The president might be building something beautiful with ‘Trump accounts’ | Opinion
In the more paranoid precincts of the right, Democratic welfare programs are considered the gateway drug for socialism. They build dependence and lethargy and an appetite for more spending along with a selfish reason always to vote for Democrats.
Republicans need their own gateway drug to capitalism. It could use the same government spending model but this time to build thrift, calculated risk-taking, independence and hard work.
Donald Trump’s new “Trump accounts” are a start. They are new investment accounts that will be seeded with federal cash for newborns starting this year and for the next few years. We should make them a permanent fixture in the life of babies, like binkies, blankies and bottles.
One smart capitalist, Michael Dell, gets the big picture. He looks like a philanthropist donating $6 billion-plus to get more accounts started for more kids, but I really think he is a savvy evangelist for the free market system.
When I was in high school, they taught me how to write checks. We should start earlier and teach kids to invest. The most powerful force on Earth is compound interest. When you harness it for yourself, there’s nowhere you can’t go.
Wall Street should set up free accounts that let young people transition their Trump wealth into accounts with discounted index funds. While the accounts would still be usable for a college education, starting a business or buying a first home, there should be a bonus for people who don’t break the piggy bank — more years of government funding in young adulthood to help the wealth grow even faster.
The tech industry should connect those accounts that can begin teaching the kinder about investing when they are in middle school or high school and have their first smart phone. Social and gamified features would make learning and investing fun.
Kids who get jobs early, say 14, would be able to divert their share of their Social Security taxes into their Trump accounts and grow them more. Kids aren’t making much then so it wouldn’t be much of a burden on a system that is ripe for reform anyway.
As the system grows and kids get more sophisticated, Wall Street will need to make investment account data available across platforms like the health industry is struggling to do now with medical records.
Employers — you know, the boring regular companies not on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, the ones that employ most of us — could connect 401(k)s and medical savings plans to the apps, so young people have new ways to expand their ownership of our capitalist future.
Stocks, cryptocurrencies, startups
Just like most 401(k)s today, Trump accounts have guardrails that keep kids invested in diversified index funds that are not as risky as single stocks. As kids mature and begin investing their own money, the guardrails can come off for money that they save themselves. New stages of sophistication allowing individual stocks, cryptocurrencies and even early stage startups would keep their experience fresh and deepen the learning about capitalism.
When kids are ready for college, diligent investors wouldn’t have the accounts counted against their eligibility for low-income Pell Grants and subsidized student loans. The last thing Republicans should do is punish those who work hard and invest wisely. That should be rewarded. Kids who graduate from an approved college or trade program should get a bonus in their Trump accounts.
The next step, after making regular funding of Trump accounts as fundamental a part of the budget as food stamps, would be to allow young investors with a decadelong record of responsible and savvy budgeting to invest part of their Social Security taxes if they give up a partition of their future benefits. As confidence in capitalism grows, more young people will take the opportunity to be an owner instead of a government dependent.
Michael Dell won’t be the last baron of capitalism to want to invest some of his wealth in the budding capitalists Trump accounts could create. Some companies will give part of their profits to their workers and their children for a tax break. The next Bill Gates or Elon Musk won’t leave their wealth to foundations that turn against their values in the decades after they die — they’ll give them to all of us to build an America built on thriving capitalism and broad democratic ownership.
Donald Trump doesn’t do many things that could build a brighter future, but with Trump accounts, I think he is on to something. Now we’ll see if the next generation of capitalists and policy entrepreneurs can turn this into a reality that really changes our country for the better.
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 6:07 AM with the headline "The president might be building something beautiful with ‘Trump accounts’ | Opinion."
