Steve Hilton shared an account from the campaign trail to illustrate what he described as deep, systemic problems inside California’s welfare system.
The story involved a hotel owner near Sacramento and a new employee from Afghanistan whose situation, Hilton said, exposes the scale of benefits and the incentives built into the state’s programs.
Hilton said, “Here's a story just from the campaign trail. A few weeks ago, I met a guy who owns a hotel, an Airport Hotel, near Sacramento, the seat of California's government, and he he had a new employee to drive the shuttle bus to the airport from Afghanistan, an immigrant from Afghanistan.”
Hilton said the employee made an unusual request after being hired.
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“After two days, this person said to the the owner of the hotel, could he please be paid in cash? And and the person I was talking said, Well, no, we don't do it like that. You're on payroll. Why do you want to be paid in cash? Well, I'm worried that I'll lose all my welfare benefits,” he said.
Hilton said the employee then revealed the value of those benefits.
“Really. How much are they? Here's the number, $7,000 a month. $7,000 a month. So even with, you know, Tim Walt's level accounting skills, we can figure out that's $84,000 a year,” he said.
Hilton contrasted that figure with other public numbers, adding, “In that post you mentioned from the president, he talked about 50,000 This is Sacramento County, $84,000 a year.”
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Hilton said the hotel owner learned even more about the support the employee received.
“On top of that, he dug into it. This person from Afghanistan was told by social services in Sacramento, by Sacramento County, and don't worry, we going to deliver groceries to to your house, because you shouldn't go shopping because Americans are racist, and it's safer for you to stay at home and we'll deliver your groceries,” he said.
Hilton reacted to the situation by asking, “I mean, what are we doing in this country? What are we doing?”
Hilton said the situation reflects broader issues inside the state.
“And the point that I'm making today is that just as with everything else, whatever we're seeing in Minnesota, you can be sure it's much worse. In California, we've had longer period of uninterrupted one party rule, and we have a budget of over 320 $5 billion,” he said.
He pointed to documented cases of waste and fraud.
“We already know that over $20 billion was lost to fraud in the pandemic with what they call the EDD, the Employment Development Department, payments sent out to people in jail, people on death Row, people who had died $20 billion we know that that's already gone. That's just one part of the welfare state in California,” Hilton said.
Hilton also highlighted spending on homelessness.
“We know that over 20 billion was wasted on homelessness. Who knows where that ended up? I think the probable number in California is up to $100 billion that's an estimate,” he said.
Hilton concluded by calling for an investigation into the state’s programs.
“What I'm calling for today is a thorough audit of every single part of California's bloated welfare state to root out the fraud and corruption,” he said.
WATCH:
Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Hilton says Minnesota’s fraud is NOTHING compared to California.He exposes an Afghan shuttle driver in Sacramento who insisted on being paid cash so he wouldn’t lose his $7,000-a-month welfare haul. $84,000 a year.Social Services even told him… pic.twitter.com/acOBrz2a73
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 1, 2025
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This is crazy, 84,000 in welfare to an Afghanistan immigrant. How many more are collecting the same amount in just Sacramento? How about Southern California, we have a great deal of immigrants from Muslim countries, are they eligible as well. Our taxes in Kalifornia are onerous, we as citizens of this state are drowning in high taxes, high energy including gas almost six dollars a gallon if you need premium. Newsom is a terrible person as governor; he’s a narcissist that seems blind to the fact Californians hate him for what he is doing to our once prosperous Golden State. There is no way in hell he will be elected to the Presidency, although he certainly will try. Trump administration needs to investigate our election policies; we know mail in voting is a curse to running clean elections, California has been in the forefront of cheating for years, in fact they have gamed the system that now seems out of control by normal voters.
STOP voting for COMMUNISTS and DEMOCRATS!
THAT is the problem in CA, OR, WA – NJ, NY, IL, NC, MI, MA, MN, and more.
THEN our federal government has betrayed us all. CONGRESS must end chain migration,
The Supreme Court MUST shut down the unconstitutional ANCHOR Baby BS.
Immigration laws have to change: no more we accept all minors left at our border, and Congress has to STOP spending our money and stealing it from us – and that means voting out DEMONRATS and RINOS. AND the USA must end immigration of all MUSLIMS – MUSLIMS adhere to ISLAM that is anathema to our constitution and those who follow any ideology that is anathema to our Constitution cannot be allowed to enter our country.
THAT IS ALREADY LAW BUT WE DON’T ENFORCE IT.
OBAMA has been a cancer on our REPUBLIC and now we have to root out all of his rats NO MORE can be allowed to enter and NO FOREIGN country should be allowed to own any American land and what they do own now must be seized and compensated for by the same principle as Eminent Domain and NATIONAL SECURITY.
Yes . . . Californians who have subsidized a ruling class that systematically subverted every government institution to save us from our own rational judgment are no longer sovereign citizens. We are servants to the elite politicians and unelected bureaucrats sustained in power by Silicon Valley and Hollywood donors. Lying, cheating and stealing is normal behavior defended by the miscreant subjectivity of rogue legislators, prosecutors, judges attorneys and Marxist NGOs.
Elections are rigged in favor of those who are in power and those who must endure because they are compromised.
It can be traced back to the status of Sanctuary Cities.
Not only are the Muslims cheating the system, not paying taxes, not assimilating, they are behind the scenes undermining our country and are mostly part of the Caliphate to take it over. And the democrats are helping them.
Years ago in the cesspool known as Portland, (or Little Moscow on the Willamette), the city held a lot of meetings regarding the homeless problems. These imbecilic morons determined that if they solved the problem, that thousands of people in the city who were being paid to help solve the problems would be out of work. You can’t make this crap up!!!
DOGE like a big dog, bring the public accountability and transparency