President Donald Trump has made cracking down on fraud a central focus of his domestic agenda.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance On Friday, he held the inaugural meeting of a new anti-fraud task force he leads as the Trump administration seeks to show it is cracking down on potential abuse of welfare programs.
Vance, speaking Friday before the task force held a closed-door meeting, said the federal government had for decades failed to take the issue of fraud seriously and that it needed to be addressed with “a whole-of-government approach.”
“This is not just stealing money from the American people,” Vance said. “It is also the theft of critical services that the American people rely on.”
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has a blow to fraud a central focus of his domestic agenda as voters say they are concerned about affordability going forward November midterm elections. This effort comes next fraud charges including day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis sparked a massive immigration crackdown on the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests.
Vance cited some of Minnesota’s charges Friday. Last month, he held a press conference to make the announcement a temporary freeze on some Medicaid funding until the state took action that federal officials said would address their concerns.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat facing Vance as the 2024 vice presidential nominee, has called it a “revenge campaign” and said the Trump administration was “weaponizing the entire federal government to punish blue states like Minnesota.”
The task force is also the most visible assignment to date that Trump has given to Vance, who is seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Vance and the task force, which includes about half the president’s cabinet, the head of a new Justice Department division focused on prosecuting fraud, and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson are set to meet regularly to look at rooting out potential fraud and abuse in federal benefits programs.
Ferguson, who is vice chairman of the task force, called the fraud issue a dire crisis facing the country and said it “cuts the social trust on which these programs and our entire nation depend.”
“This fraud crisis is so existential,” he said. “If we fail to address it, the fabric of our nation will rapidly unravel.”
Joining the task force was Colin McDonald, a senior aide to the Justice Department’s second in command. He was recently confirmed after the assistant attorney general who oversaw the new division in the department focused on prosecuting fraud.
The Justice Department has long pursued fraud nationally through its Criminal Division, but the Trump administration says the new division is needed to crack down on rampant fraud.
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By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
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