Not every critique is valid. Here’s why this one definitely isn’t.
YouTube star MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) recently opened a surgical facility in Ghana to help treat rescued child slaves. The facility, funded through his philanthropy-focused content, aims to provide long-term care for children who have survived unimaginable circumstances. While the project received praise from many, a wave of backlash quickly followed online. People claimed that he should be focusing on helping Americans instead of funding aid projects somewhere else.
What happened to helping your own kind? I haven't seen him do anything for poor White kids.
— Jon Stark (@JonStarkz) April 7, 2025
You Can Critique MrBeast, Just Not For This
It’s absolutely valid to critique MrBeast for certain things he’s done. You can question his tone-deaf recreation of Squid Game – a dystopian story about economic despair – at a time when the world is struggling with inflation and rising homelessness. It’s also fair to say that his ultra-rich content style sometimes feels out of touch, or even sadistic (kind of jigsaw-style) – like rewarding people with huge sums of money for degrading challenges, a popular trope in influencer culture.
But building a hospital to help rescued child slaves? That's a strange thing to critique. Ironically, MrBeast has done plenty for Americans, more than many politicians.
Helping Beyond Borders Isn't Wrong
There is nothing wrong with helping people outside your own country. In fact, saying people should only help “their own” (whatever that means) is a deeply harmful and exclusionary mindset. Human suffering isn’t bound by borders, and neither is empathy. People in crisis deserve help, no matter where they’re from. MrBeast helped in Ghana because that’s where help was needed. Philanthropy should be about meeting need, not satisfying nationalism.
MrBeast Claps Back: "I've Been Helping Americans For Years"
In response to the backlash, MrBeast made it clear he hasn’t neglected his own country.
We do routine food drives in America and give millions of meals away for free to Americans each year. If I listed out all the projects we've done in America this tweet would be a book. Yet everytime I help people in Africa my top reply is I don't help my own country lol https://t.co/IKTUfqNvvo
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) April 7, 2025
He added that every time he helps in Africa, the same old criticism comes up, as if doing good elsewhere erases the all the work he’s done in the U.S. From food distributions across the country, to his North Carolina pantry, school supply donations, and covering rent and medical bills, MrBeast has spent years helping Americans, long before this hospital in Ghana.
Opinion: Direct Your Anger Where It Matters
With everything happening in the U.S. right now, maybe MrBeast isn’t the one you should be pointing fingers at. Maybe direct that anger towards the people in power. The ones who are actually supposed to be solving these problems. The ones with trillion-dollar budgets and legislative power. Maybe ask them why so many Americans still can’t afford healthcare.
And by the way, even if MrBeast wanted to open a hospital in the U.S., it would be almost impossible. Not because it's illegal, but the system is intentionally built with so many barriers and rules that it’s nearly impossible in practice. It’s designed that way so people like him can’t easily step in and do what the government should be doing.
What do you think? Does this backlash make sense to you? Let us know in the comments.