Gavin Newsom spent years telling California he was fighting for them.
Now JD Vance just revealed the only message Newsom ever sent him about stopping California’s out of control government.
The Vice President just told Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany that Newsom's entire communication with the federal anti-fraud task force has been legal threats – not cooperation.
What Vance Said on Fox News
"The only contact we've had with Gavin Newsom so far is him telling us that we're not allowed to stop the fraud or in fact trying to sue us to stop the fraud," Vance said Saturday on Fox News's Saturday in America.
The interview covered Vance's anti-fraud task force, which Trump created by executive order in March 2026.
Newsom has publicly attacked Vance and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on X, posting: "We hate fraud. But that's NOT what this is."
Vance's response was direct: "I would love it if Gavin Newsom had a come-to-Jesus moment and said, you know what, I'm going to take this fraud issue seriously because we would work with him."
That moment, so far, has not arrived.
What Newsom Is Protecting
The numbers explain why Newsom is fighting this.
The Trump administration deferred $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California on May 13 – what Dr. Oz called the "largest deferral we've ever made."
California's home health spending is growing at twice the rate of every other state in the country.
CMS identified $630 million in billing from just the top five percent of outlier providers in the state.
Federal investigators at HHS told City Journal that their initial estimate for fraud in California's Medi-Cal program since 2019 runs at 25 percent.
At conservative estimates, that means fraudsters have drained roughly $146 billion from Medi-Cal on Newsom's watch.
Meanwhile, the California attorney general received a letter from HHS that cut straight to it: "Your failure to do your job as head of the MFCU has put all of your State's Medicaid funds in jeopardy."
Vance also told McEnany that when the federal government sends California $7 billion in SNAP food stamp benefits, it cannot identify a single recipient – because the money is block-granted to the state with no accountability back to Washington.
"We have not gotten any help from Gavin Newsom or a number of other blue states when we are trying to make sure dead people don't get SNAP benefits," Vance said.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2056220481678983525“>https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2056220481678983525
The Minnesota Template
Vance made clear that California is next in a pattern that already consumed Tim Walz.
In Minnesota, a former state trooper who ran a fraud investigations unit testified before Congress that officials knew about coordinated fraud networks draining public benefit programs as early as 2014 – and silenced investigators who tried to stop it.
Federal prosecutors now estimate that fraud across 14 Medicaid programs administered by Minnesota may total $9 billion.
The largest single case, Feeding Our Future, produced 92 federal indictments and $250 million in stolen funds meant to feed children.
A Republican House Oversight Committee report found that Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of credible fraud concerns as early as 2019 and kept sending money anyway.
"We're going to investigate it and we're going to take it seriously," Vance said. "If there was criminal wrongdoing then people ought to go to prison for it."
The task force served 22 subpoenas in Minneapolis just two months after that fraud ring was identified.
"We are not the Biden administration," Vance said.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2055670860066017743“>https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2055670860066017743
What Newsom Is Actually Telling You
Think about what it means that Gavin Newsom's response to a fraud crackdown is obstruction.
Not a phone call. Not a tip line. Not a single name turned over to federal investigators.
According to Vance, it's been legal threats to keep the money flowing.
Minnesota officials ordered investigators to delete their findings in 2014 and kept the programs running for a decade.
Newsom is running the same play with better lawyers.
Your tax money paid for all of it. Dead people are collecting your SNAP dollars right now because Newsom won't tell the federal government who the recipients are.
Vance put it plainly: if officials knew and looked the other way, people ought to go to prison.
Newsom knows exactly what that means. That's why he's fighting back instead of picking up the phone.
Sources:
- JD Vance, Fox News Saturday in America with Kayleigh McEnany, May 17, 2026.
- Mario Nawfal, @MarioNawfal, X.com, May 17, 2026.
- Ben Smith, "Trump Administration Drops Massive Fraud Bomb on California Medicaid System," RedState, May 13, 2026.
- "VP Vance Ramping Up Anti-Fraud Crackdown; Withholding $1.3B from California," WWMT/The National News Desk, May 13, 2026.
- "Vance Turns Up Heat on States with Federal Cash Threat Over Medicaid Fraud Crackdown," Fox News, May 13, 2026.
- "Minnesota Officials Knew of Fraud Since 2014, Silenced Team: Ex-Investigator," NewsNation, April 2026.
- Chuck DeVore, "Gavin Newsom's Empire of Fraud," City Journal, April 3, 2026.
- Congresswoman Young Kim, "Rep. Young Kim Demands Newsom Pay Back $1.3 Billion in Medicaid Fraud," Press Release, January 27, 2026.
