How will Trump Accounts work? A Treasury official lays out the new program

Oct 10, 2026 - 04:15

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The Trump administration announced this week it has completed automatic enrollment of Trump Accounts for Americans under 18. Parents and guardians must claim the tax advantaged investment accounts for eligible children born during President Trumps term to receive an initial $1,000 seed contribution.

They have a lot of abilities to pull it out without penalties for specific uses prior to retirement, and that's the idea is to give these kids the ability to access an education, access a first home, access a lot of things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to access without that savings plan in place, said David Zervos, counselor to the Treasury secretary.

President Trump celebrated the announcement in the Oval Office this week with weeks until the midterm election. On the campaign trail, Trump has promised $5,000 checks to Americans if Republicans win the midterms.

The idea would be, if we go back to a sort of a non-Republican legislature, a non-Republican-led legislature, maybe we grow a little bit more like Europe. And if we grow a little bit more like Europe, that'd be like a 1% growth rate. If we're going to grow like the U.S. has been growing now, under a Republican legislature and Republican presidency, we grow more like 3% Well, that difference pays for a lot of goodies, if you will, said Zervos.

But it comes as Americans have shared concerns over the economy and cost of living in polling. A recent AP/NORC poll found only 17 percent approved of the presidents handling of the cost of living.

Zervos points to several factors when it comes to Americans concerns.

One is that there are those that are on the side of interest rates that are high because the Federal Reserve sees these inflation risks, and those that are in the that are more susceptible. to the interest rate sensitive sectors like housing, are seeing more pain than say a boomer that owns their house and is very excited now that they can put their money on deposit at the bank at four or five percent, he said.

He also says consumer confidence data have actually been quite negative for many many years, and they've decoupled significantly from the economic data and have come less of a factor in being a predictive measure for economic success.

He also points to inflation under the Biden administration and contends the angst is kind of the residual of that incredibly large price level move that occurred, and is still in many ways with you because it just shot up and it stayed there, adding that we're getting back some of that buying power, but it takes time.

Watch the interview with Zervos in the video above.