Vice President J.D. Vance said the Trump administration’s fraud task force has identified approximately $230 billion in fraud since its creation, while preventing tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent government payments that otherwise would have gone to bad actors.
Speaking alongside administration officials, Vance highlighted the task force’s work combating fraud across federal programs and argued that its efforts have already produced significant savings for taxpayers.
At the same time, he warned that many of those reforms could be reversed by a future administration unless Congress passes legislation making them permanent.
Vance credited members of the administration for helping build what he described as an effective anti-fraud operation.
“All stars of the Trump administration, we have been able to identify 230 billion dollars of fraud just since the fraud task force was set up, and that’s frankly by conservatively estimating it,” Vance said.
He explained that administration officials deliberately chose to use a cautious estimate when presenting the findings to the public.
“Andrew and I had a meeting in my office last week, and he said, ‘Do you want to estimate it conservatively or do you want to estimate it aggressively?’ And I said, ‘Well, I kind of want to estimate it aggressively, but then all you people will criticize us. So let’s estimate it conservatively, so that we can give the American people the most rock-solid explanation of how this task force is working to protect their money.'”
According to Vance, the task force has not only identified fraudulent activity but has also stopped billions of dollars in improper payments before they were distributed.
“We’ve been able to stop $56 billion in fraudulent payments that would have otherwise gone to fraudsters rather than to the people who need them, and in the process, we’ve saved obviously the American people a lot of money.”
Vance said preventing those payments ensures taxpayer dollars are directed toward eligible recipients instead of individuals or organizations attempting to exploit government programs.
He characterized the effort as one of the administration’s major accomplishments but cautioned that executive action alone cannot guarantee the reforms will survive future administrations.
“But as much as we’ve done, and as much as we’ve had great successes, and this brings me to my final point before I kick it over to Andrew, this effort will fundamentally always have a limitation unless our colleagues in the House and the Senate are working with us.”
Vance argued that Congress must act to place the administration’s anti-fraud measures into federal law rather than relying solely on executive authority.
According to the vice president, doing so would make it more difficult for future administrations to reverse the policies that have been implemented.
“We don’t want the next administration, whoever you know, God forbid, you’re going to have President El Sayed in three years. We don’t want him to undo all the incredible work that we’ve been doing when we’ve been taking out the fraudsters and saving the American people money.”
He said the administration’s long-term objective is to ensure the fraud prevention measures remain in place regardless of who occupies the White House in the future.
“And in order to make this really work, we need our colleagues in Congress to really codify some of this stuff to make sure that it becomes law,” Vance said.
He concluded by noting the political makeup of those attending the event while expressing hope that lawmakers would support the administration’s legislative priorities.
“And again, this is the sort of thing where while I you know I see only Republicans surrounding us today.”
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The administration has repeatedly highlighted efforts to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs as part of its broader fiscal agenda.
Vance’s remarks emphasized both the reported results achieved by the fraud task force since its creation and the administration’s push for Congress to enact permanent statutory changes aimed at preserving those anti-fraud initiatives beyond the current administration.
