The next adjustment is allowing rich individuals and large companies to donate stock into the accounts. This, however, comes with several strings attached: Account-holders, such as the parents, cannot pick or reject donated shares, and they’re restricted from selling them for five years.
And while the Trump administration celebrates this development, policy experts are concerned that the savings account program is beginning to stray from its original intent of primarily relying on cash donations channeled into low-cost index funds. There are also concerns that this is opening a set of conundrums over how companies and business leaders could inflate stock prices or use the stock donations to assemble a case against tax increases.
“When today’s newborns reach voting age, a huge share of their savings could rise and fall with a handful of companies, several of which are in antitrust litigation right now,” communications adviser Douglas Farrar wrote in a Substack post for the American Economic Liberties Project. “Every effort to regulate or break them up will be attacked as a raid on your child’s college fund.”
New changes are already underway
The Trump administration is moving swiftly to open and fund the newest batch of accounts. Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said in a Newsmax interview that 25 million kids can expect to have the federal cash in their accounts by the end of the week. He considers these accounts to be an “IRA [individual retirement account] for children.”
Every child under 18 years of age is eligible for an account, as long as they have a Social Security number to demonstrate U.S. citizenship. The one-time $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department, however, will only be given to children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 — or the length of Trump’s second term.
Supporters of the accounts believe they will further strengthen young Americans’ ability to manage personal finances.
“I believe that this is the most important benefit for young people since the GI Bill,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Axios. “We’re going to take it from abstract to a real-time learning experience in financial literacy.”
SpaceX is the first to donate stock
So far, SpaceX is the only major American company to announce a stock contribution for about two million Trump accounts, with an emphasis on low-income families residing in Texas.
“We have been fortunate in our careers and hope this gift encourages the next generation to continue the journey of enabling humanity to live and fly amongst the stars,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell wrote on X.
The new Treasury guidelines stipulate no geographical or age restriction to the donated stock. However, it is inviting public comment on the auto-enrollment process, as well as whether families should be allowed to skip out on the federal cash.
Joseph Zeballos-Roig is a policy and politics journalist based in Washington D.C with a focus on economics. He is experienced in connecting the significance of events in the capital to the lives of everyday Americans whether its taxes, tariffs, interest rates or federal programs.
