President Donald Trump specifically called out Maine Wednesday while discussing what his administration says are massive fraud investigations unfolding across the country, placing the Pine Tree State alongside California and Minnesota as he warned that federal investigators are uncovering wrongdoing in places Americans might not expect.
Trump made the comments on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, during a Rose Garden dinner at the White House attended by Republican lawmakers and members of his administration.
The president was praising Vice President JD Vance and discussing the administration’s ongoing fraud investigations when he turned directly to Maine.
“Got a lot on his plate. Got a lot of fraud investigations,” Trump said of Vance, describing the vice president as an “Eliot Ness” figure surrounded by investigators.
Trump then said federal officials were uncovering enormous amounts of alleged fraud.
“You’re finding, he’s finding billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” Trump said. “Certainly, there are hundreds of billions that have been stolen, and we’re finding a lot of it in many places that you would not really think it’s possible.”
Then came the Maine connection.
“Some states that you would think it wasn’t so bad, but it’s bad,” Trump said. “But if you look at California, if you look at Minnesota, if you look at Maine, who would think Maine? You know, you think of Maine as this wonderful, very innocent place. Maine is bad. They’re all bad.”
Trump’s decision to single out Maine is significant.
For months, Maine has increasingly found itself under the microscope of senior Trump administration officials over alleged fraud, improper billing and weak oversight involving taxpayer-funded programs, particularly MaineCare-funded home health care, residential care and services for people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
The Maine Wire has been at the center of that reporting.
Reporters for The Maine Wire have spent months examining providers receiving millions of dollars through MaineCare, visiting residential facilities and corporate offices, reviewing billing records and interviewing current and former employees, clients and whistleblowers.
That reporting has also caught the attention of the highest levels of the federal government.
On Aug. 4, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz traveled to Maine and met directly with former Gov. Paul LePage and a Maine Wire reporter to discuss concerns surrounding MaineCare-funded autism, home health care and residential services.
Oz and The Maine Wire visited the offices of Paradise Residential Services, a MaineCare provider that had received millions of dollars in taxpayer funding before state officials terminated its participation following what the state characterized as serious deficiencies.
The meeting represented an unusual level of federal attention to investigative reporting originating in Maine.
Just two days after Oz met with The Maine Wire, the Mills administration publicly disclosed a series of MaineCare enforcement actions, including payment suspensions involving five providers over what the Department of Health and Human Services described as “credible allegations of fraud.”
The state also disclosed emergency provider terminations and the disenrollment of dozens of other agencies.
Oz has repeatedly raised concerns about Maine.
During federal remarks surrounding his visit, Oz said federal reviews found extraordinarily high rates of services billed and paid for in Maine without sufficient documentation supporting the claims.
A federal audit released earlier this year separately identified approximately $45.6 million in improper MaineCare payments involving services for children with autism.
Importantly, improper payments do not necessarily constitute fraud. Federal audits can classify payments as improper because of inadequate documentation, missing assessments, signatures or other compliance failures even when the underlying service was actually provided.
But federal officials have increasingly described Maine as a state deserving deeper scrutiny.
Vice President Vance reinforced that message during an Aug. 24 visit to Brewer.
Responding to a question from The Maine Wire about when individuals responsible for fraud would face consequences, Vance described Maine as having become “one of the main capitals of defrauding the American taxpayer.”
Vance said the administration had communicated with Maine officials regarding fraud investigations but questioned whether state leadership would fully embrace the federal crackdown.
Now the president himself has entered the discussion.
Trump’s comments Wednesday mark perhaps the clearest indication yet that concerns about fraud in Maine have reached the Oval Office.
The president did not identify individual Maine companies or specify during his Rose Garden remarks which investigations led him to mention the state.
But the context was unmistakable.
Trump was talking about his administration’s nationwide “war on fraud,” praising Vance’s investigative role and describing massive alleged losses to taxpayers when he deliberately listed Maine alongside California and Minnesota.
For a state with a population of just 1.4 million people, being specifically mentioned by the president in the same breath as two of the nation’s largest states represents a remarkable escalation in federal attention.
And after months of Maine Wire investigations, visits from Oz, repeated comments from Vance and growing federal scrutiny of MaineCare spending, Trump’s message Wednesday suggests Maine is no longer merely part of the national fraud discussion.
The president called it out by name.
Every DHHS employee belongs in prison.
Every. Single. One.
I can’t understand why – after 1 1/2 years of Trump #47 the federal government is still sending an average of $5 BILLION in federal aid to a defiant and uncooperative Maine every year. Certainly there are strict guidelines Maine must comply with in order to get this aid – with accountability and federal oversight being top priorities.
It wasn’t that long ago that Montana was threatened to lose federal highway funds if it didn’t comply with the silly 55 MPH federal speed limit and New Hampshire’s 18 year old drinking age ten years later.
These 2 examples were new mandates (55 mph and 21 minimum drinking age). Maine however is fraudulently dispersing federal aid in violation of existing law rather than a new mandate. People go to prison for much less.
We know about Maine’s fraud, the Trump administration knows as well. How about doing something about it?