The federal student aid system was apparently a feeding trough for fraudsters and according to President Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon, some of the “students” cashing in weren’t even alive.
In a jaw-dropping interview on Fox News, McMahon revealed that the Department of Education uncovered widespread abuse in the federal student aid application system, including bot-driven applications, so-called “ghost students,” and even dead individuals allegedly receiving federal student aid.
Secretary McMahon laid it all out: the Trump administration has completely revamped the FAFSA program with ironclad real-time identity verification and they’re already saving taxpayers billions.
According to the Department of Education website:
The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) launched a new, real-time fraud detection capability for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, marking the largest and most comprehensive, nationwide fraud prevention effort in the agency’s history.
Effective immediately, fraud detection is built directly into the FAFSA itself, with every applicant evaluated in real-time using risk-based identity screening. Applicants who display a certain level of fraud risk will now be required to present government-issued identification before accessing federal student aid funds such as Pell Grants and federal student loans.
The Department also recently began conducting a one-time review of all previously submitted 2026-27 FAFSA forms using the new screening technology, ensuring that all federal student aid program dollars are supporting students and families, not fraudsters. The Department estimates that its efforts to identify and deny federal student aid to fraudulent students will save taxpayers over $1 billion during this year’s FAFSA cycle.
Here’s what she said (via the Fox News clip):
“I’m really proud of one of the things that we’ve done, and that is we’ve just really totally revamped the FAFSA program, which is the applications that students fill out, you know, for student aid as they’re going to college.
But as like many things in the government, we found that there was a lot of fraud going on, that there were bots that were applying for these loans. There were ghost students.
There were dead people who were getting these loans, etc. And so we really did enforce and tweak this entire system so that we have this real-time fraud identity now. It’s as simple as showing an ID, you know, online to show who you are when you’re applying for these loans.
And last year, we kept $1 billion of fraud money from going out. And just in the first, you know, 2 weeks of revamping this program this year, we’ve saved, you know, about $60 million. So it’s very effective. And I’m very pleased that we are going to be able to save taxpayers, you know, billions of dollars with this identity program.”
WATCH:
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Trump Education Sec. Linda McMahon just found out that DEAD PEOPLE were getting student loans from the federal government
BILLIONS of dollars are now being saved.
“There were BOTS, ghost students, dead people getting these loans. We enforced and tweaked the… pic.twitter.com/BgRzXtCVI2
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 18, 2026
