The State Department will officially terminate foreign assistance to Somalia after the African nation’s government demolished a warehouse containing 76 metric tons of food donated by America, a senior administration official told The Daily Wire.

On January 3, “at the direction of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (HSM) and the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), authorities at Mogadishu Port demolished the World Food Programme (WFP) Emergency Response Warehouse with no prior notification or coordination with international donor countries, including the United States,” a diplomatic cable from the United States Embassy in Somalia dated January 6 said.

The move “likely resulted in the destruction of these emergency food supplies,” and was approved by Somali’s president over the objections of the World Food Programme, the cable said. The apparent cause, it said, was corruption: the Mogadishu Port is managed by a Turkish company that wanted to expand, and Somalia’s Minister of Ports “acts as [Turkey’s] primary agent in Somalia.” Turkey has increasingly plated a large role in Somalia industries, “often operating under corrupt contracts that uniformly favor Turkish interests,” the cable said.

An additional 1,650 metric tons of additional commodities were scheduled to arrive in early January, and had to be stored in an alternative warehouse. The World Food Programe, a project of the United Nations, said it will notify Somalia that the “demolition constitutes a breach of UN diplomatic protocols,” the cable said.

The embassy in Somalia requested that the Secretary of State “strongly consider pausing, canceling, or postponing U.S. assistance to [Somalia] until it returns or compensates the United States and other international donors for the stolen food assistance items,” the cable said.

The State Department announced on January 7 that it has “paused all ongoing U.S. assistance programs which benefit the Somali Federal Government. Any resumption of assistance will be dependent upon the Somali Federal Government taking accountability for its unacceptable actions.” But the administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, went further, saying that all aid will be permanently and officially ended by May.

The ports minister issued an eviction notice to the WFP in December, but the Somali government had later said the warehouse could still be used while a final decision was pending. The port manager claimed that the food was moved to two containers and remained accessible, but WFP said that was not true, and that it is likely ruined because it requires specialized storage.

The food was donated by Americans under the Title II “Food for Peace” program and International Disaster Assistance, while the World Food Programme administers its distribution. Hunter Biden served as chairman of the World Food Program USA, which supports its work, from 2011 to 2015.

The disappearance of the Food for Peace food due to apparent Somali corruption comes as Somalis who migrated to the United States by claiming refuge status have themselves defrauded the U.S. government, including by asking to be paid by the government to watch their own children or their neighbors’ children, and plunged cities like Minneapolis into their own instability.

A member of Somalia’s parliament and its Foreign Affairs committee, Abdillahi Hashi Abib, wrote to United States officials saying that 90% of Somalia’s humanitarian assistance comes from America, and that the Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) has been “defrauding” it because “the funds have been captured and monetized by a single-family network and its clan affiliates.”

For example, three brothers of the agency’s chairman, Mohamud Macallin Abdulle, each receive $15,000 a month salaries, paid through their wives, he said, and the Finance Department and Training Unit are both run by the his uncles.

He said that “food donations from the US, EU, UAE, Qatar, and China are systematically sold in Magadishu markets after staged photo-ops,” in which starving people are paid $5 to pay for photos with the food, before it is taken away from them.

By diverting aid for 8,000 to 12,000 families, the clain generates half a million dollars a month for itself, he said. Foreign aid money has also been wasted as Somalis inflate the cost of items, charging $300,000 for ambulances and fire trucks that cost only $100,000, he said.

“The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and his extended family are beneficiaries of a system that has systematically looted U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance” by “installing a close relative… at the apex of Somalia’s humanitarian system,” he wrote.

Two years ago, The Daily Wire launched a kids’ programming platform called Bentkey exactly because of people like Ms. Rachel, who has turned her hypnotic videos for preschoolers into a vehicle for leftist propaganda.

Bentkey has a different idea: entertainment that is actually for kids and doesn’t feature any soft-peddling of adult themes. You know, cute characters, fun adventures, and stories you don’t need to worry will have your kids asking you what a “transgender” is. It’s what my kids watch, and you can check it out here. 

