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Officials stress that Minnesota is just the beginning. During the task force rollout, President Donald Trump signaled that Democratic-led states could see heightened oversight as part of a nationwide crackdown. “It seems that it’s usually in blue states,” Trump said. “If it’s in a red state, we’re going there too, but it seems that it’s heavily, heavily Democrat.”
Vance’s team plans to model its approach on the CMS system used in Minnesota. The strategy relies on an internal AI program that flags suspicious claims for review and automatically blocks payments deemed likely to be fraudulent.
Previously, the Department of Health and Human Services and CMS depended heavily on slow, manual investigations to uncover fraud. Officials say the AI system will allow agencies to respond faster, preventing bad actors from draining taxpayer dollars.
To support nationwide deployment, the task force is actively hiring CMS technologists to scale the AI platform. “Vice President Vance looks forward to carrying out the President’s War on Fraud,” a spokesperson for Vance told Fox News Digital.
“The American people deserve better than being ripped off by people who hate this country, and the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud will ensure that essential taxpayer-funded services are used to support the hard-working Americans who rely on them, instead of being used by fraudsters and criminals,” the spokesperson added.
The crackdown follows previous fraud investigations, including a probe in Minnesota in 2022 into the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors identified the organization as a key player in one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the nation, tied to roughly $250 million in bogus claims. Investigations are ongoing, and officials believe the total scope of related fraud could be far higher.
During a recent event in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Vance said the administration has already flagged $19 billion in suspected fraud in Minneapolis and St. Paul alone. He also warned that other states, including California, could face similar scrutiny as the effort expands.
“We know there’s a lot of fraud in California, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of exactly what it looks like and what we’ve done in the Trump administration,” Vance told Fox News. “And the president has really empowered us to do this, is to take the first national look at the way the American people have been defrauded over many, many years,” he added.
The task force’s work signals a new era in the federal government’s approach to rooting out fraud—one that relies on technology, swift action, and a commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars from waste, abuse, and criminal schemes.
