Vice President J.D. Vance is being named America’s fraudbuster in chief.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order putting Vance in charge of an “anti-fraud task force” to “investigate fraud across the country,” according to the U.K.’s Independent.
A report in the New York Post said a White House document describing the order says “there 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.”
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson will be vice chair of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. White House aide Stephen Miller will be a senior adviser.
The order calls for a comprehensive national strategy against fraud in which states partner with the federal government to provide housing, food, medical care, and financial assistance.
President Trump and VP JD Vance to officially launch their task force against fraud today: “This really going to establish a whole-of-government effort to fight fraud at both the state and federal level.”
— America (@america) March 16, 2026
The order will call for standards to be set to avert fraud, including documentation and proof of identity.
“In states across the country, fraudsters are depriving vulnerable citizens of basic social services, stealing billions of your tax dollars, and eroding America’s social fabric,” a Vance representative said.
“This fraud has happened on such a massive scale that it’s endangering the future viability of America’s entire social safety net,” the representative said.
“The Trump Administration is responding with a whole-of-government war on fraud that includes multiple stakeholders who will follow the fraud wherever it leads,” the representative said.
On Friday, Vance noted that at least $19 billion in fraud occurred across the multiple scandals that have rocked Minnesota.
He indicated California may come under the fraud microscope next.
“We know there’s a lot of fraud in California, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of exactly what it looks like,” Vance said Friday, according to Fox News.
🚨 BREAKING: Trump CMS Administrator Dr. Oz just launched a MASSIVE $124 BILLION investigation into New York Medicaid fraud — NYP
Oz confirmed with JD Vance that NY has MUCH higher Medicaid spending than the rest of the country by nearly 80%
OZ TO NY GOV. KATHY HOCHUL: “The… pic.twitter.com/1BSmjy0eEO
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 3, 2026
“And the president has really empowered us to do this … to take the first national look at the way the American people have been defrauded over many, many years,” Vance said.
One indication of the administration’s approach came several weeks ago as Vance, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a Medicaid funding freeze impacting Minnesota.
To ensure that, after months of reports of fraud in Minnesota, more money does not go where it should not, $259.5 million of quarterly federal funding for Medicaid will be paused, according to a news release from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
