This is what anti-fraud action looks like

Another day, another report of massive fraud against taxpayers.

Team Trump revealed on Friday that it’s found $8.6 billion in shady COVID-era loans in the Golden State — and is acting to blunt the damage.

This, just two days after White House announced that JD Vance will chair a task force to clean up fraud-riddled California. 

Kudos to the White House for pushing hard to reveal, stop and punish fraud in a state with few controls on public spending.

AP

Vice President Vance and Co. should keep pushing, digging and holding perpetrators accountable; taxpayers deserve no less.

Friday’s announcement included news that the Small Business Administration has suspended more than 111,000 borrowers alleged to have defrauded taxpayers during the COVID pandemic.

The accused swindlers improperly borrowed money under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said.

Loeffler added that in San Diego alone, she found one address tied to 14 different “small businesses” created during the pandemic. 

This entrepreneurial cluster collected more than $2 million in COVID loans that remain at least partially unrepaid, she said.

These findings are but a sliver of the fraud that has spread through the state, causing what Loeffler dubbed “a culture of fraud and abuse.”

The brazen scammers faced little — if any — accountability under the Biden administration in Washington or the Newsom administration in Sacramento.

Indeed, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Newsom ally, scoffed this week at the anti-fraud work of the Trump team.

“Trump claims, wrongly, California is perpetuating fraud when we are the victim,” Bonta huffed on Thursday. 

He also called the anti-fraud push “partisan political theater,” and an effort to “sow distrust” in California government. 

But state government has done the latter all on its own.

For years, the state has shoveled out tax dollars — often for feel-good, do-little pet causes or favored special interests — with few controls and little oversight. 

Officials such as Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom have focused on fighting President Trump and, especially in Newsom’s case, prepping bids for higher office. 

Meanwhile, a litany of state crises — from homelessness to water and energy shortages to yes, fraud — have festered and grown worse.

Bonta’s claim that California and/or its elected officials are victims is laughable.

It’s obvious, but here we go: The victims of fraud are the taxpayers. 

Trump and his team understand that . . . which highlights a distinction between an administration that acts to protect taxpayers and another that never has.