US President Donald Trump announced a programme offering whistleblowers a 1% reward for exposing taxpayer fraud in remarks published on Oct. 20, the White House said on its own channel.
The proposal would give people reporting fraud a financial stake in their disclosures. Trump said payments would depend on legal requirements and proof that the person seeking a reward supplied the information.
Trump spoke in a recording titled “President Trump and Vice President JD Vance Make an Announcement”. The White House published the announcement itself, presenting the administration’s claims about fraud and its efforts to recover taxpayer money.
Trump first credited Vice President JD Vance, who heads the White House task force to eliminate fraud, and other officials with identifying suspected wrongdoing. He also praised online video creator Nick Shirley for his work on alleged fraud in Minnesota.
Since Trump took office, authorities had arrested and charged 115 people in Minnesota fraud cases, convicted 75 and issued more than 2,700 subpoenas, Trump said. He also alleged wrongdoing in Maine, California and other states.
Trump then announced the “fraud whistleblower incentive program” and directed Americans to fraud.gov to report suspected corruption and theft of public money. He said people would have to establish that they supplied the information behind a claim.
“You have to prove that you were the one,” Trump said. He described the payment as a commission on the amount of fraud reported, but did not clarify whether authorities must recover money before paying a reward.
Reporters could also qualify, subject to the law and potentially approval from their employers, Trump said. He repeatedly qualified that offer, saying journalists could participate “if they’re allowed to do it”.
The administration had uncovered $260 billion in fraud since he took office, Trump said. He did not explain how officials calculated that total or distinguish money identified from money recovered.
Trump also said the administration had removed 275,000 people he described as illegal immigrants from Social Security and eliminated $125 billion in healthcare subsidies. Those were the president’s claims about his administration’s actions.
Officials had identified 562,000 fraudulent small-business loans and stopped funding hundreds of fake hospice facilities linked to an estimated $1.4 billion in theft, Trump said.
Vance said the reward proposal grew from a conversation with Trump about involving citizens in fraud investigations. He said presidential direction helped departments work together when suspected fraud crossed agency boundaries.
Vance also said Shirley would receive a financial reward. He did not give an amount or explain how officials would determine the payment.
Trump then added that he would personally decide disputes over rewards, including competing claims from people taking credit for the same information. “I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” he said.
He described those decisions as binding arbitration, a process for settling disputes outside court, and promised prompt payments. The remarks did not identify the programme’s legal authority, funding, payment timetable or a process for challenging his decisions.
