WASHINGTON (TNND) — Vice President JD Vance hosted the first meeting of the newly-formed White House fraud task force on Friday as the administration
Vance told attendees there have never been an administration that took fraud seriously, describing it as a massive problem under former President Joe Biden.
“A lot of the anti-fraud protections that existed in our government for a very long time were actually turned off by the Biden administration,” Vance explained.
Vance told attendees there have never been an administration that took fraud seriously, describing it as a massive problem under former President Joe Biden. (TNND)
“We’re going to turn back on those anti-fraud protections so that all of these Cabinet officials are looking at what’s going on and focusing on it.”
The vice president said fraud is a theft of “critical services Americans rely on.” He detailed an autism fraud scheme in Minneapolis as an example.
You have families who need these services, who are unable to get them because people are getting rich,” Vance explained. “Instead of making sure that autistic children and their families get access to these resources.”
At Friday’s meeting, Vance was joined by the task force’s Vice Chair and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, as well as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Miller is a senior advisor on the task force.
“Our work on this task force will be to develop comprehensive national strategy to combat the corruption of our federal benefits programs and to assist the Department of Justice and prosecuting those who have corrupted them,” Ferguson said, describing the fraud crisis as existential.
Miller spoke about how he has not been able to get a list of SNAP names in Minnesota.
Imagine in the Twin Cities, a native Minnesotan who works as a lineman or a construction worker, who’s worried about his ability to support his family. And then imagine he has a neighbor who’s a Somali refugee who arrived two years ago, and has a Mercedes, and no financial stress, and no worries at all, and never seems to ever go to work — because he just went to an office in the state, lied on a piece of paper, and got unlimited free money forever. That is the system that is being run. That is the corruption that this task force, under the leadership of [Vance], is going to demolish,” Miller said.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 27: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller speaks during a Fraud Task Force meeting in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House on March 27, 2026 in Washington, DC. Vice President JD Vance held the Fraud Task Force Meeting with aims to reduce federal spending by identifying misuse of federal funds. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
He also discussed the DHS shutdown, calling it an atrocity and blaming Democrats’ for not funding the Department of Homeland Security.
“It is legislative terrorism, it is one of the greatest abominations that has ever occurred in the history of this country,” Miller said.
Other attendees at the roundtable included much of the Trump administration, including Anthony D’Esposito, Kelly Loeffler, Markwayne Mullin, Linda McMahon, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Scott Turner, Russ Vought, Collin McDonald, Doug Collins, Scott Bessent, Brooke Rollins, and Kim Brandt.
“The task force is an integral part of the Trump Administration’s effort to restore the vision of America as a high-trust society,” a Vance spokesperson told NBC News. “Its work is already full steam ahead in rooting out the rampant waste, fraud and abuse across the country and finding the fraudsters who are robbing hard-working Americans.”
President Donald Trump announced the creation of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud during his State of the Union address in February and signed an executive order on March 16 to make things official.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 27: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller (R) speaks during a Fraud Task Force meeting in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House on March 27, 2026 in Washington, DC. Vice President JD Vance held the Fraud Task Force Meeting with aims to reduce federal spending by identifying misuse of federal funds. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
“What this executive order does is force the entire apparatus of the federal government to do two things,” Vance explained at the signing event. “Stop the fraud of the American taxpayer, and make sure that the benefits that ought, by right, go to American citizens, go to American citizens, and not to fraudsters.”
Vance said halting payments and criminal prosecutions are two steps the order will facilitate when it comes to fighting fraud in the U.S.
The task force has targeted Minnesota, while promising to focus on other states.
Last year, YouTuber Nick Shirley went viral for going to Minnesota and filming seemingly vacant daycare centers. He alleged that millions of taxpayer dollars were funding these daycare centers, meaning that fraud was being funded. Following the video going viral, investigations and hearings were launched in Minnesota about fraud.
In February, Vance and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a pause on federal Medicaid reimbursements to the state.
A fact sheet on the task force also states, “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.”