywhere, Vince. Hang tight and we're going to get all of your information. And I believe we're going to be doing some more ticket giveaways tomorrow.

So, again, we're excited to be able to send you and a family member or a friend to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. All right, we're going to take a quick break. This is Starnes Country and the principal Toyota Memphis Studios. Health insurance rates are surging in America, leaving millions without affordable options. If you're sick of having paychecks eaten up by healthcare costs or dealing with mega corporations, then listen to this.

Christians don't need to waste money on a broken system. That's why I want to tell you about Christian Healthcare Ministries. It's an alternative to traditional health insurance at half the cost. With CHM, fellow believers contribute monthly to help pay each other's medical bills. There's no enrollment period, so you can join anytime.

And you aren't restricted to provider networks, so you choose the doctors and hospitals you want. It's that simple. CHM is not insurance, it's a ministry that puts faith into action. Feel the difference of financial support and biblical care from fellow believers. Join CHM today by visiting chministries.org/slash wellness.

That's chministries.org/slash wellness. Welcome folks. Great to be back behind our great big beautiful huge microphone. Broadcasting border to border, coast to coast, across the fruited plain. Hope you had a good Christmas, by the way.

I ended up working. Newsmax had me doing multiple shows over the holiday, but still, great to be back with you today as we work through some pretty crazy stories.

Now, normally we do not start off the show with a guest, but today we have a very special guest, our good friend Mike Lindell, the founder, the creator of My Pillow. And because of this man, most of America can actually get a good night's rest. And now he is running to be the next governor of Minnesota. He joins us on our Patriot mobile newsmaker line. Mike, it's been a long time, my friend.

First of all, hope you had a Merry Christmas. I sure did. Thanks for having me on, Todd. You got it. Mike, very exciting news.

And I want to talk about the Somali fraud in just a moment, but I'm just curious: what is it that prompted you to decide? You know what? I'm going to run for governor.

Well, you know, there's been things I wanted. I grew up and born and raised in Minnesota, and I've had business there. I started from scratch my whole life. I was used to be an addict in downtown Minneapolis. I was set free by the grace of God of my addictions and worked with the inner city people.

And Teen Challenge Union Gospel back in the day poured millions into that. And then I've seen all the problems we were having, and I was actually going to run. Um, I told the president before the 2020 election, I said, you know, I think I'm going to run for governor of Minnesota.

Well then as we all know, when the when that election came down, it was stole and And I put my heart and soul into securing our election platforms the last five years. We've made great progress in that, and I felt Uh it was time. My wife and I we prayed about it. Uh Over Thanksgiving. And as you know, MyPillow has been the most attacked company in history.

And I said, you know, I said if we... If I can get my pillow right, I feel secure where my employees are safe and And uh this law fair and this uh This other stuff that they kept coming after my bill to cancel them out was at a level that I could move on. I said, I'll run for governor. And then. And then all this.

Fraud and all this other stuff starts to get exposed. And I see the other 12 candidates that are running and I just said, you know, it's got if you want something done right, you do it yourself. And I just know I can do the job, get it done. And with all the experiences I've had in business and both building businesses and fixing them as they. As you have problems.

So it was kind of a combination of things, but I've been thinking about it for a long time and. Uh he did not want me running. He uh as soon as he heard I was running Tim Walls said, Do we want, he put out a big press release, do we want Mike Lindell and Donald Trump coming into Minnesota and ruining our family values? That was a quote from Jim Walsh. Wow.

It's this guy, Tampon Tim Waltz. It's crazy. Is it true? We'd heard rumblings that people are literally driving by the governor's mansion and hollering out. I mean, this guy is getting heckled wherever he goes, wherever he is in Minnesota.

Yes, well right now, he's putting out stuff with all the fraud. They say it's upwards of nine billion now and in under your watch. And if he wasn't in, it's got to be the biggest neglect of a governor in the history of the world. 'Cause they're calling it the biggest fraud in the United States history. And if and what he's been doing, because the media, the Minnesota media covers for him too.

They're all in bed together, I think. And they uh But he's going, we got to get rid of the guns. We got to get rid of the guns. That's his focus this last week. You're just deflecting.

If you're in Minnesota and you're just focused on our local media, you're probably still brainwashed that nothing's wrong. And then you go to social media and you see there's a hundred million views everybody a hundred million of uh from this weekend of uh that Nick guy that uh Nick Shirley. Nick Shirley, yeah, Nick Shirley, that made those amazing videos, went door to door to the Somalian health care centers. And there's no tips. And there are no kids.

