Matt Walsh (political commentator)

Cancellations

St. Francis Xavier College Church, at Saint Louis University, canceled a speech by Walsh that it had planned to co-host with Young Americans for Freedom in December 2021. The church said it had decided that Walsh's "provocative positions on immigration, on communities of color, on Muslims, and on members of the LGBTQ community" were "in contradiction to Jesus' great commandment to love God and love our neighbor".^[29][30] Walsh subsequently spoke at a different St. Louis venue.^[31] In 2023, the University of San Diego, a private Catholic educational institution, refused Walsh permission to speak on campus, describing his opinions as "grossly offensive".^{[32][better source needed]}

Johnny the Walrus

On March 29, 2022, Daily Wire's DW Books published Walsh's children's book Johnny the Walrus, which compares being trans to identifying as a walrus.^[7]

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the book "hilarious".^[33] Conservative news website TheBlaze called the book "an effort to push back against radical gender ideology which defies biological reality".^[34] The satirist Andrew Doyle, writing in UnHerd, praised the book for mocking the "indoctrination of the young".^[35] LGBTQ Nation denounced the book, calling it "anti-transgender" and a mockery of transgender youth, while PinkNews referred to it as "hateful" and "transphobic".^[33][34] It was listed as the bestselling LGBT+-related book on Amazon in December 2021 before Amazon recategorized it to Political and Social Commentary. Walsh called the recategorization "an unconscionable attack on gay rights and a horrific example of homophobia and gay erasure". Target removed the book from its online bookstore on the same day.^[36]

What Is a Woman?

Walsh's online documentary, What Is a Woman? was released by The Daily Wire on June 1, 2022, at the start of Pride Month. In the film, Walsh asks various people the question, "What is a woman?" while presenting his own views on the topic.^[40] Walsh had asked the same question in other appearances, including a Dr. Phil show on January 19, 2022, with transgender and non-binary people.^[41][42] On June 14, Walsh published a book based on the documentary, entitled What Is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation through DW Books.^[43]

The documentary received a divided reception from critics and political commentators. Critics, such as AJ Erkert of Science-Based Medicine, Erin Rook of LGBTQ Nation, and academics, argued the film was "propaganda", spread "transphobic lies", and was "science denying", seeking to ridicule the medical experts interviewed if they did not agree with Walsh's position.^{[25][39][44][45]} Erkert compared the documentary to the antiscience films Vaxxed and Expelled.^[25] Conservative commentators, such as Rich Lowry and Rod Dreher, praised the film as "mesmerizing" and "excellent".^[46][47] Dimitrije Vojnov of Radio Television of Serbia said that Walsh could become the American right's equivalent of Michael Moore, and just as biased.^[48]

Eventbrite banned screenings of the documentary due to the service not permitting content that promotes "hate, violence, or harassment towards others and/or oneself". Walsh denied that the documentary was hate speech and accused Eventbrite of hypocrisy for permitting the screening of drag shows that allow children in attendance, which Walsh considers a form of grooming.^[49]

In February 2022, Eli Erlick, a transgender activist, alleged that Walsh had invited dozens of people to participate in the documentary under false pretenses.^[50][51] Kataluna Enriquez, Fallon Fox, and other transgender public figures corroborated the account. Walsh created a group called the Gender Unity Project, which the individuals said attempted to lure them into participating in the film.^[51][52] The Gender Unity Project's Twitter account and website were taken down shortly after the allegations went public.^[53] Erlick claimed there were at least 50 other recruited interviewees, including a 14-year-old transgender girl.^[53][54][55]

Walsh's What Is a Woman? college tour attracted protests of his appearances for screenings at University of Houston and the University of Wisconsin.^{[56][57][58][59]}

For June Pride Month of 2023, The Daily Wire made What is a Woman? available for free on Twitter. The Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing tweeted that Twitter had canceled a plan to promote the video for "hateful conduct," reportedly because of misgendering, and said the video was being suppressed. Twitter CEO Elon Musk initially agreed to lift only some restrictions, but after pressure removed all restrictions and personally promoted the video.^[60][61] Chiefs of Twitter's trust and safety division left the company on the same day.^[60]

Am I Racist?

