Vice President JD Vance tried to put up a smokescreen for his boss over the weekend after he highlighted how the administration is “fighting fraudsters” during a stop in Maine on Thursday.Vance, in a social media post, wrote that Maine residents were “fired up and ready to stop the fraudsters” who take advantage of federal programs alongside a clip from the visit where he reflected on President Donald Trump tasking him with tackling America’s “fraud problem.”“I realized that fraud isn’t just about saving money, it’s not just about protecting taxpayers. It’s about protecting you,” he said in a speech from Maine’s Bangor International Airport.As Vance tries to paint him and the administration as dragon slayers of sorts against alleged widespread fraud, critics have frequently accused Trump and his officials of using the federal government for personal enrichment and of defrauding the American people.Trump’s Justice Department has reportedly dropped hundreds of fraud cases and is planning to dismiss a bribery case against a billionaire whose legal team is led by one of the president’s personal attorneys.Just before leaving the Oval Office in 2021, Trump pardoned several healthcare executives convicted of fraud or, as one healthcare advocacy group CEO described them, “major, major crimes.”And, in 2024, Trump was found liable of business fraud when he was hit with a $350 million judgment in New York State Supreme Court.The vice president was slammed for his fraud fight hype video by social media users, including Sarah Longwell, founder of the anti-Trump conservative site The Bulwark, who described the clip on X as a “kind of narrative jujitsu.”Read that and more takes on the Vance clip below.The most self-evident thing in the world is that the President is committing massive fraud against the American taxpayer so he sent his VP out on a “Stop Fraud” tour as a kind of narrative jujitsu—because he thinks his voters are too stupid and partisan to notice. https://t.co/LqPi2rrFNb— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) May 16, 2026You guys are literally the fraudsters. Trump was found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud.— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) May 16, 2026This Trump Administration has "no leg to stand on", as the old saying goes, regarding having any credibility on being anti-fraud or anti-corruption It's going down as the *most corrupt* Executive Branch in modern history — setting new records for self-dealing https://t.co/95Euck9fOm— Susan (@susanbordson) May 16, 2026They are stopping you?— Michael Embrich (@MikeEmbrich) May 16, 2026You work for the biggest fraudster in American history.— Maureen Gorman (@tellmemo2) May 16, 2026Close