What Trump’s new obsession with small-dollar fraud reveals

Aug. 17, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT President Donald Trump always seems to be cooking up some new scheme to profit off the presidency. And yet his administration is escalating its efforts to crack down on suspected small-scale fraud involving government-funded programs. Trump’s inordinate focus on relatively minor offenses should be understood as a bid to vilify programs meant to help vulnerable people. It also serves as a tool to distract from the misbehavior of him and his cronies. The New York Times pointed out the Justice Department’s new and unusual focus on small-dollar fraud. A food truck in Santa Ana, California, caught prosecutors’ attention because of a suspiciously large proportion of transactions using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards. A cashier at a Los Angeles grocery s