I haven’t seen anyone lay out the need for alternatives like Bentkey better than the Daily Wire’s own Matt Walsh, who laid into Ms. Rachel on his show this week. Here’s what he had to say. —Brent Scher 

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Ms. Rachel is a YouTuber who makes videos for preschoolers. We’ve covered her before on my podcast. She’s known for teaching children about gay pride, LGBT issues, and pronouns. That alone is reason enough not to put her content on for your kids. You should not allow your children to watch her show for those reasons.

Now she’s out on a propaganda tour with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Here they are visiting a preschool:

This morning, Ms. Rachel and I visited District 2 Pre-K Center, where we sang and read with the wonderful students and educators. We also discussed universal childcare – and how we’re making it happen for NYC! pic.twitter.com/974M24kt64

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 9, 2026

Credit: @NYCMayor/X.com

“This morning, Ms. Rachel and I visited District 2 Pre-K Center, where we sang and read with the wonderful students and educators. We also discussed universal childcare—and how we’re making it happen for NYC!”

Yes, I’m sure the four-year-olds were riveted by that conversation.

You sat down with four-year-olds to talk about universal child care — which, by the way, is terrible for four-year-olds. It’s the city’s way of getting more kids into government-run child care and away from their parents.

That’s really the message here: “Good news, kids. You’re going to spend even less time with your parents and even more time with government workers. And government workers are the best.”

So here’s the debate over Ms. Rachel: Is she a political propagandist? She’s enormously popular with kids and racks up billions of views. Should you be exposing your children to someone like that, given her political messaging?

The answer is clearly no. You should not expose your kids to a political propagandist.

But set the politics aside for a moment. I want to make a more basic point about Ms. Rachel and people like her. I find most children’s YouTube creators to be creepy. As a parent, you need a radar for that. If your instinct isn’t asking, “Who is this person?” then you’re not paying attention.

Even before you evaluate the content or any political messaging, the vibe matters. And while vibe-based arguments don’t work in politics, they absolutely do in parenting. If something feels weird — if you don’t like the vibe—then that person doesn’t belong around your kids. That alone is reason enough to turn it off.

These adults making content for three- and four-year-olds have figured out that it’s an extremely profitable business. So they just keep churning it out.

They’re slop merchants for toddlers. And they churn out slop for every age bracket. It boggles my mind that there are parents who say, “Yep, here’s what my four-year-old needs—some slop. Bring on the slop. Sit down, Junior. It’s slop time. Go ahead and spend three hours watching this mind-numbing, weird show.”

I don’t get it.

The other thing I can’t stand is when children’s content creators act and dress like children themselves. That’s where the weirdness really kicks in. You have adults in their 40s and 50s speaking and acting like kids. Ms. Rachel appears in overalls, sneakers, and a headband — she’s in her 40s. Why is she dressed like that? She speaks and acts like a kindergartener. And that’s what almost all of these children’s YouTuber types do.

Compare that to Mr. Rogers. He made content for children, but he didn’t present himself as a child. He was a grandfatherly figure. That vibe passes the parent check. It’s wholesome, constructive, and edifying. Children can learn from that.

But when you put on overalls and start speaking in an absurdly over-the-top, childish, patronizing way, kids aren’t learning anything.

I went to Ms. Rachel’s page and pulled up one random video at the top. Nothing political. Nothing overtly objectionable. All I can say is that I would rather be stabbed to death than watch five minutes of her show. I would rather jump out of a hundred-story window than sit through it.

If the next regime comes in and they start arresting people like me, and they give me a choice between solitary confinement with Ms. Rachel playing on a loop or being thrown off a building, I’d say, “Please, the building.”

Don’t sit your kids in front of this slop. If your child is watching content that you can’t tolerate being in the same room with, that’s a good indication they shouldn’t be watching it — not because it’s political, but because it’s vapid, irritating, stupid, and bad for their minds and souls.

There are better alternatives than Ms. Rachel — like reading a book to your child.