WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Breitbart News exclusively at the Trump Accounts launch summit at the Mellon Auditorium in downtown Washington DC on Wednesday that these accounts may end up being President Donald Trump’s most “enduring” legacy item that will positively impact generations to come in this country.
Bessent spoke with Breitbart News backstage at the summit after Trump had addressed the crowd. He argued the impact of these accounts will build generational wealth for every American child, helping the future of the nation do so much better than current and past generations.
“As always, the president was optimistic about everything we’re doing,” Bessent told Breitbart News. “The president has done trade deals, tax deals, peace deals—I think the peace deals will be enduring—but I think there’s a chance these Trump Accounts may be his most enduring legacy. Thirty-eight percent of Americans have no exposure to the equity markets. You can see why there is a generation of disenchanted folks who aren’t part of our great innovation economy, the American economic engine. President Trump, through this visionary plan, is going to change it. For four years, every child who is born is going to be given a thousand dollars that’s going to be put into an index fund. They won’t have access to it until they’re 18, and if they want to keep it in there they can change it to a retirement account and take it out when they’re 65 and it will be a great supplement to Social Security.”
Every child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, is eligible for a $1,000 deposit into a Trump Account from the federal government. Every child under 18 years old in America right now is also eligible for the creation of a Trump Account where their parents or their parents’ employers can deposit up to $5,000 a year on a tax-advantaged basis—employers can contribute up to $2,500 of that—and then the funds in the accounts cannot be accessed until the child is at least 18 years old. At that point, or in the future long beyond then, the child can use the funds in their Trump Accounts for qualified expenses like buying homes, education expenses, or retirement income if they choose to wait that long. By some estimates, if the max contribution is made every year into these accounts, they could grow to be worth more than $300,000 by a child’s 18th birthday and to be worth more than $1 million by their 28th birthday.
“I would encourage everyone to visit TrumpAccounts.gov—we’ve already had 600,000 people sign up and we’re expecting 25 million,” Bessent told Breitbart News. “So go in, because if your child is under 18 you can have a Trump Account as you said—families, relatives, employers can contribute. But also importantly we have had some of America’s great philanthropists and foundations who are also contributing. Michael and Susan Dell are doing a national award of $6.25 billion for families who are not in the top 20 percent of zip codes. So 80 percent of American children they are going to get these as part of the $6.25 billion. We’ve had Ray Dalio the investor adopting his home state of Connecticut. We just had Brad Gerstner say he was adopting his home state of Indiana. He’s going to put I think $250 million into accounts for children who are under 5 years old. Then I believe we are going to have 20 state governments who are going to follow President Trump’s lead and, importantly on this too, we’re going to do it with a huge amount of financial education. So everyone is going to become very engaged with the market. It’s not going to be like this bifurcated America where there’s Wall Street and there’s Main Street. President Trump has done the biggest merger in history.”
Bessent further elaborated on these themes in his remarks to the summit, calling them the defining policy for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
“Trump Accounts are among the most significant policy innovations of modern times,” Bessent said in his full remarks. “They mark a singular moment in economic history by expanding the benefits of private ownership and compound growth to all Americans.”
He also argued that the Trump Accounts, “at their core,” are a “triumph of capitalism over socialism.”
“Socialism left in its wake a trail of economic ruin, all in pursuit of the belief that abolishing private ownership would lead to greater equality and human flourishing,” Bessent told the crowd. “In fact, the opposite was true. The last century of economic history showed us that the answer was never to abolish private ownership; it was to democratize it. To protect, strengthen, and expand it to as many people as possible so that everyone can benefit from the prosperity only capitalism can provide.”
Bessent also told Breitbart News that a 2026 first half economic boom is upon the nation, and that Trump Accounts—one of many facets of the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed Congress last summer—will be just one of many parts of what Trump has done to set the stage for it.
“I said in 2025 we set the table, and now in 2026, 2027, 2028, we’re going to have the banquet or the feast,” Bessent said. “The president’s policies are great policies. The thing about the One Big Beautiful Bill is there are a lot of beautiful parts, but it’s big. There’s school choice in there, the first time that Americans pre-tax can contribute to their school choice via their tax refunds. We’ve got the president’s signature policies like No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, No Tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans on American cars, and as the IRS Commission, which is another hat that I wear. I can see that the refund level is going to be very big for working Americans. So, there’s that aspect. We’ve seen 12 or 14 percent CapEx [capital expenditure] growth. Economic history—CapEx growth, job growth, consumer spending growth. So I think it’s going to be a very good year. We’ve had over the past 16 or 17 months we’ve had 175 basis points of cumulative rate cuts. Rates are down, probably not at the neutral rate – we’re probably still somewhat restrictive. Then, inflation is coming back down to target. The president is going after prescription drug pricing. Gasoline in some states is below $2 a gallon and the national average is in the mid-$2s. Mortgage rates are at a three-year low the other day. So I just think it’s all coming together right here, right now.”
