Sepideh wrote in and said some parents she knows are wondering about Trump Accounts, so let’s take a look.
The basics are that every child under 18 automatically has a Trump Account. Those who were born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 will get an automatic $1,000 added to their account. The account can be claimed by the parent downloading the Trump Account app and signing up their child. Parents may add up to $5,000 per year per child to the Trump Account. There’s more information on the Trump Account website.
Now here’s where it gets grifty: rich folks who want to curry favor with Trump can dump stock from their companies into Trump Accounts. So, for example, Michael and Susan Dell, pictured below, have donated $6.25 billion from their foundation into Trump Accounts. (Dell’s net worth is around $250 billion.) The story about the initial contribution says that Trump Accounts must be invested in index funds, so it would seem that the Dell’s contribution was cash that was converted into index fund investments in the Trump Accounts. (Apparently, it will be $250 per Trump Account, but it’s not clear which kids are getting that money.)
Michael and Susan Dell
However, a story that was printed yesterday says that it isn’t just cash, it can be stock:
Under new rules that took effect last week, charities can put individual stocks into kids' accounts as a donation. Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged investment vehicles that can be used for education expenses, starting a business, or saving for retirement. They were authorized in last year's One Big Beautiful Tax bill. Previously, the money was required to be invested in low-cost index funds.
[…]
So far, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell is the only donor to announce a major stock contribution, pledging more than 2 million shares to benefit lower-income children ages 11 to 17 living in lower-income areas.
So, apparently the Dells gave cash, but now anyone with some extra stock who needs a tax writeoff, like Shotwell, can donate stock that will be added to Trump Accounts. Of course, Shotwell is going to write off the value of the SpaceX stock at the time it was donated, even though SpaceX is going to shit the bed and therefore the stock will be worth a lot less very soon. I guess the lower-income kids getting that stock will learn an important lesson about capitalism at an early age.
If I had a child born in the time where they could get the $1,000 in free cash, of course I’d claim the Trump Account and never put another cent into it. But any other parent should realize that this is another program that exists for a few reasons:
Weirdos like Vance want US citizens to have more babies, and they think that $1,000 that can’t be used for 18 years will somehow help parents who need diapers and formula now.
Trump wants his name on everything. (This program should be on a the long, long list of programs to be renamed if Democrats get back power.)
Trump wants to point to a few, relatively minor benefit programs while he’s stealing the country blind and cutting social program for the most needy Americans. It’s like Susan Collins saying that she got tariffs on road salt cut when Mainers can’t afford to drive their cars because of crazy fuel prices, and everything else that is tariffed is far more expensive.
In addition to all of the above, I don’t know if $250 from the Dells is enough of an incentive to put any of my personal information into a Trump Account app created by whatever grifter Trump’s people hired. They’re completely untrustworthy.
That all said, doing good things for people is generally good politics, but this program seems so limited that it will probably be about as effective as the $90 that Trump is going to give Medicare recipients. Not enough money, too many hoops. It sounds like something that a Democratic centrist think tank would devise: complicated in execution, minor in effect.
