Vice President JD Vance took the war on fraud to Cincinnati on Wednesday and delivered a blunt message to anyone stealing from America’s food assistance program. “We have way too much fraud in the SNAP program,” Vance said, standing with Attorney General Todd Blanche, U.S. attorneys and the Agriculture Department’s inspector general to announce the results of the first national SNAP fraud surge.
Vance reminded the country what the program is for. “That is one of the most important and sacred things that our tax dollars go to, making sure that our fellow citizens don’t go hungry at night,” he said. “Unfortunately, like with so many of these other amazing programs, we find that there are people out there who decide to commit fraud against these programs, who quite literally in this case will steal from the mouths of hungry children in order to enrich themselves, and that cannot go on. And thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are fighting and winning the war against fraud in the SNAP program.”
The numbers back him up. Between Sept. 1 and Wednesday, the Justice Department’s Fraud Division, 13 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Utah Attorney General’s Office brought actions against more than 40 defendants whose schemes caused nearly $45 million in intended losses, nearly $42 million of it SNAP fraud. “To put this number in perspective, 220,000 Americans could have eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud,” Blanche said. “This is a concerted effort to literally take food out of the mouths of children, and it’s going to stop.”
Vance singled out one defendant by name, playing a video of rapper and influencer Mercedes New, known as “Shawty Dred,” bragging about a private jet. A federal grand jury in Georgia indicted New on Oct. 7; prosecutors say more than 500 Georgia EBT cards are linked to him, with an estimated $4.4 million in stolen benefits, and he was arrested in Las Vegas on Oct. 13. “SNAP exists to help hungry children eat,” Vance said. “It does not exist to provide private jets to a guy like Shawty Dred.”
Other cases in the surge include a $29.7 million scheme run through Chicago food stores using stolen Ohio EBT accounts. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins put it simply: “Under the Trump Administration, food stamp fraud ends now.” Vance’s closing word was a promise. “For too long in this country we look the other way,” he said. “Well, we’re done with that. We are done looking the other way when it comes to fraud.”
