With Minnesota’s large-scale fraud now exposed, the Trump administration may soon set its sights on a blue state whose welfare system is bigger, better-funded, and riddled with even more loopholes: the state of California.
“How many more arrests do we think we're going to see nationwide? I mean, look, I think we have a fraud problem that is much worse than California than it is in Minnesota,” Vance said in an interview on Newsmax. “I was talking, actually, to our small business administrator. I think she's found probably half a billion dollars of fraud in Minneapolis and the broader Minnesota area.”
“I think she's found $7 billion worth of the fraud in California, so this is unfortunately a problem that is much bigger than Minnesota.”
Vance went on to argue that the sheer scale of fraud uncovered in these states only underscores the need to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations there.
"If you look at blue states, blue cities, you look at Memphis, Tennessee, not a Republican mayor, you look at red states, like Texas, but blue cities like Austin. You do not see this level of chaos over the enforcement of immigration laws,” Vance said. "What you have is a small band of very far left people who are doing everything that they can, up to and including assaulting law enforcement officers and raiding churches to try to make ICE out to be the ultimate enemy. And they kind of engage in this weird, small-scale civil war against federal immigration law. It's absurd, it's added a lot of chaos here in Minneapolis, and it's one of the problems why I am here to fix it."
NEW: Vice President JD Vance says about $7,000,000,000 of fraud has been discovered in the state of California
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 23, 2026
“How many more arrests do we think we're going to see nationwide?”
“I think we have a fraud problem that is much worse in California than it is in Minnesota.”
“I was… pic.twitter.com/6eoASBkDDp
It remains to be seen whether the revelations uncovered in Minnesota will also emerge in California. If they do, it could place significant pressure on the state’s Democratic governor and 2028 presidential hopeful, Gavin Newsom, potentially mirroring the scandal that sidelined Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who is not seeking re-election amid the fraud. While calls for Walz’s resignation continue, Newsom may prove far too slippery to catch so easily.