Vice President JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration will shut off certain types of Medicaid payments to the state of Minnesota for the time being.
"We're announcing today that we have decided to temporarily, temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people's tax money," said Vance, standing beside Medicare and Medicaid administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
This doesn't mean any clinics or hospitals will close, he emphasized: "First of all, the providers on the ground in Minnesota have actually already been paid. The state has paid those providers the money. What we're doing is we're stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government. Until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated against the American taxpayer, there are a few different ways that we're doing that."
Vance then made claims that there are ongoing Medicaid fraud cases in the state, including "a program that existed to ensure that autistic children had access to some afterschool services" that was just a shell group whose founders were pocketing the money.
"What's happening in Minneapolis, in California, in a number of states all across our country is that the generosity and the good hearts of our fellow Americans are being taken advantage of," said Vance. "We're taking that social contract that says that our American citizens, we take care of one another and we're allowing a few bad actors to get rich off that generosity of spirit instead of providing the services to the kids who need it. This is disgraceful."
Vance, who was appointed this week by Trump to head up the administration's anti-fraud efforts, made the announcement after the administration pushed a number of half-true, half-specious claims of extensive public benefits fraud in the state, including by some members of the Somali-American community.
This also formed part of the basis for the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that left two people dead and caused weeks of protests.