The Michael Knowles Show - What Somalia Did For America In 5 Mins

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Did Somalians really build America? Michael Knowles breaks down the viral claim sweeping TikTok and X — separating historical fact from political fantasy. In just four minutes, Knowles explains where the narrative came from, what the data actually shows, and why activists keep pushing these revisionist talking points. If you've seen the memes, the headlines, or the outrage — here’s the quick, no-nonsense explainer you’ve been waiting for. Watch, learn, and decide for yourself. - - - 🎄✨ LET’S KICK OFF THE CHRISTMAS SALE! ✨🎄 Campaign Dates: 12/10/2025 – 1/5/2026 Bring out the cocoa, cue the carols, and crank up the cheer — because the DailyWire+ Christmas Sale is officially here! https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe 🎁 Santa came early: ⭐️ 40% Off DailyWire+ New Annual Memberships ⭐️ 50% Off DailyWire+ Annual Upgrade Memberships ⭐️ 50% Off DailyWire+ Annual Gift Memberships - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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settled by the Virginia Company at Jamestown in 1607, and settled in New England by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower in 1620, founded as a cohesive nation through the Revolutionary War between 1775 and 7, 1783 and governed by the Constitution, which was ratified in 1788, all of which occurred between 132 and 428 years before the first documented Somali arrived in the 1920s. When Somalis did finally make it over here in the 20s, it was not by the millions, or by the thousands, or even by the hundreds. It was by the dozens, handfuls of sailors so minuscule that they barely even appear in the historical

record. In the 1950s, as Somali territories moved toward independence after decades of colonial government by the British, the French, and the Italians, some Somali students attended American universities. Again, we're talking about a vanishingly small number of Somalis, visiting and studying in the United States. Even after the Heartseller Act of 1965 radically transformed America's immigration system, inaugurating the policy of mass migration that persists to this day, Somalis still barely came

to the United States. In 1969, the Somali Republic collapsed after only nine years of existence, giving way to the Marxist-Leninist-Somali Democratic Republic. Even then, only a minuscule number of Somalis made it to America. By 1990, one year before the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic, fewer than 2100 Somali natives lived in the United States. That all changed in 1991, when civil war and state failure sent hundreds of thousands of Somalis fleeing. The U.S. had adopted a new policy welcoming political refugees in 1980, over two centuries after the founding of the American nation and 360 years after the landing of the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, for those who are keeping count. So, by 2011, nearly 100,000

Somalis had been welcomed into the United States as refugees. What exactly did they build in America? They didn't sign the Declaration of Independence, they didn't build our military, or found any universities, or make any of the discoveries or invent any of the inventions that made America a global superpower and gave us the American century. They weren't even here when all that stuff happened. But that doesn't mean they haven't built anything. When Somalis began arriving in the 1990s and 2000s, they built mosques, and Islamic centers, and Quranic schools. They opened halal shops and grocery stores that sent remittances back to Somalia. Beyond these legal, or at least semi-legal businesses, a major source of remittances to Somalia has been the American taxpayer,

because the most impressive institution that Somalis have built in the United States is the kind of community group that perpetrated one of the most expansive cases of welfare fraud in American history. Thanks to reporting by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo at City Journal, know that Somali criminals stole billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars during just a single gubernatorial administration in Minnesota alone. Much of that money went straight back to Somalia, with at least some of it ending up in the hands of the Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. According to a 2024 report, remittances from abroad and especially from the United States, today account for between 30 and 50 percent of the Somalian economy. In other words, Somalis didn't

build America. They've never really contributed anything to America. But they have managed to take, steal, and transfer enough wealth from America that, inasmuch as Somalia exists today as a nation at all, America built Somalia.