Vice President JD Vance unveiled what could become a central Republican midterm message Thursday as he accused Democratic-led states of enabling massive Medicaid fraud while positioning the Trump administration as the force finally cracking down on corruption.
Speaking before an energized crowd in Bangor, Maine, Vance blended attacks on Democratic governors, immigration rhetoric and taxpayer outrage into a sweeping defense of the administration’s expanding Anti-Fraud Task Force.
“What I find so preposterous about Maine — it’s not just that we’ve found tens of millions of dollars of fraud in a relatively small state, it’s that we’ve had no cooperation from the state government,” Vance told supporters.
The vice president singled out Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and accused her administration of refusing to seriously address fraud investigations.
“I would love to work with the governor of Maine to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated in this state,” Vance said.
“This should not be a red or blue state issue. This isn’t Republican or Democrat. This is common sense.”
Vance argued the administration’s anti-fraud push is fundamentally about protecting working Americans who fund government programs through taxes.
“Because you all work hard, because you all pay your taxes, because you do things the right way, it is time to have leadership in Washington that treats you the right way and protects those hard-earned tax dollars,” he said.
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“For the first time in a very long time, you’ve got an administration in Washington, D.C. that is fighting for you, fighting to protect your tax dollars, and fighting to put the fraudsters in prison.”
The Maine speech marked the vice president’s first major public event centered on the administration’s Anti-Fraud Task Force, which the White House increasingly appears to view as both a policy initiative and a political weapon heading into the midterms.
Vance repeatedly framed fraud investigations as evidence that Democratic-led states had failed to safeguard taxpayer money.
As an example, he pointed to the case of Rakiya Mohamed, a woman who pleaded guilty earlier this year to filing false tax returns and interfering with federal tax administration.
According to Vance, Mohamed operated a language interpretation company called Reliable Language Resources while allegedly collecting millions in fraudulent government payments.
“This woman, her name was Rakiya Mohamed. It turns out that Rakiya Mohamed was not a particularly upstanding citizen,” Vance said.
“So while she said that she was providing interpretation services, do you know what she was actually doing? Providing zero services and collecting $15 million over a five-year period that was going directly into her pocket.”
Vance then tied the fraud allegations directly into the administration’s immigration agenda.
“Call me crazy, but I think that when we welcome new immigrants to the United States of America, they should be people who enrich our country and bring some good skills into the country, not a person who is gonna steal $15 million from the people in this room,” he said.
The vice president argued the problem stretches far beyond isolated incidents.
“Every single day I learn of something new,” Vance said. “I learn about people who say that they’re claiming for hospice services, but in fact, they’re not providing any services and they’re making hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in the process.”
The administration escalated the crackdown Wednesday when Vance announced the federal government would begin withholding anti-fraud funding from states accused of failing to aggressively investigate Medicaid abuse.
Speaking from the White House, Vance revealed the administration is already withholding roughly $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California.
“The simple reason is because the state of California has not taken fraud very seriously,” Vance said.
Administration officials said the move centers largely on allegations involving hospice and home health providers in the Los Angeles area.
Mehmet Oz, who joined Vance during the announcement, said federal investigators had already suspended around 800 providers from reimbursements after flagging them as potentially fraudulent. According to Oz, fewer than 20 challenged the suspensions.
The administration also announced it is sending formal letters to all 50 states demanding proof that their Medicaid Fraud Control Units are actively pursuing investigations and prosecutions.
Vance warned states that fail to demonstrate meaningful enforcement could lose federal support tied to anti-fraud operations.
“We encourage people to work with us,” Vance said. “We want to help you use technology and other tools to get rid of the fraud, to get to the root of the fraud. But we can only help these state programs if those state programs are willing to help themselves.”
The vice president insisted the administration is not trying to dismantle Medicaid itself.
Instead, he argued fraud threatens the long-term survival of the entitlement system.
“The federal government pays most of the Medicaid money, but then each of the individual states actually administers the Medicaid program,” Vance explained.
He repeatedly accused providers and corrupt operators of exploiting vulnerable patients while draining taxpayer-funded health programs.
Vance also tied the anti-fraud campaign into the administration’s broader “America First” messaging.
Taxpayer-funded healthcare programs, he argued, “ought to belong to Americans first.” He warned unchecked abuse could eventually “bankrupt those programs.”
The vice president repeatedly contrasted Republican-led states with Democratic strongholds he accused of lax enforcement.
Vance claimed Hawaii had failed to secure a single Medicaid fraud conviction or indictment in recent years despite receiving billions in federal healthcare funding.
“That means that if you’re committing fraud in Medicaid in Hawaii, at least up until now — hopefully now they’re going to take it seriously — you have had effectively free rein from the government of Hawaii to commit as much fraud as you want,” Vance said. “That is a complete disgrace.”
"Guess how many convictions or indictments has Hawaii had over the last few years in its Medicaid fraud program. The answer is zero—not a single indictment, not a single conviction."@VP highlights how blue states like Hawaii and New York allow welfare fraud to take place. pic.twitter.com/pgcb0aoEKz
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 13, 2026
He also targeted New York, pointing to the state’s relatively small number of Medicaid fraud indictments despite overseeing a roughly $100 billion Medicaid system.
According to Vance, Indiana recorded more than four times as many fraud indictments despite having a far smaller population.
“Does anybody here seriously think that the good people of Indiana are 12 times more likely to commit fraud than the people of New York?” Vance asked.
“No, of course not. The leadership in New York are just not taking the fraud issue seriously.”
Though Vance repeatedly argued the effort is nonpartisan, the administration’s most aggressive actions so far have focused heavily on Democratic-led states.
The vice president acknowledged fraud exists in Republican states as well, including his home state of Ohio.
But he argued some Democratic governors have become openly resistant to federal cooperation.
Vance closed by framing the anti-fraud campaign as an attempt to rebuild public confidence in entitlement programs and government itself.
“We are not going to have a generous country if Americans think that they’re paying their taxes not to needy people, but to fraudsters,” he said. “That’s fundamentally what we’re trying to fix — rebuilding America’s trust.”
Target ALL Blue states alone