President Donald Trump earlier this year declared what he called a “full-scale war” on fraud in public benefit programs like Medicaid and nutrition assistance. His vice president invited state attorneys general to the front lines in a meeting at the White House this week.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Republican counterparts from other states attended. Knudsen appeared on the cable news program Fox and Friends before the meeting and said he hoped for more aid from the White House in fighting fraud.
“I think the more resources we get on this, the more we’re going to find, because we are definitely busy in that Medicaid fraud unit,” Knudsen said on the show.
Vice President Vance addressed reporters before the roundtable and said the federal government needs state law enforcement to deter fraud by ramping up investigations and prosecutions.
“This should not be a partisan effort,” Vance said during his opening remarks. “Everybody should care about fraud; everybody should care about rooting out fraud; everybody should care about saving the American taxpayers money.”
Data show improper payouts from federal benefit programs cost taxpayers $186 billion in 2025. Not all that money is fraud, however. The government says overpayment can also result from mismanagement or waste of resources.
A group of two dozen Democratic state attorneys general in a letter said they didn’t attend the fraud meeting because they were invited with less than a day’s notice and with no agenda given. They said they shared the federal government’s commitment to fighting fraud.
