President Donald Trump touted a $1,000 investment account for newborn babies born during his second term as part of the “big, beautiful bill” during a White House roundtable Monday afternoon.
“Trump accounts, as they call it, are a pilot program which will make it possible for countless American children to have a strong start in life at no cost to the American taxpayer,” Trump said in the White House State Dining Room. “It’s going to have a huge impact.”
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The “Trump accounts” provision is included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that the Senate is debating after it narrowly passed the House last month.
Originally named “Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement” before being rebranded as “Trump accounts,” the proposed program would enable the federal government to make a one-time contribution of $1,000 into a tax-deferred, low-cost index fund account that will then track the overall stock market.
It also allows families to add up to $5,000 a year for children born between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 1, 2029. The money is untouchable until the child turns 18, at which point half of the funds become available. At age 30, the full amount of the funds becomes usable for any purpose.
Though the accounts are set up automatically, both parents and the child must have a Social Security number in order to be eligible.
Prior to age 30, funds from the account can be used for educational purposes, a down payment on a home, or to start a business.
Multiple CEOs who attended the roundtable on Monday pledged matching funds into the Trump accounts for their own employees.
Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner estimated that an account that began with $1,000 and had $750 invested each year would be worth $50,000 when the recipient turned 18, $175,000 by age 30, and $1 million by age 50.
“Those will change the game forever,” Gerstner said. “It makes America an ownership society again.”
The event was part of a wider effort to get the bill through Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was present and said the Senate was “putting their fingerprints on it” and that he hoped it would be a “light touch.”
Trump, projecting his typical confidence, predicted it would “go pretty quick” and ultimately reach his desk for a signature.
“It is indeed a big, beautiful bill,” the president said, “and it’s doing very well.”
Senate leaders face the herculean task of negotiating and passing the reconciliation bill before the July 4 holiday break. But some centrist and conservative GOP senators have expressed concern about the cuts to Medicaid and the amount of money the bill could add to the nation’s deficit.
Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has been one of the loudest detractors against the tax legislation.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
TRUMP WANTS MORE BABIES AND MARRIAGE. CAN THE GOVERNMENT DELIVER?
The Trump accounts are part of what the White House claims is its pro-family agenda, an effort to increase the nation’s birth and marriage rates as well as support families hard hit by inflation and rising prices.
“The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill will literally change the lives of working, middle class families across America by delivering the largest tax cuts in history, increasing the child tax credit, AND by creating this incredible new ‘Trump Account’ program, which will put the lives of young Americans on the right financial path!” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Naomi Lim contributed to this report.