Washington, March 17 – US President Donald Trump announced a new federal task force to tackle fraud in government programs, naming Vice President JD Vance to lead what he described as a “whole-of-government” effort.
“This is a very significant undertaking,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “It’s about addressing fraud, which is taking place throughout our country.”
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the order would establish “a new task force aimed at rooting out that fraud, and returning potentially billions or tens of billions, or even hundreds of billions of dollars, to the American taxpayer.”
The task force will be chaired by Vance, with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson serving as vice chairman. Scharf said it would launch “a whole-of-government approach to addressing the very serious problem of fraud in federally funded programs across the country.”
Trump cited specific states as examples of alleged abuse. “If we could uncover even half of the fraud that is taking place in this country, and I believe that’s achievable, we would have a much more balanced budget,” he said. “The level of theft is staggering.”
Vance said the administration had identified gaps in coordination between agencies. “One major issue was that the government agencies were not actually communicating with each other,” he said.
He added that the order would require “the entire federal government apparatus” to “stop the fraud against the American taxpayer” and ensure that benefits “go to American citizens, not to fraudsters.”
Citing an example, Vance described alleged misuse of Medicaid funds. “This has to stop,” he said, adding that such cases were “repeated and replayed throughout the United States of America.”
Ferguson said fraud was diverting money away from essential services. “Millions of Americans pay into these programs every day, and they expect to receive something in return,” he said. “This fraud is simply siphoning money that millions of Americans pay to fund their hospitals and daycare centers into completely fake businesses.”
Trump used the event to criticize previous administrations and Democrats more broadly. He said anti-fraud controls had been “unbelievably lax” and suggested that political leaders had ignored the problem.
Asked why earlier leaders had not addressed systemic fraud, Trump replied: “Because they were corrupt, they were making money, they were gaining power, and they were using it for their own gain.”
He also said: “The previous administration was fraudulent. Okay? And I think that's what you're going to find as well.”
On enforcement, Vance outlined two key tools. “When we see evidence of fraud, we will stop the payments,” he said. He added that prosecution would also be central, noting: “We know that some of this fraud is simply bad, and some of it is criminal.”
“We have to make sure that when we see criminal conduct, we actually prosecute it all the way through,” Vance said.
The announcement comes as the administration is pushing to tighten oversight of federal spending and link enforcement with broader political messaging on governance and accountability.