JD Vance has vowed the Trump administration will crack down on pay-to-play allegations regardless of political loyalties—but when confronted with scandals surrounding MAGA allies, he urged people not to rush to judgment.
Unveiling new measures to tackle fraud on Wednesday, the vice president was asked how he reconciled his tough talk with the wave of scrutiny over alleged profiteering within Trumpworld involving Kimberley Guilfoyle and others.
Guilfoyle, Trump’s former ambassador to Greece, resigned last week after allegations that she threatened foreign officials, gave lobbyists privileged access, and tried to solicit payments in exchange for political influence. She denies the claims.
Meanwhile, Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habbard has become entangled in a separate controversy involving ex-Kennedy Center boss Ric Grenell, who was accused of offering access to Trump and officials in connection with a multi-million-dollar donation involving her husband. Grenell has also denied the allegations, and the White House is investigating.
And Habba has also come under scrutiny after the New York Times reported that a Venezuelan billionaire banker received a presidential pardon from Trump after his family arranged a $50 million deal for her to serve as a general counsel. She, too, denies wrongdoing.
Asked about such cases in Ohio on Wednesday, Vance insisted there was no double standard.
“What I’d say is that we want to fight fraud wherever we see it. What we’re not going to do is go and attack somebody based on an anonymously sourced story. And in some of those cases, you have to let the facts play out and see what the facts actually are,” he said.
“There is no person who hates the idea of people enriching themselves fraudulently over access to the government than Donald J. Trump,” Vance continued, noting he was the person who has driven most of “our anti-fraud efforts.
“Fundamentally, the president is not going to stand for this, but we’re not going to try people in the court of public opinion.”
The appearance in Ohio, where Vance was campaigning for embattled gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and incumbent Senator John Husted, was the vice president’s second major fraud announcement in as many days.
On Tuesday, Trump and Vance unveiled a new $25 million whistleblower initiative that offers financial rewards to people who report suspected fraud involving government programs.
On Thursday, Vance and Attorney General Todd Blanche announced another anti-fraud crackdown, revealing over $42 million in newly uncovered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud since September.
But critics point out that Trump himself was found liable for civil fraud in 2023 after inflating his asset values and net worth to secure favorable bank loans. In a separate criminal case in 2024, he was also found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documents to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels.
Vance nonetheless insists the administration does not tolerate misconduct, whether committed by allies or opponents.
“We reject anybody getting enriched off of their connections to the government. And if we see it happening, whether it’s our partisan friends or our partisan enemies, we are going to do something about it,” he said.
Guilfoyle was forced to resign last week after a raft of bombshell revelations, including claims that she asked Republican donor Eric Deters to pay a $100,000 credit card bill in exchange for access to senior administration officials.
The reports had infuriated Trump, who even sought to distance himself from the fact that she spent years engaged to his son, Don Jr.
Guilfoyle, however, has denied any wrongdoing, saying that she would “vigorously defend” herself and would “not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service.”
Grenell, meanwhile, is now under investigation by White House counsel amid accusations that he failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation to the Kennedy Center, which he led until March.
Habba, 42, and her 20-something husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon (Mildon publicly lists his age as 29 but is listed as 25 in U.S. documents and British corporate records), made the allegations.
“Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you’ll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS,” Grenell said in a May 3, 2025 text reviewed by Axios.
