• What Happened: President Trump officially declared a "war on fraud" at the State of the Union, naming VP JD Vance to lead the task force and citing $19 billion in Somali-linked fraud in Minnesota alone.
  • Why It Matters: Trump says the fraud problem extends beyond Minnesota, calling California, Massachusetts, and Maine potentially worse, and suggested recovering fraud dollars could balance the federal budget.
  • Bottom Line: The war on fraud began four months ago according to Trump, with the administration already freezing $10 billion in child care funding across five states and pursuing tougher verification methods.

President Trump made it official Tuesday night: the war on fraud is on, and JD Vance is leading the charge.

During his State of the Union address, Trump announced he was formally declaring a war on fraud and named Vice President JD Vance to head the task force responsible for tracking down and recovering billions of stolen taxpayer dollars. Trump said the effort had quietly been underway for four months already but that Tuesday night marked the official launch.

The centerpiece of the announcement was Minnesota, where Trump said Somali-linked fraud has now reached an estimated $19 billion, a figure higher than any previously reported. "The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception," Trump said. "This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation."

He blamed unrestricted immigration and open border policies for importing that culture of corruption into American communities, arguing that fraud drives up medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, and taxes for ordinary American families who had nothing to do with it.

And he made clear Minnesota is not the worst of it. Trump called out California, Massachusetts, and Maine as potentially even more egregious examples of fraud-riddled government programs.

The scale of the problem, Trump suggested, is so enormous that recovering stolen funds could theoretically balance the federal budget. With the national debt sitting above $38 trillion, Americans understand exactly what is at stake.

The fraud allegations in Minnesota are not new. Dozens have already been convicted. Conservative journalist Nick Shirley exposed an additional $110 million in alleged child care fraud. Governor Tim Walz declined to seek another term as the pressure intensified. The Trump administration has already frozen $10 billion in child care funding across California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York pending verification reviews.

JD Vance now has a mandate and a mission. The American taxpayer has been waiting a long time for someone to go get their money back.