Trump announces ‘fraud’ crackdown in Democratic states as arrests begin in California | Donald Trump

Donald Trump announced a new crackdown on “fraud” in Democratic states and asked JD Vance to lead the charge. Authorities quickly announced a series of arrests in California.

In an article published Friday by Truth Social, the US president announced that his vice president was now “in charge of ‘fraud’ in the United States,” saying the problem was “massive and pervasive” and that Vance’s new role as “fraud czar” would be “a major factor in the greatness of our country’s future.”

Without citing evidence, Trump said Vance would focus on “everywhere, but primarily in blue states where crooked Democratic politicians…have enjoyed an unprecedented theft of taxpayer dollars.”

He pointed to California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine and New York, where the alleged fraud is “so large that if successful, we would literally be able to balance our American budget,” without providing evidence.

“The raids have already started in Los Angeles,” Trump said. Authorities have arrested eight people suspected of committing more than $50 million in health care fraud, primarily in Southern California, federal officials announced Thursday.

Most of the defendants, including medical professionals such as nurses and a psychologist, allegedly conspired to defraud Medicare by operating “sham” hospice facilities where they used people who were not terminally ill as beneficiaries, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

It comes as the United States remains engaged in a war with Iran that cost $12.7 billion in its first six days. The Trump administration also presented a budget proposal Friday that would see defense spending reach its highest level in decades, while other government programs would face steep cuts.

Meanwhile, Trump’s allies are increasingly accusing blue states of being complicit in fraud.

Last December, Trump froze federal funding for child care in Minnesota due to such accusations. He also heavily deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the state amid controversial immigration raids that resulted in the deaths of two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as well as widespread protests.

In February, Vance announced that the Trump administration would “temporarily stop” more than a quarter of a billion dollars in Medicaid funds going to Minnesota as part of efforts to ensure the state was a “good steward of the American people’s tax dollars.”

The Democratic governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, then retorted: “This has nothing to do with fraud. He added: “Agents Trump allegedly sent to investigate fraud are shooting protesters and arresting children. His Justice Department is destroying the U.S. attorney’s office and crippling its ability to prosecute fraud. And every week, Trump pardons another fraudster.”

Trump also previously claimed “there was more fraud in California than in Minnesota.”

In recent months, the Trump administration has argued that Southern California is rife with health care fraud and vowed to crack down, while frequently using the topic for political purposes to criticize the state’s Democratic leaders. Nearly all of the cases cited by the Justice Department in the wave of “Operation Never Say Die” arrests were linked to Southern California.

“The Southern California region is a high-risk environment for health care fraud and many other forms of health care fraud,” said Akil Davis, deputy director of the FBI, who said the United States loses “hundreds of billions of dollars each year to health care fraud.”

In response to this news, Gavin Newsom defended his state, saying California had taken action. The governor said he banned new hospice licenses in 2021 and the state has revoked more than 280 licenses since 2024 and prosecuted more than 100 criminal cases.

“The Trump administration – home to the biggest fraudsters on the planet – is trying to blame California for the problems with THEIR federal programs,” Newsom said. “I’m glad to see the federal government finally getting serious about fraud in the programs it runs itself…only 15 months after Trump took office. »

At a news conference announcing the arrests, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said his agency plans to examine all hospices in California.

The Guardian contacted the governors’ offices of Illinois, Minnesota, Maine and New York for comment.

Since returning to office last January, Trump has granted presidential pardons to dozens of people convicted of white-collar crimes, including several people convicted of fraud.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Trump gave a prime-time speech in which he said, “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of child care,” adding, “It’s not possible for us to take care of child care, Medicaid, Medicare – all those individual things, they can do it at the state level.”