JD Vance
JD Vance is the 50th Vice President of the United States, inaugurated January 20, 2025. He previously served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio (2023-2025) and is the author of the memoir "Hillbilly Elegy." His Senate confirmation vote was cast for himself, and he has served as a vocal advocate for the administration's immigration and trade policies.
Also known as J.D. Vance
2026 Events (8)
VP Vance and HHS Secretary Kennedy referred ~225 hospitals to DOJ, HHS IG over gender-affirming care billing
On August 13, 2026, Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent a separate letter to HHS Inspector General Thomas March Bell, each referring hospitals, clinics, and pharmacy benefit managers for investigation of allegedly fraudulent insurance billing codes tied to pediatric gender-affirming care. The referrals followed release of an HHS-commissioned report, "Wolves in White Coats," which identified roughly 225 hospitals and health systems with pediatric gender programs and named specific organizations — including Boston Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Rady Children's Hospital, NYU Langone Hospitals, and several Planned Parenthood affiliates — in an appended referral list. As of this recording, DOJ has not confirmed opening a formal investigation.
FOIA showed Rubio, Hegseth, Caine, Vance and Lutnick kept using auto-deleting Signal chats after Trump's Signalgate warning
A State Department FOIA release obtained through Democracy Forward's litigation revealed 13 previously undisclosed Signal group chats used by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, Vice President JD Vance, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for government business, configured with auto-delete timers as short as eight hours. The chats ran from April through June 2025, after President Trump's April 24, 2025 public acknowledgment that officials should stop using Signal following the original Signalgate incident.
VP JD Vance refers Gov. Tim Walz and AG Keith Ellison to DOJ for criminal fraud investigation
Vice President JD Vance announced on June 8, 2026, that he was referring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — both Democrats — to the Justice Department for a criminal fraud investigation. Vance said the referral followed a Republican-led House Oversight Committee report and letter alleging the officials knew of fraud in federally funded social programs and failed to act. Ellison called it "a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents."
Democratic AGs' deputies turned away from Vance's White House anti-fraud roundtable
On May 26, 2026, Vice President JD Vance — who leads the Trump administration's anti-fraud effort — convened a White House roundtable on government-program fraud attended by Republican state attorneys general. Two dozen Democratic attorneys general had declined the invitation, citing less than one business day's notice and no agenda, and instead sent senior deputies; officials representing New York, California, New Jersey, and (per AG Letitia James) Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Nevada said they were turned away at the door. Vance stated on camera that representatives from Connecticut and Oregon were present and that fighting fraud "should not be a partisan effort," even as the excluded Democratic offices held a press conference calling the event a political stunt.
VP Vance says the DOJ is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, a prominent administration critic
At a White House press briefing on May 19, 2026, Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) over immigration-fraud allegations and questions about her family's finances, saying that "if we think that there's a crime, we're going to prosecute that crime." Vance, who leads the administration's anti-fraud task force, had already asserted publicly that Omar "definitely committed immigration fraud" months earlier. There is no public evidence that Omar committed immigration fraud, and the DOJ has not confirmed an active case; Omar called the probe a "racist, creepy, and weird conspiracy theory."
Trump White House backed taxpayer-funded 'Rededicate 250' worship service on National Mall
On May 17, 2026, the Trump White House backed an all-day evangelical worship service — "Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving" — on the National Mall, funded through a mix of taxpayer dollars and private donations. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared by video, and House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the crowd in person alongside religious leaders. Church-state separation advocates and constitutional-law scholars said the federal government's endorsement and partial funding of an explicitly Christian worship service on federal land raised First Amendment Establishment Clause concerns.
Vance and Oz blamed immigrants for California Medicaid fraud that HHS's own watchdog later traced mainly to corporations
At a White House anti-fraud press conference on May 13, 2026, Vice President JD Vance said "tens of billions, hundreds of billions" of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare payments in California were going to "illegal aliens" and fraudulent businesses, while CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said roughly $200 million in "questionable expenditures" was linked to "immigration-related costs" tied to "folks who are undocumented." An HHS Office of Inspector General semiannual report to Congress, covering the six months through March 2026 and released that July, found corporations — through schemes such as unnecessary medical-device billing and Affordable Care Act enrollment fraud — responsible for the healthcare fraud cases it highlighted, without mentioning immigrants.
Trump administration halts $259.5M in Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota
On February 25, 2026, Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration would temporarily halt $259.5 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota, citing alleged fraud in the state's social programs and giving the state 60 days to overhaul its systems. Vance said Minnesota — where roughly 1.3 million residents rely on Medicaid — was the first of several states the administration expected to target this way. Minnesota sued, with Attorney General Keith Ellison arguing the withholding violates Fifth Amendment due process and the Administrative Procedure Act's bar on arbitrary and capricious agency action.
2025 Events (1)
Trump signs EO 14253 directing Smithsonian to eliminate content on Black history, women's history, and gender identity
President Trump signed Executive Order 14253, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," on March 27, 2025, directing the Vice President — through his seat on the Smithsonian Board of Regents — to remove content labeled "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from Smithsonian museums, education centers, and the National Zoo. The order specifically named the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum as perpetuating "divisive, race-centered ideology." The EO also directed Cabinet members to work with Congress to defund Smithsonian programs that "divide Americans based on race" or acknowledge transgender identity, and ordered reinstatement of historical statues removed from federal property over the prior five years.