Walsh starred in, co-wrote, and co-produced the documentary film Am I Racist?, released on September 13, 2024, which lampooned the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.^[62] Described as a mockumentary in the style of Borat,^[62][63] it grossed $12.3 million against a production budget of $3 million, becoming the highest-grossing documentary film of 2024.^[64]

General

Walsh's views have mainly been described as right-wing as of 2022^[65][66][67] and conservative,^[68][56] as well as far-right.^[69][70][45] His commentary is sometimes described by media outlets as trolling or provocation.^{[71][72][73][37]} He labels himself a "theocratic fascist" in his Twitter biography,^[74][75][76] which he said he uses "ironically".^[76]

Walsh has argued that the trial of Kenosha unrest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted, was malicious prosecution.^[77] He has argued for banning pornography and supports restricting abortion.^{[78][better source needed]} Walsh has argued that ozone depletion and acid rain were never serious problems.^[79]

In 2022, Walsh supported the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement Conspiracy Theory, arguing that it "isn't a conspiracy theory. There's nothing wild or speculative about it. It's just a fact."^[80][81]

After the killing of Austin Metcalf, Walsh stated: "Young black males are violent to a wildly, outrageously disproportionate degree. That's just a fact. We all know it. And it's time that we speak honestly about it, or nothing will ever change."^[82] In early May 2025, Walsh supported Shiloh Hendrix, the white Minnesota woman caught on video using the word nigger several times towards a 5-year-old black child and the black man who filmed the incident. Walsh expressed satisfaction with Hendrix having raised $500,000 on the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo and hoped that she would raise $500,000 more, saying it was "time to start swinging back".^[83] In October 2025, following Politico's reporting on a leaked Young Republican group chat containing racist and antisemitic messages, Walsh insisted that the "biggest problem" for conservatives was not sticking together.^[84]

Walsh has called multiculturalism a failed experiment he thinks should be abandoned.^{[85][better source needed]} In April 2024, Walsh generated controversy for praising white nationalist organization VDARE, claiming it was being targeted by a government investigation due to its "inconvenient and unpopular beliefs".^[86][87] Walsh also said that "40 percent of New York City's population is foreign born. Not just second and third generation immigrants. Foreign born. Almost half the city wasn't born in this country. NYC isn't an American city anymore by any reasonable definition of the term. It's a tragedy and a disgrace."^[88][89]

Walsh argued that "The conquest and colonization and settling of this land was, overall, a good and noble and courageous thing", for which people should be grateful, and that the colonizers were heroes, but he considers Western countries' "cultural colonization" of Africa about LGBT issues to be wrong,^[90] despite Africa's long history of dealing with these issues before the colonization.^[91][92][93] He also stated that "All of us today would be in a worse spot if slavery never existed at all across the entire globe" also arguing that African-Americans are much better off in the United States than they would be in the countries from which their ancestors were taken.^[94][95] He has stated that, "everything you were told about the civil rights movement was a lie".^[96]

On issues like criminal reform, Walsh has publicly called on Twitter for increased executions, especially public lashings and public hangings, as well as corporal punishment and hard labor.^[97]

LGBTQ+ issues

Walsh opposes same-sex parenting and adoption. He has argued that it would be better for a child to grow up with a missing arm than with same-sex parents, and described it as "human trafficking" and a "mad scientist horror".^{[98][99][100]}

Walsh has also spoken out against same-sex marriage, stating that by the same logic with which it is approved, then "An incestuous couple can use this same reasoning as gays, so can polygamists, so can bigamists",^{[101][better source needed]} and that marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples because they can have children;^[102] despite these claims, he partially approved polygamy, because "at least a polygamous marriage can still be procreative, and at least there’s some historical precedent for it".^{[103][better source needed]}

Walsh has expressed support for the pseudoscientific practice of conversion therapy, arguing that it is an effective at changing sexual orientation, that sexual orientation is not innate, and that "no sane person thinks that" there are "homosexual infants".^[104][105]

In February 2021, after a Gallup poll showed an increase of people who identify as LGBT, especially bisexual and transgender among in Generation Z, Walsh accused "the media, Hollywood, and the school system" of "recruiting" children into the LGBT community. Other commentators quoted by PinkNews attributed the increase to an easing of social stigma among young people.^[106]

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Walsh accused President Joe Biden of feminizing the U.S. military and recruiting lesbians who he said "can't do three pushups", and said that it was "not a coincidence that [Russia's invasion] happened after Biden spent his first year in office focusing primarily on wokeness".^[107]

The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg argued that Walsh's commentary, as well as that of other right-wing commentators, have caused an increase of anti-LGBT violence and sentiment in the United States.^[108] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Walsh as one of the "peddlers of fear and disinformation about LGBTQ people" in the wake of the Club Q mass shooting in November 2022.^[109] Walsh had previously said opposing all-age drag events was like fighting cancer,^[69] and "just like cancer, stopping it is not a gentle or a painless process".^[108][110] Following the shooting, Walsh described critics of his rhetoric as "soulless demons" and "evil to the core", accusing them of using the shooting to "blackmail us into accepting the castration and sexualization of children".^[111][112] Walsh rhetorically asked those on the left who felt that "the drag queen-child combination" would lead to "violent backlash" from right-wingers, "if it's causing this much chaos and violence, why do you insist on continuing to do it?"^[113][114] Jeet Heer from The Nation described Walsh's comments as "implicitly a threat," saying this was contributing to "a new lynching culture, with LGBTQ people as the target."^[114]

