United States President Donald Trump has claimed that unearthing and ending fraud nationwide would eliminate the country’s deficit.In particular, Trump has highlighted alleged public services fraud by Somalis in Minnesota and also said there is fraud in “many other places”.“If we stop this fraud, this massive fraud, we’re going to have a balanced budget,” Trump said on Tuesday during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.In Minnesota, investigators have identified fraud involving federal money for housing programmes, autism services and child nutrition. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants beginning in 2022 – before Trump’s current term – and have filed more charges since Trump took office a year ago.So far, the Minnesota fraud charges involve a minimum of hundreds of millions of dollars. Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson, who led Minnesota fraud prosecutions, said in December that Medicaid fraud in the state could reach $9bn although not all of that would be federal money. Thompson resigned on Tuesday.But adding the dollars lost to fraud in Minnesota to federal losses elsewhere – which have been estimated as high as $521bn annually – would not bring the total close to the amount of the federal deficit. The fiscal year 2025 deficit – that year’s difference between revenues and spending – was $1.775 trillion.“You can’t balance the books on waste, fraud and abuse,” said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common S …
