Why The Trump Administration’s Fight Against Fraud Is Personal

Vice President JD Vance is making his mark on this administration in several ways, but one in particular is through President Trump’s historic focus on tackling fraud. Formalized through an anti-fraud task force that includes several agencies and advisors from the president’s team, the group has come together to advance a whole-of-government approach to eliminate fraud and the gross abuse of our federal programs.

As chairman of the task force, the vice president has executed this mission with lethal force. So much so that the White House recently unveiled its website dedicated to tracking the number of fraud cases uncovered. Already, the administration has exposed $229.9 billion in fraud and stopped $56.4 billion in suspected fraud from going out the door. These numbers are snapshots in time and keep growing. Dubbed The Fraud Ledger, the site sends a clear message: President Trump and Vice President Vance take fraud seriously. If you defraud American citizens, especially our most vulnerable populations who rely on our federal benefits, justice will be served.

Unsurprisingly, stopping fraud is an issue that connects with normal Americans, and the Vice President has been taking this anti-fraud agenda on the road to meet them. Tackling fraud isn’t just some flimsy messaging exercise that lives in the bubble of Washington, D.C. The mission resonates at the heart of our country. Most Americans have experienced the generosity of their fellow neighbors – either directly or through friends and neighbors. That generosity often manifests in our federal programs and government assistance. But the integrity of those programs disintegrates when fraudsters and criminals manipulate and steal from those programs meant to serve our neighbors and us.

For me, this is personal. Both of my parents were born into government-assisted housing, at a time when America still prioritized its own citizens. My mother grew up in a New York City Housing Authority public housing development in Woodside, Queens. My father grew up in Manhattan under similar circumstances. Throughout the 1940s and ’50s, my paternal grandfather was so poor that he had to buy food on credit just to feed his family. None of these people were trying to game the system. They didn’t want a handout for life; they needed a hand up. And that hand up is exactly what it was meant to be: a bridge to real prosperity, not a permanent dependency on government assistance. That is the promise these programs are supposed to keep, and it is exactly what fraud steals from the family standing where my parents once stood.

A few months ago in Maine — which has a serious fraud problem — the vice president touted the Trump administration’s several fraud-related wins, stating: ”Maine is the bronze medalist” for its insane amount of fraud.

Health and Human Services department found earlier this year that Maine made at least $45.6 million in improper Medicaid payments that were slated to help children diagnosed with autism. Instead of going to children who desperately needed the assistance, the money went to providers giving poor services or providing no services at all. It’s a disservice to those children and their families who actually need assistance for a state to operate with such neglect.

Maine has zero oversight of the money going out the door, has failed to complete any of its required audits of nursing facilities that have received over $382 million, and food stamp benefits have consistently been going out more than 75 days after a recipient’s death. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of Maine’s fraud. As Vance put it: “You have been fleeced by your own government for far too long, and we are stopping it every single day.”

The crowd in Maine was one of his most energetic to date. Normal Americans are exceedingly glad and relieved that their elected leaders are finally tackling the outrageous notion that their tax dollars have lined fraudsters’ pockets. That crowd in Maine is just one example.

The vice president has also talked about major fraud-related wins and exposures in Kansas City and Milwaukee. He highlighted the case of Markita Barnes, who was convicted on 10 counts of healthcare fraud for stealing more than $2.3 million from a Medicaid prenatal program for at-risk mothers and children. Fraud is a “dual victim crime,” Vance said. Those victims are the taxpayer and the intended beneficiary.

The vice president will no doubt continue his message about fighting fraud on the road and for good. The American people love to hear how the Trump administration is fighting for them, saving their tax dollars and putting fraudsters and criminals behind bars.

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Harrison Fields is a partner at CGCN Group and former Special Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary in the Trump White House.

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