President Trump on Saturday demanded Congress lock up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security fraudsters with mandatory prison time and make local politicians personally pay when they let the theft continue.

In a video posted on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass legislation that would impose mandatory prison sentences on anyone convicted of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, with no probation option and longer terms for bigger thefts.

He also proposed holding state and local politicians personally liable for the full taxpayer loss when they know about fraud, can stop it, and do nothing. The aim, he said, is to make fraudsters and corrupt officials think twice before stealing from benefit programs or looking the other way.

Newsmax reported the remarks as part of the administration’s stepped-up push against fraud in government benefit programs.

Mandatory time, doubled sentences, and no easy outs

Trump framed the bill as a direct answer to people who steal from programs paid for by American workers.

He said:

"Today, I'm calling on Congress to pass legislation to address fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs,"

And he left little room for soft landings:

"If you steal from the American people, you will go to prison and for a long period of time,"

He added that the more someone steals, the longer the stay should be, and that a second conviction would double the sentence. Under the proposal, probation would no longer be available for these convictions.

That hard-line approach on punishment tracks with how Trump has weighed in on other criminal sentencing fights, including when he questioned Tennessee after a botched lethal injection left a death-row case unresolved.

Politicians who ignore stoppable fraud would face personal bills

The second pillar of the proposal targets elected officials who enable the problem through inaction.

Trump said:

"Under our proposal, if a state or local politician knows about fraud and has the ability to stop it, but does nothing about it, they can be personally liable for the full loss of the American taxpayers' money that they should have stopped and they should have saved,"

He argued the package would force both thieves and officials to calculate real risk:

"This legislative proposal will make fraudsters think long and hard before they keep stealing from the American people and will make crooked and corrupt politicians think also long and hard before they ignore fraud that they can stop and that they should stop,"

He closed the warning simply: "So from now on, fraudsters, we're watching you."

Specific sentencing ranges and the exact legal test for when an official “knows” about fraud or “has the ability to stop it” were not laid out in the Saturday video. Congress would have to draft those details if it takes up the call.

Enforcement numbers already on the board

The push comes after federal authorities have already moved on large benefit-fraud cases.

In June, the Justice Department announced its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. Prosecutors charged 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, in alleged healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims. Those cases included alleged fraud targeting Medicare and Medicaid.

Between Aug. 21 and Sept. 18, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and U.S. attorneys in 11 districts charged 17 defendants in cases involving more than $1.3 million in intended losses from Social Security benefit programs. The Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General was cited in connection with those figures.

Those charging totals show the scale of the schemes the administration wants locked down with real prison time, not paperwork slaps. Readers following Trump’s clashes with the courts over federal personnel will also note the parallel pressure points, such as when a Seattle judge reinstated a fired U.S. attorney and limited the White House’s ability to remove a court appointee.

Congress gets the bill; taxpayers get the bill if nothing changes

Trump’s Saturday message put the next move on Congress: draft mandatory minimums for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security fraud, bar probation, double time for repeat offenders, and open personal financial liability for state and local politicians who sit on stoppable theft.

Benefit programs that honest workers fund cannot survive if fraud is treated as a cost of doing politics. The same accountability fight shows up whenever federal judges step in on Trump agenda items, including when a second federal judge blocked the $100,000 H-1B visa fee and when the Supreme Court again barred Missouri Republicans from a new congressional map.

Taxpayers should not have to keep covering losses while fraudsters walk and officials stall. Hard prison time and personal liability for willful inaction are the common-sense tools to stop both.