Walsh reacted to the case of William and Zachary Zulock, two gay men from the state of Georgia convicted of child sexual abuse, describing the case and same-sex adoption with negative terms.^[115]

In April 2023, Walsh defended Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, arguing that LGBTQ rights in Africa were a form of neocolonialism. The bill would enforce life in prison for anybody identifying as gay or bisexual. Walsh argued that opponents to the bill "don't think that Uganda has any particular right to govern itself and have its own culture and its own way of life."^[116]

Walsh has also denied the existence of pansexuality, calling these people "indecisive",^[117] and has defined asexuality as a "dysfunction of the brain" which is commonly "a symptom of spiritual despair."^[118]

Transgender issues

Walsh has repeatedly opposed the transgender community^[7][76] and "gender ideology",^[119] notably with his children's book Johnny the Walrus,^[7] his documentary What Is a Woman?,^[51] and campaigns involving hospitals and schools.^[3][120] Walsh and his campaigns are sometimes described as anti-trans and transphobic.^{[65][55][39][56]} Progressive magazine The New Republic named Walsh "Transphobe of the Year" in 2022, saying he "has made a name for himself by demonizing medical professionals and pushing conspiracy theories about 'grooming' and pedophilia in the LGBTQ community".^[65] Walsh has referred to being transgender as a "delusion" and a "mental illness".^[59] He has argued that transgender people cannot "defend the logic of trans ideology" and that they have "embarked on a campaign to restructure all of human society".^[119] Walsh argues that biological sex is what determines if someone is a man or a woman.^[119] He has said that "I truly see the fight against gender ideology as the last stand for Western civilization... Because if the sane side loses this, it's over."^[119]

Walsh has compared giving hormone treatments and gender-affirming surgery for transgender youth to "being sexually violated in a way that is just as depraved or damaging as molestation or rape". In May 2021, Walsh described doctors who perform gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth as "Nazi scientist-evil", "pedophiles", and "plastic surgeons basically acting like Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".^[9][7] He has referred to transgender surgeries as "castration",^[119] and called to make them illegal.^[6]

Walsh rented an apartment in Virginia for one day in 2021 to qualify to speak out against the Loudoun County School Board for allowing transgender students the use of restrooms matching their gender identity.^[120] During his speech, which he later featured in his film What Is a Woman?, Walsh said: "You are all child abusers. You prey upon impressionable children and indoctrinate them into your insane ideological cult, a cult which holds many fanatical views but none so deranged as the idea that boys are girls and girls are boys."^[39]

In January 2022, Twitter suspended Walsh's account for 12 hours for tweets it deemed as hateful content against transgender people.^[121] In October 2022, Walsh encouraged his followers to misgender transgender people, writing that "we have made huge strides against the trans agenda", and that the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, which he called "the liberation of Twitter", will allow them to "ramp up our efforts even more".^[122]

In November 2022, Walsh was challenged as a guest on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience for suggesting that "maybe millions of kids" had been put onto puberty blockers. Producer Jamie Vernon interjected and stated that only 4,780 children had been put on puberty blockers within the past five years. Walsh lowered his guess to "hundreds of thousands" and said he "could be wrong", adding, "who are you gonna trust when they're telling you the numbers?"^[21]

In February 2023, Walsh said he "would rather be dead" than have a trans child.^[123]

Campaigns against hospitals providing transgender health care

Further information: Boston Children's Hospital § Harassment campaign against gender-affirming care, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center § Transgender clinic

In 2022, Walsh campaigned against hospitals providing transgender health care for youth.^[3][124] Boston Children's Hospital, one of the hospitals denounced by Walsh and other right-wing figures, reported harassment, death threats, and a hoax bomb threat in August 2022 that led to a woman's arrest in September.^[3][67][125]

