A right-wing influencer heralded by Trumpy types as the finest journalist in the country got into an embarrassing word tangle during an interview.
Nick Shirley, who in December elevated the alleged Minnesota day-care fraud scandal into mainstream consciousness, was being interviewed by Channel 5 when the conversation turned to the topic of billionaires.
Interviewer Andrew Callaghan asked, “Who do you think are the three most benevolent billionaires?”
Wearing a hoodie mocking the mispelled name of Minnesota day care, the ‘Quality Learing Center,’ Shirley stumbled.
“What do you mean by the word ‘belevonent?’” the 23-year-old asked.
“Just well-intentioned, positive billionaires who are creating, you know, net positive societal progress.”
“Trump, our president,” Shirley said.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of benevolent is “marked by kindness or generosity: disposed to doing good.”
Utah native Shirley has found himself at the center of a storm in recent weeks, after his video about the so-called “Minnesota’s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal” about alleged welfare skimming among the Somali community in Minnesota went viral.
The video was boosted by high-profile MAGA characters, including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, on the same day the Trump administration released a tranche of heavily redacted files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The Trump administration has come under unrelenting pressure from across the board—including from Trump’s staunchest supporters—to release the files in full amid speculation the child sex trafficker mixed with a slew of high-profile figures.
Among those known to feature in the files is Trump, although he has denied knowing about any of the criminal acts performed by Epstein and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The administration has come under fire for extensive redactions in many documents.
On December 27, the day hundreds of thousands of files were released, Vance shared Shirley’s 42-minute feature on X. “This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes,” the vice president said.
“Thank you Mr Vice President,” the journalist replied. “I am that dude.”
During his interview, Callaghan pressed Shirley on the timing of his video, which, at the point of this article’s publication, has amassed 140 million views on X alone.
“Who do you think were the main people who signal boosted that video and brought it into that true viral orbit?” the former All Gas No Brakes host asked.
“Elon Musk, who shared the video. JD Vance, he shared the video. You had the Attorney General, well she actually didn’t share it, she reacted to the video a few days later… Literally, quite frankly, every account on X saw that video instantaneously. Health and Human Services, they froze all funding to childcare inside of Minnesota and then they’re asking for businesses to prove they are legit businesses before they give tax dollars to these businesses.”
Shirley, who has been known to bring his mom along with him to film on projects, was described by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a “Conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTuber.” Following the release of the video, Walz announced that he would not run for office again.
