Vice President JD Vance unveiled what could become the Trump administration\u2019s midterm messaging on Thursday as he took shots at Maine Democrats and touted the wins of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force.<\/p>\n
Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd in Bangor, Maine, Vance accused Democrats of refusing to cooperate with efforts to crack down on abuse and corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I find so preposterous about Maine\u2014it\u2019s not just that we\u2019ve found tens of millions of dollars of fraud in a relatively small state, it\u2019s that we\u2019ve had no cooperation from the state government,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n
Vance specifically called out the state\u2019s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, saying her political career had been ruined by her eagerness to defend transgender ideology, and urging her to cooperate with the task force on targeting fraud before her tenure is up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to work with the governor of Maine to stop the fraud that\u2019s being perpetrated in this state,\u201d Vance said. \u201cThis should not be a red or blue state issue. This isn\u2019t Republican or Democrat. This is common sense. This is protecting every person in this room from being defrauded by their own government.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the vice president\u2019s first trip to tout his Anti-Fraud Task Force, and Vance leaned heavily into that fraud messaging.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you all work hard, because you all pay your taxes, because you do things the right way, it is time to have leadership in Washington that treats you the right way and protects those hard-earned tax dollars,\u201d the vice president said. \u201cFor the first time in a very long time, you\u2019ve got an administration in Washington, DC that is fighting for you, fighting to protect your tax dollars, and fighting to put the fraudsters in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an example of this fraud the administration has uncovered, Vance pointed to the case of 30-year-old Rakiya Mohamed, who pleaded guilty in early March to filing false tax returns for 2018 and 2019 and interfering with the administration of federal tax laws. <\/span><\/p>\n Mohamed owned a language interpretation business called Reliable Language Resources, but according to the vice president, she wasn\u2019t doing any interpreting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n US Vice President JD Vance speaks about the Trump administration\u2019s anti-fraud initiatives in Bangor, Maine, on May 14, 2026. (Photo by Tierney L CROSS \/ POOL \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis woman, her name was Rakiya Mohamed. It turns out that Rakiya Mohamed was not a particularly upstanding citizen,\u201d said the vice president. \u201cSo while she said that she was providing interpretation services, do you know what she was actually doing? Providing zero services and collecting $15 million over a five-year period that was going directly into her pocket.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat happened pretty much during the entirety of the Biden administration and no one in the Biden administration thought to step in and stop this ridiculous fraud,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vance went on to link the Trump administration\u2019s anti-fraud message to its immigration agenda.<\/p>\n \u201cCall me crazy, but I think that when we welcome new immigrants to the United States of America, they should be people who enrich our country and bring some good skills into the country, not a person who is gonna steal $15 million from the people in this room,\u201d Vance said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275657953-864x576.jpg\")
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