The Editors: Tuesday Executive News Summary

Trump/Vance launch anti-fraud effort: Vice President JD Vance has been tasked by President Donald Trump with leading the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which was created by executive order on Monday. The task force represents a “whole of government” approach to rooting out fraud across the U.S., focusing on states like California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, and New York. The president said that while the fraud seems worse in blue states, “If it’s in a red state, we’re going there too.” Vance highlighted one issue with the government’s anti-fraud approach thus far: lack of communication. According to the VP, the Treasury might have evidence of financial fraud but wasn’t alerting the Department of Justice, while Health and Human Services might spot Medicaid fraud without alerting the Treasury. This new task force aims to streamline communication and hammer fraud hard.

Healthcare price list requirement: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to have hit upon a winner of an idea: What if patients could actually see the prices for their healthcare? Under his new policies, Kennedy says, “The hospitals and doctors are going to have to tell you before you go in there exactly what their price schedule is.” Patients won’t be the only ones with clearer facts in front of them; insurance companies will also be required to post what they pay their healthcare providers, enabling smarter bargaining by the large companies that work with them. Government intervention is generally not the solution, but it’s hard to spot the downsides in this case.

Federal court blocks RFK vaccine change: On Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy granted a preliminary injunction against the CDC’s change to its childhood immunization schedule recommendations. Murphy’s decision was in response to a motion by the American Academy of Pediatrics opposing the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ new vaccine schedule, following HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s firing of all 17 ACIP members last year and his refilling of the committee with his own appointments. Murphy wrote, “The Court concludes that, in addition to being contrary to law, the issuance of the January 2026 Memo was arbitrary and capricious because it abandoned the agency’s longstanding practice of getting recommendations from ACIP before changing the immunization schedules without sufficient explanation.” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon responded that the department “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”

U.S.-Israel take out top Iranian leaders: In strikes overnight, Israeli and American military forces took out two top members of the Iranian regime leadership. Ali Larijani, a senior regime official, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the Basij commander, were killed. Larijani was considered Iran’s de facto leader following the death of Ali Khamenei. Founded in 1979, the Basij is Iran’s volunteer paramilitary force for defending the Islamic Republic. The Basij has been involved in suppressing protest movements within Iran. Israel describes the Basij as an “armed apparatus of the Iranian terror regime” that has employed “severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian demonstrators.”

Cuba blackouts and protests: Cuba saw nationwide blackouts on Monday, plunging the country’s 11 million people into darkness. While the communist country’s aging electrical grid has been eroding for years, President Trump’s recent oil blockade following the arrest and extraction of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has effectively cut off all of Cuba’s energy imports. Yesterday, Trump responded to developments in Cuba, saying, “I mean, whether I free it, take it. I think I could do anything I want with it.” He added that Cuba is a “very weakened nation.” In that spirit, hundreds of Cubans hit the streets near the country’s northeastern city of Moron, where protesters shouting “libertad, libertad” clashed with local police.

Trump cut federal workforce by 10% in 2025: Roughly 348,000 federal employees retired, quit, or otherwise left the workforce in 2025, while only 116,900 hires were brought on, leading to a reduction in the federal workforce of nearly 238,000. Those losses contributed to the U.S. unemployment rate ticking up from 4.1% in February 2025 to 4.4% by December 2025. The government agencies hit hardest by job losses were USAID, which downsized from around 4,900 workers to 370, and the Department of Education, which lost 42.6% of its workforce, leaving it with fewer than 2,500 workers. U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement saw one of the largest increases, up 36%. While many areas that saw job losses aren’t expected to rehire, some agencies and departments in healthcare, technology, and program management are expected to hire new personnel.

Bovino retiring: Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino is reportedly retiring at the end of March after nearly 30 years. He began his career with the Border Patrol in 1996 in the El Centro Sector of California, where he is also concluding it. In recent months, he served as the Border Patrol’s commander-at-large under outgoing DHS chief Kristi Noem during several federal operations in major cities. Noem sent Bovino to Los Angeles in June to conduct immigration arrest operations, facing local pushback and rioters. In September, he and his team were dispatched to Chicago, then Charlotte, New Orleans, and finally Minneapolis. Bovino was heavily scrutinized and criticized by local leaders wherever he went, but that became much more widespread following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. His retirement announcement comes on the heels of Noem’s firing and President Trump choosing Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to replace her.

Uber founder flees CA for TX: Another tech billionaire is fleeing California ahead of the state’s proposal to impose a one-time 5% tax on residents with a net worth of $1 billion or more. Travis Kalanick, who cofounded Uber and has an estimated $3.6 billion fortune, has moved to Austin, Texas. “Just to be clear, on December 18, I moved to Texas,” Kalanick explained. “I don’t know what’s so specific about December 18, but let’s just say it’s prior to January.” He emphasized December 18 because the proposed billionaire tax, if adopted, would be retroactive to January 1 of this year. The tax proposal has yet to qualify for the November ballot, but it is backed by several major unions. Should California residents approve the wealth tax, it would have cost Kalanick roughly $180 million, an exorbitant tax he’s wisely avoiding.

Nigerian Christians are told to convert to Islam or die: “It is a jihad war against us,” said eyewitness Andy Itodo, who watched Fulani militants open fire on the community taking refuge in his church in Egwuma, Nigeria. Villagers in Christian communities are faced with a stark choice when the Muslim warriors attack: “Convert or die.” Christians have faced such calls from Muslims everywhere jihad has been waged throughout history, from ancient Spain to modern-day Lebanon. These attacks, which killed 3,490 Nigerian Christians in an 11-month period ending in September 2025, are nothing new. The assailants are behaving exactly the way the false prophet Muhammad instructed his jihadists to behave almost 1,400 years ago. The Leftmedia attempt to mischaracterize these conflicts in Nigeria as a “farmer-herder conflict,” but history paints a clear picture: Muslims issue calls to convert or die to any group over whom they have military superiority.