The announcement marks the biggest expansion yet of the child savings program created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Before this week, only about 7 to 8 million children had been signed up since the program launched in July. The Treasury Department's new automatic enrollment rules added more than 60 million children in a single move, pushing the total to roughly 70 million — nearly every eligible child in America.
Trump described the moment in personal terms, telling reporters that every eligible minor child in the country now has an account waiting to be claimed. "They'll be quite rich" by the time they turn 18, he said, pointing to the power of long-term stock market growth. He thanked Bessent and the Dell family, whose $6.25 billion pledge is funding 25 million additional accounts, and said 70 companies have now committed to contributing to the program.
Here is how it works. The accounts are IRA-style investment vehicles. Every eligible child under 18 with a valid Social Security number now has one. Parents and guardians can contribute up to $5,000 a year, and employers can add up to $2,500 tax-free. Children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028 who are U.S. citizens also qualify for a one-time $1,000 federal deposit to seed the account.
There is one step families need to know about: automatic enrollment creates the account, but parents still have to claim it. That means downloading the official Trump Accounts app, verifying identity and the relationship to the child, and accepting the terms before anyone can manage the money or receive the federal deposit. Treasury officials say that step matters — their own analysis found a voluntary sign-up system would have reached only about half of eligible children, with the biggest gains from auto-enrollment flowing to lower-income households.
Bessent called it the start of an "ownership society," saying the program will create "a generation of shareholders." Cruz, who wrote the legislation behind the accounts, stood alongside the president as he made the announcement.
Not everyone is sold on the design. The $1,000 federal seed money only goes to the youngest children — those born from 2025 through 2028 — while older kids get the account structure without the federal deposit. Democrats have long pushed their own versions of child savings accounts, often called "baby bonds," aimed more narrowly at lower-income families, and some have questioned the cost of the federal seed payments. The administration's answer is scale: Treasury estimates the automatic system reaches roughly 73 million children across 44 million families, and the White House argues that giving every child a stake in the stock market beats another round of paperwork-heavy programs.
Trump also used the Oval Office session to take questions on the November midterms and migration in Europe, but the accounts were the centerpiece — a program the White House is betting will be felt in households, not just headlines.