Well, bless their hearts, somebody in Washington finally came up with an idea a regular person can understand. President Trump and Vice President Vance walked into the Oval Office Tuesday and announced a $25 million Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program. The deal is simple enough to explain at a church potluck: you see somebody stealing taxpayer money, you turn them in, and if it sticks, you get paid. Up to $30,000 a tip, and Trump says it’ll run as a 1 percent commission on whatever fraud gets uncovered.
“One percent of a hundred billion dollars” is, as the president put it, “a tremendous amount of money.” That’s not a talking point, that’s arithmetic. When was the last time a federal program paid you instead of billing you?
Now, the usual suspects are already clutching their pearls, and you don’t need a decoder ring to figure out why. For decades the government has treated your money like a bottomless punch bowl, and the only people ever punished were the ones who asked where the ladle went. Vance, who’s been running the fraud task force since March and says the work is “fun,” put it plainly: your tax dollars are being stolen and the president says it must stop. Notice what the critics don’t say. They don’t say the fraud isn’t happening. They don’t say the numbers are wrong. They change the subject to Trump’s businesses, which tells you everything about how confident they are in their own argument.
And here’s the part I really enjoy. Trump said journalists can participate in the program too. Think about that. Reporters who’ve spent years telling us they’re the brave watchdogs of democracy can now get paid actual cash for exposing actual corruption. My guess is the line forms empty, because most of them would rather write their fourth think piece on the president’s tone than spend an afternoon reading a grant ledger. But the invitation stands, and that’s a beautiful little test of who’s serious.
One wrinkle, and it’s a doozy: Trump also appointed himself the arbitrator of who gets the money when two people claim the same tip. “It’ll be a binding arbitration,” he said, straight-faced, with Vance and the officials standing behind him. Now, I love the man’s instincts, and I trust his judgment more than I trust any three-judge panel in this town. But a president personally handing out reward checks is the kind of thing that gives even friendly folks a small case of the hiccups. The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division is administering the program; let the lawyers sort the disputes and let the president keep doing the big stuff. Common sense, hon. It applies to your friends too.
Meanwhile, the other headline out of the Oval Office was pure Trump. Asked whether he’d endorse Vance in 2028, the president said the two have literally never talked about it. “He’s a very talented person and he’s a very good person, but we’ve literally — I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it.” Vance has said if he runs, Trump would back him. The boss has a different memory. Every man in that building just got a fresh reminder of who holds the cards, and every reporter in the room got a story for free.
But don’t let the palace intrigue distract from the real news. For once, the federal government is offering to cut you in instead of cutting you out. Somebody in your town knows exactly who’s gaming the system. Now there’s a bounty on telling the truth. The whistleblowers used to get fired and the fraudsters got promoted. If this program flips that, even partway, it’ll be the best $25 million Washington ever spent.