Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Washington Secrets. If you thought you were hearing a lot about the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle fraud in government programs, then get set: You’re going to be hearing a lot more about it in the next week and a half. We talk to a top Trump strategist about why that is. And we look at the latest twist in White House relations with the press…
A $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on government fraud. Some 40 people charged in an alleged $40 million food stamps scam. A press conference to highlight the case of a powerful Virginia state senator accused of bribery and racketeering.
Donald Trump and his top team have put fraud at the top of their agenda and at the heart of their midterm election hopes.
But is it playing with voters?
The past week has brought a slew of announcements, launches, and headlines as the president makes good on a promise to sic Vice President JD Vance on fraudsters.
“We will call him the ‘FRAUD CZAR,’ and his focus will be ‘EVERYWHERE,” but primarily in those Blue States where CROOKED DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS, like those in California, Illinois, Minnesota (Somalia beware!), Maine, New York, and many others, have had a ‘free for all’ in the unprecedented theft of Taxpayer Money,” the president posted in April.
Republicans insist they are protecting taxpayers’ dollars, but Democrats spy a political move to cut welfare programs in blue states.
Plus, every time the subject comes up, Trump and his allies are likely to face questions about Kimberly Guilfoyle’s alleged $100,000 American Express bill, which she asked a donor to pay, or the crypto deals and other business arrangements of the inner circle.
So why take the risk?
Trump pollster John McLaughlin said it was an 80-20 issue. No one is in favor of fraud, and talking about it puts Democrats on the defensive.
“The idea of waste, fraud, and corruption is a huge issue that goes across all party lines,” McLaughlin told Secrets.
“Republicans, Democrats, Independents – they don’t condone it,” he said. “They look at it as a moral issue, because it’s their money. It’s taxpayers’ dollars that have been stolen.”
Polling shows a mixed pattern. Voters say they want to hear candidates talk about fraud, but rank it as less important than overall cost-of-living issues.
The latest KFF tracking poll, for example, found 62% of respondents thought it “extremely important” for candidates to talk about the cost of living. Almost half wanted candidates to talk about health care costs as part of that.
In comparison, about 44% said fraud in government programs was “extremely important.” The conflict in Iran was cited by 38% of voters and immigration by 35%.
The results of polls like these show a partisan breakdown. When Grayhouse tested the subject two months after Vance’s fraud task force was launched, it found that Democrats were unimpressed by the billions of dollars in fraud uncovered in Medicaid payments and government contracts.
While 86% of Republicans said they approved of the effort, only 45% of Democrats did.
And therein lies the rub for GOP strategists.
“When you’re looking at the final days of this campaign, it’s an issue that resonates with all voters,” said McLaughlin, “but it’s one that certainly helps turnout among Trump voters, particularly the ones who voted in ’24 but may not vote this year.”
Expect to hear a lot more about fraud in the final days of campaigning.
Correction of the day
This one is a whopper, and it tells us a lot about the White House and what we might expect in the way of turbulence and media relations over the next couple of years.
It starts with the firing of Katie Zacharia as press secretary. As Secrets reported, the clamor for her dismissal crescendoed after her appearance on Sean Hannity’s show last Thursday evening and Fox and Friends the next morning.
Politico landed a scoop. Playing on the idea that Hannity was a close ally of Trump and his team, it reported that Zacharia was set up by Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff, and claimed she arranged the interview. A source told Politico it amounted to a “sanctioned hit.”
White House aides denied the story. Secrets understands they passed around SMS messages showing Zacharia pushing to go on Fox News.
And on Wednesday, they threatened Politico with “consequences” if it did not retract the story.
They did not have to wait long. By Wednesday night the story had been “updated” with a correction:
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report, including its headline, mischaracterized the role White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. POLITICO’s follow-up reporting indicates she did not play a direct role in setting up the interview.
And now the intro reads as follows:
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles “offered positive reinforcement” for Katie Zacharia to appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last week, according to a senior White House official.
Consider this your regular reminder that the White House press shop always goes the extra mile for Wiles. And that it has taken on an extra robust posture since Karoline Leavitt left in August. Buckle up.
Lunchtime reading
Hegseth wanted Eisenhower’s globe for his office. His staff broke it: As metaphors go, this is a bit on the nose. Secrets wants to know what happened to the bottles inside it…
‘America, this is a warning‘: MAGA media are hoping that unrest and riots in Europe will help to turn voters towards Republicans in the midterm elections.