Vice President JD Vance announced Friday that the Trump administration’s anti-fraud task force has prevented $56 billion in fraudulent payments and identified $230 billion in total fraud targeting American taxpayers.
Speaking at the first-ever televised cabinet meeting from Camp David, Vance provided an update on the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud — a whole-of-government effort he chairs under President Trump’s direction.
The numbers are staggering.
“Just since the beginning of the fraud task force that I started under the president’s leadership and direction, we have identified $230 billion dollars of fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American people, and we have halted already $56 billion dollars of that,” Vance said.
He explained the urgency: once fraudulent payments leave federal coffers, recovering them becomes nearly impossible. But stopping them before they go out the door saves taxpayers real money.
“It’s sometimes hard once the money has already gone out the door; it’s hard to get it back. But stopping it from going out the door is how we save the American people $56 billion. Of course, we’re going to keep on working on that,” he added.
The task force isn’t slowing down. Vance announced 17 new anti-fraud actions Friday that will target an additional $333 million in fraudulent schemes.
Vance laid out the human cost of fraud — and it’s not just about taxpayer dollars.
So, to give one concrete example, there is a program that is administered by Medicaid, and that program ensures that low-income moms and low-income babies have access to neonatal care. And, I think most Americans probably share my view, this is one of the great things about the United States of America, that if we see a baby and we see a young mother that requires help, we help our fellow Americans. That’s a good thing. It’s something that we should be proud of. And yet, there is a program that has defrauded the moms and the babies who benefit from these. You’ve gotten people who’ve gotten rich by setting up false companies that are providing false services. So who loses in that equation? Number one, of course, is the American taxpayer that is $230 billion poorer because the fraud that this country has let go on. But I actually think most importantly is that we’ve seen that program run out of money. So we’ve seen moms and babies unable to access the healthcare that they need because the fraudsters have gotten rich. That is a disgrace. And until the president ordered us to stop it, no one was doing anything about it.
Fake companies. False services. Real mothers and babies denied care while fraudsters got rich.
Vance emphasized that fraud creates two victims: taxpayers footing the bill, and the vulnerable Americans who actually need help but can’t access it because programs run dry.
President Trump praised Vance’s work, comparing him to Eliot Ness — the legendary federal agent who took down Al Capone’s bootlegging empire during Prohibition.
The task force’s actions represent the kind of government accountability patriots have been demanding for years. Under the previous administration, $230 billion in fraud went unchecked. Now, Trump and Vance are fighting back.
.@VP: "Just since the beginning of the Fraud Task Force that I started under @POTUS' leadership and direction, we have identified $230 billion of fraud that's being perpetrated against the American people, and we have halted, already, $56 billion of that. It's sometimes hard,… pic.twitter.com/ZRn3aVUvUf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 31, 2026
