President Trump heralded the start of his savings accounts for children by ringing the stock market’s opening bell in an Oval Office ceremony on Monday.
The Trump accounts, as they are known, are being seeded with a one-time $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department for children with a Social Security number born from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2028.
The White House has predicted that the plan’s assets could grow to seven figures by the time the children are in their late 20s. On Monday, Mr. Trump credited the booming stock market under his presidency as one reason the accounts have so much potential, citing how high several market indexes have rallied since he took office.
“They can have a lot of money,” Mr. Trump told a group of reporters, administration officials and young children gathered in the Oval Office on Monday.
“It’s going to go up,” he added. “I think the market’s going to go through the roof.”
But the accounts, which are available to children under 18 and went live over the weekend, haven’t reached all eligible children yet. Children are not automatically enrolled in the plan and their parents need to sign up for them on their tax forms. The Social Security Administration recently said that parents could also sign newborns up for the account at hospitals, when they register their Social Security numbers. So far, only 1.4 million children in the age range have been signed up, or about one-quarter of eligible children.
Individuals, employers and others can deposit money into the accounts, which grow tax-free, like individual retirement accounts. The children can access that money only when they turn 18.
In his remarks, Mr. Trump thanked several donors for making contributions to the savings program, including Michael & Susan Dell, who invested $6.25 billion through their foundation, and the chip maker Micron, which Mr. Trump said would invest $250 million.
“Go out and buy a Dell computer,” Mr. Trump said, after thanking the Dells, who were standing next to him. “He’s not doing it for that, but I’ll bet his business brand has gotten even bigger.”
Monday’s ceremony was the first time that the opening bells for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq had been rung from the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump said the fund had been made possible by the passage of his landmark spending bill last year. He said putting his name on the fund wasn’t his idea, but he’d been told the it would “sell better” with it.
Many parents, however, are turned off by Mr. Trump’s name being attached to the plan, according to research by Commonwealth, a nonprofit that aims to help low-income people build wealth.
