{"id":15379,"date":"2026-05-10T12:42:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/10\/what-if-the-government-just-gave-every-baby-a-1000-trump-account-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:42:46","slug":"what-if-the-government-just-gave-every-baby-a-1000-trump-account-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/10\/what-if-the-government-just-gave-every-baby-a-1000-trump-account-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"What if the government just gave every baby a $1,000 'Trump Account'? – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pair of academic researchers want the Trump administration to automate \u201cTrump Accounts,\u201d so that every baby born between 2025 and 2028 automatically receives\u00a0$1,000\u00a0in retirement savings.\u00a0
Roughly 6.6\u00a0million American children are enrolled in the new federal retirement savings program, and 1.4 million newborns are on track to receive $1,000 contributions from the government, the Treasury Department reported on May 8.\u00a0\u00a0
Those families opted into the program\u00a0ahead of its July 4 launch, filing\u00a0the\u00a0new IRS\u00a0Form\u00a04547<\/a>\u00a0at the\u202ftrumpaccounts.gov<\/a>\u00a0website or with their\u00a02025 tax returns.\u00a0
But if enrollment were automatic, the researchers say, the Trump Accounts program could reach 73 million American children.\u00a0
\u201cI think it looks like a missed opportunity,\u201d said\u00a0Stephen Roll<\/a>, an assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.\u00a0\u201cThese accounts have the potential to be transformative in how we help people build wealth in this country.\u201d\u00a0
Roll makes\u00a0a case for automating Trump Accounts in a\u00a0May\u00a04 opinion piece<\/a>\u00a0in The Washington Post, co-authored with fellow WashU scholar Jin Huang.\u00a0\u00a0
The researchers said the Treasury Department is aware of their proposal.\u00a0
“The U.S. Treasury Department is committed to maximizing the impact of Trump Accounts, driving sign-ups for all eligible children, and achieving our goal of having every American child own a Trump Account,” the agency said in a statement.
The program\u00a0promises to deposit\u00a0$1,000 into\u00a0retirement\u00a0savings accounts for every child born\u00a0during the four years of\u00a0Donald\u00a0Trump\u2019s second presidential term: an IRA for kids, essentially.\u00a0\u00a0
American children born before 2025\u00a0and\u00a0under 18\u00a0are also\u202feligible for Trump\u202fAccounts<\/a>, but with no seed money from the federal government.\u00a0
The program is tailored to teach children about saving and investing, and to encourage children and their families to build wealth for\u00a0adulthood and retirement.\u00a0\u00a0
Critics have warned that Trump Accounts might wind up as an expensive giveaway to the rich, adopted by parents who already have ample investments as a\u00a0means\u00a0to pad their portfolios.\u00a0\u00a0
Past research has shown that lower-income Americans are less likely to participate in retirement savings. Only about half of workers with annual incomes between $15,000 and $30,000 participate in\u00a0Vanguard 401(k) programs<\/a>, for example, compared with 95% of workers earning more than $150,000.\u00a0
\u201cWithout\u00a0autoenrollment, without making sure that our lowest-income families get their accounts open and get their thousand dollars, there\u2019s a risk that this program becomes another tax subsidy that mostly benefits wealthy families,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Madeline Brown<\/a>, a senior policy associate at the\u00a0nonpartisan\u00a0Urban Institute.\u00a0\u00a0
Automatic enrollment is widely viewed as the ideal\u00a0model\u00a0for retirement savings programs, because potential savers are more likely to participate if they must\u00a0make an effort\u00a0to opt out.\u00a0
Twenty states have adopted auto-IRA programs, according to the AARP, as a safety net for employees who lack access to retirement savings. The state programs offer retirement savings to those workers with automatic enrollment.\u00a0\u00a0
Under federal law, starting in 2025, most new 401(k) plans\u202fhad to\u202fautomatically enroll employees<\/a>\u202frather than leave the decision to them.\u202f\u00a0
In their op-ed piece, the WashU researchers cite the\u00a0Alfond Grant<\/a>\u00a0program in Maine, which offers\u00a0parents $500 grants\u00a0for newborn children. When the program switched from optional to automatic enrollment, participation rose from 40% to 100%.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cI think that\u2019s the important message here: We know how to do this,\u201d said\u00a0Huang<\/a>, a social policy professor at the Brown School.\u00a0\u00a0
Roughly 3.6\u00a0million Americans were born in 2025, based on\u00a0CDC data<\/a>. Of that group, 1.4 million are now registered for Trump Accounts.\u00a0\u00a0
“So, we need to understand, who are those two-thirds of kids who didn’t claim their $1,000,” said Brown of the Urban Institute.
The Trump Accounts\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0advertises the signup process as relatively simple. You file Form 4547,\u00a0a one-page document that\u00a0asks for dates of birth, Social Security numbers and\u00a0other basic\u00a0information. After you submit the form, the site instructs, you\u2019ll be contacted with instructions on how to\u00a0finish\u00a0setting up the account.\u00a0\u00a0
But tax forms are seldom easy, and this one is new.\u00a0
\u201cIt\u2019s a new and unfamiliar thing that people may just not have the knowledge to engage with,\u201d Roll said. \u201cThe more paperwork you load on folks, the more people you are likely to lose in the process.\u201d\u00a0
Some new parents may not know Trump Accounts exist. Anyone filing a 2025 tax return had an opportunity to file a\u00a0Form 4547, but millions of low-income Americans\u00a0don\u2019t file tax returns<\/a>.\u00a0
\u201cThe decision to link enrollment in this program primarily to tax filing leaves out children who will need it most,\u201d Brown said.\u00a0\u00a0
Newborns aren\u2019t the only ones who might miss out on free retirement savings.\u00a0\u00a0
On top of the $1,000 federal contributions, philanthropists\u202fMichael\u202fand Susan\u202fDell\u202fpledged\u202f$250 to each<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0first 25 million\u202fTrump Account\u202fapplicants\u00a0who are\u202fages\u202f10 or under, were\u202fborn before 2025,\u00a0and live in\u00a0ZIP codes with median incomes under $150,000.\u00a0
Many other pledges have poured in from philanthropists and corporate America, potentially\u00a0expanding the program\u2019s reach<\/a>.\u00a0
It might sound implausible that anyone would pass up free retirement savings. But small-value retirement accounts routinely\u00a0slip through the cracks<\/a>, lost or forgotten by people who change jobs.\u00a0\u00a0
\u201cOur experience in the private sector with very small accounts is that a significant percent of the population never connects with their accounts,\u201d said\u202fJ. Spencer\u00a0Williams<\/a>, founder and CEO of the Retirement Clearinghouse, a financial technology firm.\u00a0\u201cYou end up with these sort of stranded, orphan accounts.\u201d\u00a0
Trump Accounts won\u2019t necessarily stay small. The program\u2019s\u00a0website estimates that\u00a0a\u00a0$1,000 contribution will grow to $6,000 by the time the newborn turns 18, even without\u00a0additional contributions. By age 55, it will reach $243,000.\u00a0
\u201cWe\u2019re all paying for these accounts,\u201d through tax dollars, said\u00a0Monique Morrissey<\/a>, a senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute. \u201cSo, even if you don\u2019t like the idea of a Trump Account, you should take advantage of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of academic researchers want the Trump administration to automate \u201cTrump Accounts,\u201d so that every baby born between 2025 and 2028 automatically receives\u00a0$1,000\u00a0in retirement savings.\u00a0Roughly 6.6\u00a0million American children are enrolled in the new federal retirement savings program, and 1.4 million newborns are on track to receive $1,000 contributions from the government, the Treasury Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}