Vice President JD Vance says the Justice Department is zeroing in on widespread benefit fraud, naming California as a likely next target after massive fraud uncovered around Minneapolis. He highlighted a sweeping interagency push that grew out of a January effort and suggested the administration will broaden that work under a presidential directive. The claims include eye-popping figures and real cases that, if accurate, point to billions diverted from taxpayers and away from people who actually need help.
Vance has signaled that California will not be immune to the same scrutiny as the Midwest, and he framed this as part of a larger effort to restore accountability. In January the administration announced an interagency task force focused on fraud, and reports say a new task force under a Trump executive order may expand those powers. That kind of centralized, aggressive approach is exactly what Republicans have been calling for to stop systemic waste and abuse.
“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 and what we’ve done in the Trump administration,” Vance said when asked about the next steps. He made the comment while taking questions from reporters after a public appearance, pushing the idea that this is a national priority. The message was clear: federal resources will be used to follow the money and hold people accountable.
Vance spoke after delivering remarks at the Power House event center that leaned on themes many voters care about, including the economy, public safety and election integrity. He answered a string of questions from the press and used those moments to underline fraud as a drain on services. Those remarks were part of a pattern of Republicans tying fiscal stewardship to national security and local well-being.
“And the president has really empowered us to do this, is to take the first national look at the way the American people have been defrauded over many, many years,” Vance added while describing the White House push. President Donald Trump has also made blunt statements about where investigations should go, saying the “fraud investigation of California has begun” and that the state was “more corrupt than Minnesota.” That kind of rhetoric signals the administration will not shy away from targeting even large, politically powerful states.
California’s governor pushed back, saying the state has systems in place to block bad actors, and his communications team defended those efforts forcefully. “In the actual world where adults govern, Gavin Newsom has been cleaning house,” a spokesperson said, insisting state agencies have blocked significant fraud. “Gavin Newsom runs a state,” the spokesperson added. “Donald Trump runs his mouth. Again and again, we’ve shown that the programs they are attempting to call out are programs the federal government is administering, not the state. We suggest they get their house in order.”
Vance pointed to specific problems in Minnesota to make the case that fraud is not an abstract issue but a real theft from taxpayers and from people who rely on services. “You asked about Minnesota, [and] we think that there’s probably been $19 billion at least to fraud just committed in Minneapolis in the surrounding areas,” he said, laying down a figure that demands investigation. “It’s the fact that the services we need to deliver to needy people are not getting delivered because they’re going to fraudsters.”
Federal probes in Minnesota have already pulled back the curtain in several cases, including a major investigation of a nonprofit that played a central role in pandemic-era relief programs. Authorities say roughly $250 million in fraudulent claims were identified in one probe, and 78 people were charged in that scheme. Prosecutors have suggested that related programs could involve as much as $9 billion in broader fraudulent activity, which is why federal coordination matters.
Journalistic reporting from local streets turned up examples that underscore the problem’s brazenness, like an operation posing as a childcare provider with a misspelled sign. One on-the-ground account noted the business identified itself as a learning center but spelled the word “learning” incorrectly on the door, a detail Vance used to lampoon the operation. “When you have a Somali fraudster come into the United States illegally and then set up a school to collect tax dollars, and the name of the school is the Quality Learning Center, but when they put the sign up, they take the ‘n’ out. So, it says ‘Quality Learing Center,’” he said, later adding, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to send my kids to a school where they can’t spell ‘learn.’ That group was getting millions of dollars from the American taxpayer.”
Republican leaders argue these are not isolated anecdotes but signs of a broader failure to protect taxpayer dollars and the people who depend on public programs. The administration’s approach is to use federal investigatory muscle to trace funds, shut down schemes, and redirect resources back to their intended recipients. That strategy will be tested as investigations move into new states and examine tangled webs of nonprofits, contractors and program administrators.
