White House ‘war on fraud’ to begin with freezing Medicaid payments to Minnesota

Vice President JD Vance, alongside Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz, speaks about combatting fraud, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2026. Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images

Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the federal government is withholding $259.5 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota. 

The move is part of the “war on fraud” that Trump announced during his State of the Union address. It’s the latest action aimed at Minnesota in response to an unfolding fraud scandal in the state’s social services, which the Trump administration also used to justify the immigration enforcement crackdown in the state late last year. 

“We’re taking a whole-of-government approach in the Trump administration to take this fraud seriously,” the vice president told reporters Wednesday.

Medical providers have already been paid by the state, said ...