The New York Stock Exchange will be opened from the Oval Office next week to mark the opening of Trump Accounts, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Monday.
“We’re having a big opening bell ceremony next week where Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange are going to ring the bell from the Oval for the first time together, and they’re doing that to celebrate the accounts,” Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, said on CNBC.
CNN has reached out to the White House for further details.
Families will be able to start contributing to the accounts — which would provide parents of children born between 2025 and 2028 with $1,000 to invest — on July 4.
Hassett praised the accounts, which he said give every child born in the US “a stake in the game,” and suggested there’d be a political effect as well.
“It’s basically, I think, hard to be a socialist if you have capital, and so my view is that the political effect of this dynamic is going to be enormous,” Hassett said.
President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on the recent electoral success of several democratic socialist candidates to create a contrast with the GOP ahead of the November midterms.
Trump Accounts are IRA-style savings accounts for eligible children. They are like traditional IRAs in that money in the accounts will grow tax deferred. But the rules for Trump Accounts differ when it comes to contributions, withdrawals and approved uses of the money. Also, the money may not be tapped before a child turns 18.
The accounts didn’t initially plan for children in foster care — because they must be opened by an “authorized individual,” who is typically a parent or other family member named as a legal guardian — until child welfare advocates brought the issue to first lady Melania Trump’s office.
The first lady, who has used her second term to, in part, shine a light on children in the foster care system, appeared at the Treasury Department earlier this month to announce “Fostering the Future Accounts” and offer updated guidance that allows state child welfare agencies and foster youth representatives to set up the accounts for those children.
