President Donald Trump launched an anti-fraud task force on Monday, and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead it.
Trump signed an executive order to designate Vance as head of the anti-fraud task force alongside Andrew Ferguson, head of the Federal Trade Commission.
Stephen Miller, the White House homeland security advisor, estimated the task force could return billons of dollars to American taxpayers.
Trump pointed to claims of fraud in Minnesota, estimating $19 billion have been taken from federal programs throughout the state. He said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Rep. Illhan Omar could be complicit in the fraud.
“If we found half of the fraud that’s taking place in this country, and I think you have a chance of doing that, we would have much more than a balanced budget,” Trump said.
Vance said fraud in Minnesota stemmed from families who falsely claimed their children had autism in order to recieve federal benefits for care. The task force announcement follows Vance freezing $259 million in Medicaid funds to Minnesota.
“You had autistic kids in Minneapolis, in suburban Minneapolis, who weren’t getting benefits they needed because Somali fraudsters were literally stealing out of their pocket,” Vance said. “It’s got to stop. Unfortunately, that kind of fraud is one example of probably hundreds just within the state of Minneapolis.”
Trump said the adminsitration has found states with Democrat leaders are more likely to have widespread fraud. He pointed to New York, California and Illinois of examples where fraud may also be prevalent.
He said fraud in California is “10 times worse” than in Minnesota and other states with fraud concerns.
Trump said fraud in California was perpetuated by an excess in illegal immigration.
“The kind of money we’re talking about is just country changing,” Trump said. “It’s having a deficit to having a really profitiable country where you can lower your taxes substantially for people.”
