MaddowBlog-4 reasons why Trump is the worst possible president to declare a 'war on fraud'

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As one Democratic senator summarized, “Trump announcing a war on fraud is like a criminal announcing a war on crime.”

The president who announced a new “war on fraud” is the same president who
- ran a fraudulent charity
- ran a fraudulent “university”
- oversaw a business that was found to have engaged in systemic fraud
- pardoned a bunch of people convicted of fraud
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-25T14:50:36.003Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/4-reasons-why-trump-is-the-worst-possible-president-to-declare-a-war-on-fraud

In his State of the Union address, the president took some additional steps down the same path. From the transcript:

When it comes to the corruption that is plundering — it really, it’s plundering America — there’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. Oh, we have all the information.

And in actuality the number is much higher than that, and California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe. So tonight, although started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great vice president, JD Vance. He’ll get it done. And we’re able to find enough of that fraud — we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.

.....Indeed, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington noted via Bluesky, “Trump announcing a war on fraud is like a criminal announcing a war on crime.”

That’s a good line, and it hits because it’s rooted in fact. These are details Republicans prefer to ignore, but the incumbent president:

ran a fraudulent “university” that led him to pay a steep out-of-court settlement

oversaw a fraudulent charitable foundation and had to pay $2 million in court-ordered damages

ran a family business that was found to have engaged in systemic fraud

issued a series of presidential pardons for people convicted of committing fraud.

In the abstract, there’s nothing inherently wrong with an administration trying to root out alleged abuses in social insurance programs, but Trump is literally the only president in American history to have been found liable in a civil fraud case. If he were serious about fighting a “war on fraud,” he should expect to see that war arrive at his own doorstep.

As for the Republican’s contention that “corruption … shreds the fabric of a nation,” The New York Times’ Thomas Edsall explained in a column this week that evidence of pervasive corruption in the Trump administration “is endemic, in the presidential pardons to donors and the well connected, in the regulatory favoritism found at key agencies, in the flow of special interest and foreign investments into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses.”