WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance received a new assignment Tuesday night: fighting a “war on fraud” that President Donald Trump declared in his State of the Union address.
It’s the latest addition to a portfolio that has included saving TikTok from extinction in the U.S. and selling Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” — and it comes with Trump’s high expectations.
“He’ll get it done,” Trump, referring to Vance, pledged in his speech. “And if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.”
Vance, joined by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz, announced the opening salvo in the effort Wednesday: a pause on federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota. The state is subject to an ongoing fraud probe involving daycare centers and the alleged misuse of funds that has become a rallying cause for Republicans.
“We have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligation seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money,” Vance said during an afternoon news conference.
Oz said the Trump administration had notified Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, of their plan, which would keep the state from receiving a $259 million Medicaid reimbursement this month. The figure, Oz said, is based on an audit over the last three months of 2025.
“We will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose an act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz said. “If Minnesota fails to clean up the systems, the state will rack up a billion dollars of deferred payments this year.”
Oz added that Walz has 60 days to respond. Spokespeople for the governor — who was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024 and is a frequent target of White House criticism — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“If providers and beneficiaries are worried about getting their money and services, please call your governor,” Oz said. “These are services the governor has already paid for. We are just not reimbursing the state. To make it clear, there is a rainy-day fund in Minnesota, so we are very confident that people will not be hurt in Minnesota.”
Vance, responding to a question from NBC News, said he was “quite confident” the administration had the legal authority to withhold funds appropriated by Congress.
“We’re the ones who spend this money. Congress appropriates it. We’re the ones who actually make sure this goes to the people it ought to go to,” Vance said. “And inherent in that is making sure that it only goes to the people that Congress says that it should go to. We shouldn’t be sending money to fraudsters.”
Vance added: “I’d reiterate, we don’t want to do this. We don’t want to be in a situation where the state of Minnesota is being so careless with federal tax dollars that we have to turn the screws on them a little bit so that they take this fraud seriously.”
In his address Tuesday, Trump singled out other Democratic-led states, including California, Maine and Massachusetts, and attributed $19 billion in fraud to Minnesota and its Somali community — a claim that lacks evidence. The Justice Department has charged 98 people there, 85 of whom are Somali, with $1 billion in fraud.
“For too long, nefarious fraudsters have gotten away with stealing from and exploiting the American people — the Trump Administration will no longer allow these sick criminals to rip off hardworking Americans,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “President Trump and his entire Administration remain committed to stopping fraud. And the Administration’s efforts have already been fruitful, with ongoing investigations and important actions to ensure American dollars aren’t being stolen, and we’re just getting started.”
Vance and his office recently helped launch the Justice Department’s new Division of National Fraud Enforcement. In an interview with Fox News earlier Wednesday, the vice president said a “full, whole-government approach” to rooting out fraud would also involve the Treasury Department.
“The Department of Justice is going to be investigating and, where possible, throwing fraudsters in prison,” Vance said. “But it’s also going to mean that [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent and some of our friends at the Treasury Department, we’re going to be looking at income tax records. We’re going to be trying to understand how it is that the American people have been defrauded, how it is that people have used resources and programs that should go to American citizens and instead have been going to fraudulent uses.”
Vance added that he sees “a whole host of tools that we have that have never been used.”
When pressed, Vance was less sure of how much money might be recovered.
“We know that it’s billions and billions of dollars that should go to American citizens,” he said.
Vance also was noncommittal on a time frame for the work.
“I think the year, the next year, is where we’re going to try to uncover as much as possible and run at this as much as we can,” he said. “But it’s not going to stop after a year.
Vice presidential duties can be politically compromising and tricky to navigate. Under President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked to tackle the “root cause” of migration and lead in policy areas such as abortion. Both were thorny issues, and immigration in particular was seen as a challenging one for Harris when she faced off against Trump in 2024.
Aside from keeping TikTok online and whipping support in Congress for Trump’s legislative priorities, Vance’s portfolio has included supporting roles in Middle East diplomacy and efforts to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine. Vance, who is seen as a likely candidate for president when Trump is term-limited in 2028, also has traveled the country more than the president has to promote the White House agenda.
Vance will continue fulfilling that particular duty Thursday, with a post-State of the Union scheduled in Plover, Wisconsin.