And they can't hide this one, Todd. They're not going to be able to hide this one. They've been doing this to our welfare systems with education. They did it with autism sign-ups, Medicaid, housing programs. This fraud's been going on in one case or another with all these welfare programs, but this one's so blatant, you can't even explain it away.

The only thing that they could do is keep the reporter Nick from going inside and they wouldn't let him in.

Well, where's the kids?

Well, we don't have any kids.

Well, and then one of them says learning center, everybody, learning center, and they didn't put the N, it says Luring Center. Um you know the Then um It's just, it's despicable. And they say it could be the worst or the New York, the New York Coast. reported on December 21st that it could be Upwards of nine billion dollars. That's half of Minnesota's half of Minnesota's $18 million.

Allotment over the last five years, and that's all of Somalia's national economy combined. It's just outrageous. And it's it really is. I mean, when you when you look at and and that's all taxpayer money, Mike, that could be used to help actual law abiding American citizens. 100%.

And then you talked about Minnesota's taxes going up and up and up, and that's. One of the biggest reasons why. And one of the things I'm very, you know, that I. Another reason I want to run for governor, but the biggest problem some of the biggest problems we have obviously is is these welfare programs in general? Are they good?

Do they work? Let's say they were all done legitimately. And but you've got a lot of people, I don't want my taxes going to that, or I mean, I don't want my taxes going to that. And And I developed a A program about eight years ago, or now it's been 10 years. And we launched it in Detroit.

I launched it in a whole bunch of countries to test it. And it's absolutely amazing. It combines private sector money with government money and It'll take away all those programs, and this will be a perfect plug-in. And so, I've got a good solution for that, and then I've got a With all the addicts, you know, addiction is kind of my forte, me being the next crack cocaine addict. And I've got a great thing that.

That worked with Ben Carson in the first administration to get the homeless and the addicts and the people that have mental problems off the streets. It is absolutely I still have the blueprints for that.

So that's what every city needs. You can't just take these people and move them over here and then move them over here and move them over here. And this really, these programs work. And then the other one is is uh education.

So I've got a lot of things that From my past, that I can pull out now and say, hey, here's the solution for this, including, by the way, everybody, running for governor, because there were a few things I was going to do for our great president that we didn't have to even get that far in 2024. And I'm going to pull them out of the arsenal there, and I'm going to launch that.

So, anybody wants to help out? It's mikelindellgov.com, and we get this mom. With this one. All right. That's just some of our interview we did with Mike Lindell on the national radio show yesterday.

That's one of the reasons why you need to be listening to the Mighty 990 at 11 o'clock. We have all sorts of great guests that come by and sit for these long form interviews. And we would love for you to be a part of our audience at 11 o'clock.

Now, some of you are at work and we get that.

So one of the things we encourage you to do is download our free podcast at ToddStarns.com. Want to pass along this information from our friends over at the Republican Women of Purpose. They're having a huge event tomorrow. Or rather, the deadline is tomorrow, December 31st, for a big event coming up. It's the Shelby County Legislators presenting the 2026 Tennessee Legislative Strategy.

You're going to have Paul Rose, Kevin Vaughan, Mark White, John Gillespie, and Brent Taylor. The event itself is January the 7th. Uh, at Southwind, however, you've got to make a reservation by tomorrow, December 31st, and you can do that online again. The Republican Women of Purpose. By the way, if you haven't already done so, I want to encourage you to head over to kwamradio.com.

We have lots of great original content for you. Also, you can download our K-Wham podcast. We have podcasts for all of our weekend shows as well as Starring's Country.

So, there's a lot of great content, a lot of great resources for you there at K-Wham. And if you have an event that you would like to promote on our website or you'd like to promote on air, just give us a call: 901-260-5926. Again, that's 901-260-5926, and we'll be more than happy to share that information to our K-Wham audience. All right, it is going to be a very busy news day as we continue to take a look at what's happening with this fraud happening not only. Only now in Minnesota and Ohio, now reports coming out of Texas.

And of course, as we mentioned, more than 300 child care facilities here in the Mid-South currently getting tax money. A lot of folks wondering: is there fraud in our state as well? All right, bundle up, everybody. Stay warm out there. Stay safe on the roadways.

This is Starnes Country, the principal Toyota Memphis Studio. Hey girl, yes, you. You are seen, you are loved, and you were made for more. Created especially for teen girls, chart-topping Christian artist Anne Wilson invites you to her 40-day devotional, Hey Girl, through honest stories, scripture, and journal prompts. Anne talks about real struggles, comparison, insecurity, doubt, and faith, reminding you that God is always near and fighting for you.

Hey girl, from K Love Books. Get your copy today at klove.com/slash books.

Get The Truth Mobile App and Listen to your Favorite Station Anytime