This is a version of Atlantic Every day, a magazine that guides you through the top stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Register here.
Vice President Vance has a busy month. He could facilitate talks with Iran in Pakistan this weekend—part of the White House’s attempt to maintain a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East. But he also looks at internal affairs as the “king of fraud” of the administration.
Vance has been the face of the White House’s anti-fraud efforts since earlier this year, but Trump repeated the name in Social Reality post at the end of last week. “He will focus “EVERYWHERE,” he wrote, “but especially in the Blue States where MISLEADING DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS” have allegedly “had a ‘free for all’ in the unprecedented theft of Taxpayer Money.”
In January, Vance he announced that the White House was establishing a new national fraud enforcement unit, with its own assistant attorney general position. It was a response to a series of child care fraud scandals across Minnesota—some of which were uncovered during the Biden era but were reinvestigated by Justice Department prosecutors late last year. Trump formalized Vance’s new promises last month, signing them executive order creating an Anti-Fraud Task Force, of which the vice president is now the chairman. If Trump’s announcement last week is any indication, Vance’s job is to shed more light on blue-collar government fraud—which, given the fact that fraud is fraud. issue In both Democrat- and Republican-led states, there is a risk of limiting the impact of the project.
As noted in the March executive order, Vance will focus more on benefit fraud: the crime of claiming social welfare benefits that you are not entitled to. (It is true, but despite some administration rhetoricreducing it won’t do much to eliminate the federal deficit.) The Trump administration has tried to address this issue through legislation (for example, the One Big Beautiful Act changed eligibility requirements for food stamps) and through targeted enforcement efforts such as DOGE, a major federal government fat reduction program. DOGE’s progress was difficult to track: Its website duplicated itself Overstatement, deletion and contradiction about the working conditions of the organization. The department ultimately failed in its mission. Despite closing several government agencies, DOGE ended lead to more federal spendingrather than a little.
As presidential administrations direct their DOJs to deal with fraud, they sometimes call in task forces to strengthen that work, as Joe Biden, Barack Obamaand George W. Bush he also did. And federal governments are not doing this alone: the state level activity across the country is responsible for reducing fraud as well. But the Trump administration has at times used fraud allegations as political cover—an excuse to withhold funding from its political opponents at the federal level. These types of targeted cuts are mostly aimed at blue states, where immigrant communities are often scapegoated.
According to federal dataBenefit fraud is likely to occur at similar rates in Republican- and Democrat-led districts. But in response to Minnesota’s fraud scandal, the Department of Health and Human Services tried freezing more than $10 billion in funding for five blue states in January, fearing that taxpayer dollars are not safe under Democrats’ control. (The district court since then is blocked move.) That same month, CBS News information that Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, had directed “virtually all” government agencies to report the funding they were giving to certain blue states—the idea being to combat any possibility of “improper and fraudulent use of those funds.”
As the Trump administration embodies the political narrative of its anti-fraud efforts, it also undermines enforcement: In the early days of his second term, Trump dismissal many of the guards who were looking for criminals all over the country. According to federal dataThe investigators were responsible for digging up more than $50 billion in fraud in fiscal year 2024.
An anti-fraud task force has already begun its work, and its success or failure will depend on Vance. Trump’s Social Reality post last week was timed by to be arrested of eight suspected fraudsters who the FBI says bilked more than $50 million from Medicare with “bogus hospice care centers.” There is irony here in the fact that Trump has granted clemency to several fraudsters convicted of similar crimes. Among them is Joseph Schwartz, who he stole about 38 million dollars through his empire of nursing homes; Lawrence Duran, who pleaded guilty to masterminding a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme; and Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who didn’t pay taxes. Walczak was pardoned after his mother reportedly attended a Trump fundraising dinner, where guests were required to pay $1 million to attend.
Vance can put a positive spin on the outcome of his term as king of fraud, whatever those outcomes may be in the next three years. But he will have to answer more vocal critics on the campaign trail in 2028, if he chooses to run. That’s what happened to Kamala Harris, who in 2024 had to face questions about another title she was given: “king of the border.” Republicans were eager to highlight the Biden administration’s immigration policy failures, and the headline on Harris’ resume made him an easy target.
Because Vance’s presumption of fraudulent intent—that Democrats uniquely permit social services fraud—is false, its potential consequences are limited. If Americans are not happy with what he achieves, he may regret his new position.
Related:
Here are four new stories from Atlantic:
Today’s news
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite Iran saying earlier today that it would strikes threatened a ceasefire.
- First lady Melania Trump made a statement denying what she described as false claims about his relationships to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- Vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz it has not revived since the ceasefire in Iran was announced; Iran still mandates that ships obtain its approval before passing through.
Dispatches
Explore all our newsletters here.
Evening Read
Scientists Finally Unlock the Full Potential of Cancer Treatment
By Katherine J. Wu
By the time Fabian Müller met the patient in the middle of his station new research paperhe was absolutely convinced that experimental treatment was his last hope. The patient, a 47-year-old mother of two, had for many years been battling three severe autoimmune diseases, all of which were causing her body to attack parts of her blood. His doctors had made nine different attempts to treat his condition, but none of them worked…
In recent years, (Müller) and his colleagues have made a name for themselves as pioneers in the experimental treatment of CAR-T cells—a type of personalized immunotherapy originally developed for cancer—against various autoimmune diseases, with promising early results. Small CAR-T studies, including early results from several ongoing clinical trialsshow that most people with autoimmune disease go into remission after treatment; some patients have now stopped CAR-T cell therapy for years and continue to be healthy without the help of any drugs. Müller hopes that this latest patient—the most complex immunodeficiency patient to receive treatment to date—will soon be able to say the same.
More From Atlantic
Cultural Breakdown
Remember. New Deal-era murals adorn the walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building. important lessons about patriotism, propaganda, and beauty, writes Judith Shulevitz. What if the government sells the building?
Read on. Oyster diariesNancy Lemann’s first new novel in over 20 years, is back, again, to New Orleans and its eccentricities.
Stephanie Bai contributed to this journal.
When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for your support Atlantic.
