Trump's snitch scam reveals his real midterm ruse

Trump and JD Vance are hot on the midterm campaign trail, trying to convince voters that “sick” people, meaning Democrats, minorities, and immigrants, are ‘everywhere,’ “stealing American taxpayers’ money.” To sell the claim, Trump recently assembled MAGA supporters for a rage-filled rant at the Oval Office where he unveiled his new snitch-for-hire program.

Claiming with a straight face that America is being plundered by thieves and scammers rather than Trump’s wealthy CEOs with government subsidies, Trump wants to pay snitches for dirt on their poor neighbors and coworkers under his new “fraud whistleblower incentive program.” Like Elon Musk’s mindless chainsaw cuts under DOGE, the new ‘fraud’ initiative has already removed 760,000 eligible Americans from the Affordable Care Act without providing alternative health care coverage.

One entertaining lowlight of the Oval Office announcement was Stephen Miller screeching in a high pitched voice that “refugees, illegal aliens and foreigners” who “came to this country to loot and plunder us” are “now buying Mercedes, buying BMWs and flying first class,” while, “YOU PAID EVERY PARKING TICKET YOU EVER HAD!”

As he performed for Fox News, Miller also insisted without evidence that fraud from foreigners is funding Democrats’ midterm campaigns, describing millions of murderers pouring into the country to “pillage” from middle-class Americans, because, “That’s. What. The. Democrat. Party. Did. To. Youuuuuu!”

One wonders when Miller’s lust for power will pop the veins in his neck.

The Red Scare redux

Under the new $25 million fraud whistleblower fund, Americans who snitch on their families, friends, and neighbors with "fraud" tips leading to prosecution will receive large financial rewards. Anyone who rats on his enemies can expect payment, and Trump — not an administrative law judge, oversight team, or program administrator — is the final arbiter on whether the fraud is real and how much the snitch will receive. Trump announced, "I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions. I (alone) will determine whether or not the person is deserving."

It’s a paid informant program that parallels America’s ugly Red Scare of the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and the U.S. government paid informants to target and blackball suspected communists. It also models Hitler’s Gestapo, which was initially premised on an expansive network of paid and volunteer government informants.

By claiming the sole power to be the “arbitrator” of disputed claims, Trump is politicizing and delegitimizing his program from the jump. The project has already showcased the payment of $10,000 to Nick Shirley, whose viral video falsely accused childcare centers in Minnesota’s Somali community of not serving any children. Despite Shirley’s claim and resulting payment, state inspectors found those centers operating as required during random and unannounced audits, which shows that rewarding viral accusations will encourage unfounded tips and the continued political targeting of certain communities.

A fraud program meant to deflect from Trump’s own economic malfeasance

Purring in agreement with Stephen Miller, pointing fingers at everyone else during the Oval Office fraud confab, Vance announced, “To Americans everywhere: your tax dollars are being stolen.” Vance is right. American tax dollars are being stolen. They’re being stolen by Trump, his wealthy donors, and his corporate CEOs.

Setting aside the outrageous graft, pay-to-play, crypto schemes, emoluments, and self-dealing that costs taxpayers billions, Trump has amassed the largest peacetime deficit relative to GDP in our nation’s history. The exploding national debt under Trump rose by a staggering $7.8 trillion during the first Trump administration, ranking “as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration.” This year, our national debt jumped past $37 trillion, despite draconian program cuts nationwide, thanks to Republicans’ $4.5 trillion in tax gifts to the rich combined with Trump’s out-of-control spending on Iran, ICE, and his new police state.

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This debt is not sustainable, and translates directly into higher inflation, which means U.S. taxpayers are now paying more just to service (i.e., pay interest on) the national debt. Annual net interest payments on U.S. federal debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2025, equal to about 14 percent of total federal outlays, exceeding defense spending by about $150 billion. The outlook for the interest burden of the debt over the next decade has steadily worsened, with Forbes projecting that the U.S. Treasury will spend $20 trillion in interest on the national debt — roughly $200 billion a month by 2036 — funds that won’t be available for health care, defense, food assistance, education, roads, or FEMA.

Trump has spent $47 billion and climbing on a war in Iran that he can’t win, and has cost every American household over $1,700 through his economically illiterate tariffs alone. Under Republicans’ Big Rapacious Bill, Trump’s immigrant crackdown and police state cost more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combined across the entire United States. According to the Brennan Center, most of that was applied to finding, arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants already here, most of whom had not committed any crime. These figures say nothing of the massive disruption and costs to industries that depend on immigrant workers such as farming, construction, and healthcare.

Trump has corrupted the nation’s former economic power and turned the U.S. into a kleptocracy that serves Republican donors as prescribed in the right-wing Project 2025. Trump, Vance and Miller are busting a vein to push voters into hating and blaming each other as a ruse to disguise their own conduct and protect the nation’s richest 1%.

Here’s hoping enough voters get it: the midterms are not about red vs. blue, left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative. This election is about Trump and his wealthy donors vs. everyone else.

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.