WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.
Medicaid is the U.S. health care safety net for low-income Americans. As of late 2025, nearly 70 million people were enrolled nationwide.
Vance, who made the announcement with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking the action “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”
Wednesday’s move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests.
In January, Oz posted a video on social media alleging billions of dollars in hospice and home care fraud in Los Angeles. He came under fire from California Democrats for the video, in which he stood in front of an Armenian bakery while suggesting without providing evidence that much of the fraud was “run by the Russian Armenian mafia.”
Vance said in an interview on Fox News Channel earlier Wednesday that the Justice Department and Treasury Department would also be involved in the effort, and would be looking at tax records to uncover fraud.
“There’s a whole host of tools that we have never used,” Vance said.