In September 2022, Walsh made accusations against another hospital, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and its transgender clinic in Nashville, Tennessee.^[10][3] Walsh said on his show that VUMC doctors "castrate" and "drug and mutilate" children.^[126] He said on Twitter that VUMC considered transgender health care a "money-maker", that it threatened "consequences" for medical staff who declined to provide care, and that it tried to "enforce compliance" from hesitant parents of transgender youth.^[3][10] Walsh criticized VUMC's "trans buddies" program and called its patient advocates "trans activists".^[127] The New Republic described the accusations by Walsh as "cherry-picking informational content" and noted that Walsh had singled out doctors by name.^[124] Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and other Republicans in the state called for an investigation into the hospital.^[10][127] Walsh tweeted about meeting with Tennessee lawmakers on a bill to shut down the clinic.^[124] VUMC reported harassment and threats against its staff, and there were calls for murders and arrests of VUMC doctors in far-right groups on Reddit and 4chan.^[3] Vanderbilt took down its webpage about the clinic and said that Walsh had "misrepresent[ed] facts about the care" it provides.^[3] On October 7, 2022, VUMC announced that it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for minors and review its practices.^[128] Since 2018, VUMC provided an average of five such surgeries to minors annually. All patients were over 16-years-old and obtained parental consent. None had received genital surgery.^[128]

Walsh spoke at a Nashville rally organized by The Daily Wire called "The Rally to End Child Mutilation" on October 21, 2022, in opposition to transgender health care for minors. The rally, whose headline speakers included Tennessee Republican state senator Jack Johnson and representative William Lamberth, senator Marsha Blackburn, and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, drew between 1,500 and 3,000 people, including supporters and protesters.^[26][5]

Campaign against Eli Erlick

In August 2022, Matt Walsh accused transgender activist Eli Erlick of being a "confessed drug dealer" after she proposed in a post on Instagram that she might distribute surplus hormone therapy prescriptions to transgender youth in states restricting gender-affirming care.^[129] Walsh reported Erlick to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she was a PhD candidate. When the university did not respond within a day, publicized administrators' contact details while threatening further escalation and protest.^[129][4] The university reaffirmed its support for transgender community members and stated it takes allegations of illegal activity and harassment seriously.^[4] Some conservative commentators reported Erlick to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.^[4]

Sick days

Walsh received heavy backlash in late September 2024 when he stated that "...especially with younger people, but you shouldn't be using sick days". Stating that "With [only] rare exceptions, taking a sick day as an adult should be pretty embarrassing for you, calling your boss and saying 'sorry, I can't come in today, my tummy hurts' is humiliating,". Citing that he himself has "I've used sick days maybe twice in seven years and in both of those cases because I had lost my voice and I couldn't speak. You can't blame me for that - it's impossible to do a podcast when you can't speak."^{[130][better source needed][131][better source needed]}

Politicians

After South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem permitted businesses to require a COVID-19 vaccine for their employees, Walsh criticized her by writing that she was only considered a frontrunner for the 2024 United States presidential election because of her physical attractiveness.^[132] After Noem called his comment misogynistic, Walsh said he had no regrets but would "accept apologies from all of the performative idiots pretending to be offended by it".^[133]

When U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted photos of her grandmother's house in Puerto Rico that was unrepaired in 2021, four years after Hurricane Maria, and blamed former President Donald Trump for not doing enough to help the recovery, Walsh criticized Ocasio-Cortez for not providing the money herself. He launched a crowdfunding effort to pay for the repairs and raised $100,000 in the first 24 hours, reaching the set goal of $48,990, but the grandmother refused the funds and GoFundMe shut the effort down after raising $104,000, with all of the money being returned to the donors. Ocasio-Cortez responded to the criticism by saying, "My abuela (Spanish: "grandmother") is okay ... but instead of only caring for mine & letting others suffer, I'm calling attention to the systemic injustices you seem totally fine [with] in having a US colony."^[134]

Walsh criticized Donald Trump in November 2022 for nicknaming Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis "Ron DeSanctimonious" ahead of the November 2022 midterm elections.^[135]

Foreign aid

In January 2025, Walsh argued that the United States government should cut off foreign aid for all countries, including Israel, stating in a tweet that: "Countries that cannot function without US foreign aid should simply not exist. You have no right to exist as a nation if your existence depends on forced donations from the citizens of another country. Take away all foreign aid permanently and let the chips fall where they may". In response to the post, the CEO of The Daily Wire put out a tweet stating his disagreement with Walsh, indicating that he thought Israel should receive American aid, but that it wasn't a problem that they disagreed.^[136]

Entertainment media

After the casting of Halle Bailey in the 2023 live-action version of The Little Mermaid, Walsh stated, "from a scientific perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have someone with darker skin who lives deep in the ocean," and suggested that the mermaid should be translucent instead.^[137] Later, Walsh said that "Translucent rights are human rights".^[138] He called anime "satanic" in an answer to viewers' questions in one of his videos, adding "I have no argument for why it's satanic. It just seems that way to me."^[139][140]

In 2025, Walsh announced that he would be releasing a documentary series produced by The Daily Wire called Real History With Matt Walsh which "challenges the decades of propaganda, questions untouchable stories, and reexamines the history generations were taught to reject."^[141]