{"id":223364,"date":"2026-03-17T07:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223364\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:31:16","slug":"trump-formally-names-vance-chair-of-fraud-task-force-with-california-new-york-among-states-in-crosshairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223364\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump formally names Vance chair of fraud task force \u2014 with California, New York among states in crosshairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump signed an executive order Monday afternoon formally creating a benefits-fraud task force chaired by Vice President JD Vance as part of his state-focused\u00a0\u201cwar on fraud.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Vance joined Trump in the Oval Office for the event, the details of which were first reported ahead of time by The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that it\u2019s usually in blue states. If it\u2019s in a red state, we\u2019re going there too,\u201d said Trump, focusing his ire on the\u00a0social-services scandal in Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Trump signed an order to formally put Vice President JD Vance in charge of an anti-fraud task force. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump joked that Vance would fulfill his fraud-czar duties with greater zeal than former Vice President Kamala Harris embraced her role as President Biden\u2019s border czar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will not be like a Kamala where she was put in charge of the border and she never went there. JD, right, you promise?\u201d the president said, with Vance agreeing.<\/p>\n

A document describing the order said that, in addition to Minnesota, \u201cthere is strong reason to believe similar vulnerabilities exist in California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Colorado, where insufficient safeguards and weak oversight increase the risk of large-scale fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know California is many times worse, but Minnesota is terrible,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all terrible. Those cities are terrible. New York is terrible. What\u2019s going on in Chicago, Illinois, with that slob of a governor, is terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance spoke about fraud in Minnesota, including phony autism care at facilities run by Somali-American immigrants.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has alleged social services fraud in Minnesota \u2014 but plans to expand scrutiny to other states. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that kind of fraud is one example of probably hundreds just within the state of Minneapolis, and then it\u2019s repeated and replayed all over the United States of America,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration estimates fraud in Minnesota alone at $19 billion, with dozens charged criminally. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz expressed regrets during a recent congressional hearing and noted that he has accepted responsibility by ending his re-election campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to figure out one big hole that existed is that the agencies of the government weren\u2019t actually talking to each other,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Treasury would have evidence of financial fraud but wasn\u2019t talking to the Department of Justice about it. Health and Human Services had evidence of Medicaid fraud but wasn\u2019t talking to the Department of Treasury about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson will assist Vance as vice chair of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and White House aide Stephen Miller will serve as senior adviser. Cabinet members will participate as necessary.<\/p>\n

The EO instructs the task force to develop a comprehensive national strategy against fraud impacting programs administered with state and local governments to provide housing, food, medical and financial assistance.<\/p>\n

Trump announced a Vance-led \u201cwar on fraud\u201d during his State of the Union speech last month. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The order calls for the development of anti-fraud standards such as proof of identity and other documentation requirements, as well as audits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn states across the country, fraudsters are depriving vulnerable citizens of basic social services, stealing billions of your tax dollars, and eroding America\u2019s social fabric,\u201d a Vance spokesperson told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fraud has happened on such a massive scale that it\u2019s endangering the future viability of America\u2019s entire social safety net.<\/p>\n

The task force will form on the heels of Trump nominating Colin Macdonald to serve as the Justice Department\u2019s first assistant attorney general for fraud enforcement.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s planned role leading the task force was\u00a0first reported<\/a>\u00a0by CBS News on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

Trump announced the initiative at his annual State of the Union address to Congress this past Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

The following day, Vance and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, announced that $259.5 million in Medicaid funds for Minnesota would not be reimbursed due to fraud concerns \u2014 giving Democratic Gov. Tim Walz 60 days to submit a \u201ccorrective action plan\u201d or face further withholdings.<\/p>\n

The VP also announced a national pause on firms that can seek subsidies through Medicare for durable medical equipment like canes and walkers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump signed an executive order Monday afternoon formally creating a benefits-fraud task force chaired by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,536,24832,3130,6500,4515,13,61442,3586,2805],"class_list":["post-223364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal-trade-commission","tag-fraud","tag-jd-vance","tag-justice-department","tag-politics","tag-stephen-miller","tag-us-news","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}