Overview
- Trump, who posted Friday on Truth Social, said Vice President J.D. Vance will lead a nationwide fraud hunt with priority on Democratic-led states including California, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, and New York.
- Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that eight people in the Los Angeles area were arrested in an alleged $50 million hospice and health care scheme that enrolled non‑terminal patients and billed Medicare for false claims.
- Vance’s task force and federal health officials have suspended more than 200 hospice and home‑health providers in California, a step that blocks Medicare payments to flagged businesses while investigators review their billing.
- The push grows out of a March 16 executive order that created a cross‑agency Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and Vance swore in Colin McDonald on Wednesday as the Justice Department’s new assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement.
- Democratic governors and watchdogs dispute the partisan focus and note that some federal funding pauses, including a $250 million Medicaid hold in Minnesota, face legal challenge, and Trump’s claim that recoveries could balance the budget remains unverified.