Vice President JD Vance says the federal fraud fight has uncovered a disturbing pattern, and the numbers behind it are hard to ignore. He says investigators are now tracking a sprawling mess of bogus claims, suspended payments, and abuse that has stretched across multiple states and programs.
Vance described certain migrant communities as part of a recurring fraud pattern, saying the problem often starts small and then snowballs fast. In his view, once one person figures out how weak verification can be, the tactic spreads through trusted networks and turns into a steady drain on public money.
“You definitely see patterns where certain communities,” Vance said. “It’ll start as maybe one Somali person takes advantage of the system, or realizes you don’t even have to have children to get money from these programs. You could just claim that you have children, there’s no verification. Then, word spreads like wildfire, and that program gets tapped into by the same members of that community.”
The vice president said the Trump administration has already halted $55 billion in federal payments to suspected fraudsters while the broader effort continues to widen. He also said the total amount uncovered since Trump took office is now around $230 billion, which gives the task force a huge target and a bigger sense of urgency.
Much of the focus has landed on Minnesota, where fraud complaints have drawn national attention and prompted aggressive federal action. Hundreds of hospice and home health agencies in Minnesota and California have had payments suspended, and other states are now under review as investigators look for similar schemes.
For Vance, the real damage lands on ordinary taxpayers first. He said people send money to Washington expecting it to be used honestly, but fraud blows a hole right through that promise and leaves the public holding the bag.
“The first and the most obvious victim is the American taxpayer,” Vance said. “You give your money to the federal government, and you expect the federal government, even if you disagree with the policy behind it, you expect that money to go to the people that it’s supposed to go to.”
He added that the harm does not stop there. When money disappears into fake claims and padded schemes, he said, new mothers seeking support and families caring for children with autism can end up finding the funds gone when they need them most.
“When a new mom goes to apply for help for herself and her baby, the money isn’t there anymore,” said Vance, whose office is adorned with artwork by his kids, a rosary, a photo of him and Usha kissing on Mount Rushmore and a glass replica of a diet Mountain Dew can.
“Or, you have autistic kids who benefit from services that are meant to go to the families of children with autism, and you have fraudsters who get rich off these programs,” he added. “Sometimes they don’t even have children, much less autistic children enrolled.”
Enforcement has already moved from suspicion to arrests and charges. Federal and state authorities recently filed cases against 19 defendants accused of taking part in Medicare and Medicaid schemes involving more than $4 million in claims, and Pennsylvania officials also announced a plea deal in a separate case tied to more than $1.7 million.
The challenge, Vance said, is that clawing money back after it has been spent is a brutal slog. That is why the task force is leaning hard on prevention and payment stops, because once cash leaves the system, getting it back is a whole different fight.
“Getting money back is very hard,” Vance said. “Once it’s gone out the door, it’s very hard to get it back.”
“What we’ve done most effectively is actually just stop the money from going out the door in the first place, because that’s the only real way to ensure the American people don’t lose it.”
The crackdown was boosted by earlier reporting on questionable daycare operations in Minnesota, including a center tied to alleged fraud allegations. That wave of attention helped put the issue squarely in the spotlight and pushed the administration to move faster.
Vance has also become one of the busiest figures in the administration, handling fraud work while staying involved in foreign policy talks and family life at home. He said the chaos of the job does not erase the grounding that comes from being around his children, even when the schedule is packed and the pressure is high.
“Kids have a way of forcing you to focus on them, even when things are crazy at work,” Vance said. “[I was] with my six-year-old this morning, who was making like zoo animal noises, and I was like, ‘Buddy, what are you doing?’ And he said, ‘I just want you to get off the stupid phone.’ And I said, ‘Alright, this can wait.'”
That mix of personal life and public pressure sits right alongside the bigger political picture surrounding him. Trump has sent mixed signals about the future, but he also made it plain to donors last month that the movement still needs Vance in the years ahead.
“At the end of the day, we need to elect JD,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with donors last month, a source with knowledge of the comments confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday. The Washington Post was the first to report the president’s comments.
1 Comment
Can we end this??