The Trump administration is preparing to automatically enroll every American child in a Trump Account before the midterm elections, aiming to increase the impact of a program that has struggled with low take-up, according to four sources familiar with discussions.
At the direction of the White House, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are preparing to use IRS data to create a Trump Account for all children, two of the sources said.
Republicans created Trump Accounts in their sweeping tax and domestic policy bill passed last year, providing $1,000 for babies born between 2025 and the end of 2028, and a tax-advantaged investment account for all children younger than 18. But few Americans have set up their Trump Accounts, with only 5% of middle- or lower-income families enrolling as of this summer.
If successful, the effort to auto-enroll kids in Trump Accounts could reach an additional 60 million children just a few weeks before the midterm elections. But it’s unclear how much political upside the push would actually have. Trump Accounts only provide some tax advantages, and most families aren’t eligible for the $1,000 benefit. The money is not available until the child turns 18.
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President Donald Trump posted a video this weekend that appeared to tease the upcoming policy change, saying “we’re going to give every newborn child a financial stake in the future.”
New regulations released by the Treasury on Tuesday say that the previously proposed department rule, which is being withdrawn, “did not provide for broad automatic enrollment by the Secretary.” The new regulations say that the Treasury has “identified an administrable structure that permits broad automatic enrollment while protecting return information.”
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment. Some of the congressional Republicans who helped draft the provision say the original intent of the legislation was to ensure automatic enrollment.
“As the author of the Trump Accounts legislation, I drafted the bill to provide for auto-enrollment, allowing Treasury to enroll all 70 million American children under age 18,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a statement to The Washington Sun. “I am glad to see Treasury, under the strong leadership of Secretary Bessent, working to fulfill that promise to American families.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the plan earlier Tuesday.
Plans to auto-enroll Americans in the Trump Accounts intensified this summer, with Treasury and IRS staff being told to move expeditiously to get the program ready, the sources said. The bank BNY and the trading app Robinhood have been enlisted to hold and invest the money in the accounts.
Few Americans have enrolled in a Trump Account in part because the financial benefits appear to be relatively meager. Trump and the congressional GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” was estimated to cost more than $3 trillion over a decade, but Trump Accounts comprised only $15 billion of that total because most families aren’t eligible for the money.
Some billionaires have pledged to donate large sums to Trump Accounts to seed accounts for American children. The CEO of Dell Technologies Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, have pledged $6.25 billion for children born between 2016 and 2024, which translates to $250 for 25 million children, according to the Dell Foundation.
The amount available may also vary by state. The tech investor Brad Gerstner provided a donation for Trump Accounts to make some children in Indiana eligible for $250, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The plan also goes against conservatives’ long-held objections to automatically enrolling Americans in government programs, which they say represents excessive government intervention.
“People should get to choose how they manage their finances and what they want for their children, so why is a Trump Account the right answer? Using the power of the government to get a Trump Account and put their hands on the scale seems crazy,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and is currently the president of American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. “I’m worried the next thing they’ll do is put $1,000 in it for everybody and it’ll cost us a fortune.”
The idea of creating investment funds for children to use when they graduate has gained bipartisan support including as a way to close the enormous racial wealth gap. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) floated similar ideas to seed investment accounts, sometimes referred to as “baby bonds,” and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has called the Trump Account plan “one of the best things Ted Cruz has done.”
Some on the left have questioned whether these proposals are the best way to use federal funding. Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, said he would rather see government subsidies go to help families weather their most serious cash crunch — when they have young children, not when the children are grown. Though he said a $1,000 benefit could go a long way to help families manage the difficulty young adults face transitioning to the workforce.
“We have so many issues that this is not where I would put the next dollar,” Bruenig said. “But whenever people become adults, they have nothing. It’s almost like a graduation gift to help you move out of your parents’ house and rent an apartment. $1,000 doesn’t sound like much, but maybe this is just where it starts and it grows from there.”
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