September 2, 2026 • 33 mins
In this episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson discuss a CEO roundtable focused on Trump Accounts, contributions pledged by business leaders including Michael Dell and Gwynne Shotwell, the role of investing education for children, and efforts to broaden nationwide participation. They also pivot to comments previously made by James Talarico, examining his remarks about capitalism, climate policy, and economic systems as Cruz contrasts those views with his own defense of free-market principles.
The debate over ownership, investing, and economic opportunity takes center stage as Ted Cruz highlights growing support for Trump Accounts from major business leaders and companies. According to Cruz, the program is designed to expand investing opportunities for children, encourage long-term savings, and create a new generation of investors through tax-advantaged accounts.The episode also examines announcements from corporate leaders and philanthropists who have pledged contributions to Trump Accounts, along with efforts to expand participation through employer matching programs and automatic enrollment initiatives. Cruz argues that the program could have long-term effects on how families think about saving, investing, and financial literacy.
Topics Covered:
- CEO support and employer participation in Trump Accounts
- Contributions announced by Michael Dell, Susan Dell, and Gwynne Shotwell
- Auto-enrollment plans and nationwide account access
- Financial literacy, investing, and ownership for children
- Brad Gerstner's role in developing the original Invest America concept
- James Talarico's comments on capitalism, climate policy, and economic systems
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
you as well. Senator, it's the middle of the day.
You're rested. It's been a fabulous week. The book is
killing it, by the way. It's still at the top
of the list on Amazon. Congratulations for that as well.
And you had an amazing week with American companies getting
behind something that we've been advocating, you've been fighting for
(00:21):
for a long time with the Trump accounts. And you
got to do some really cool things with some CEOs
this week that said, we're behind this. We're advocating for
it and we're going to give to our employees.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, this week in Austin, I chaired a roundtable along
with Michael Dell of CEOs from across Texas and across
the country. And it was a roundtable. We had about
30 CEOs sitting around the table talking about the Trump
accounts and how transformational this policy is. As you know,
the Trump accounts, I authored the Trump accounts last year
(00:52):
as part of the Working Families Tax Cut. It was
signed into law. I think the Trump accounts may well
be the single most consequential element of the entire tax
cut that passed last year. And it has been implemented.
We had at the roundtable, we had, number one, Michael Dell,
obviously the CEO of Dell, and someone, Michael and Susan,
have personally pledged and are giving six and a quarter
(01:17):
billion dollars to kids all across the country in the
Trump accounts. And just to remind everyone how the Trump
accounts operate, The Trump accounts are designed to be, and
this year will be, personal investment accounts that for every
single child in America, there are over 70 million kids
under 18 in America, every child will have a personal
(01:37):
investment account open for him or her. Newborn children will
have it seeded with $ 1, 000. And parents, family, employers can
contribute $ 5, 000 a year in a tax advantage account. All
of that's invested in the stock market. which gives every
kid in America the miracle of compound growth. That's going
(01:58):
to enable kids to accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars
in investments, which will change their whole lives. But number two,
we will create a whole new generation of capitalists as
our kids are going to be the owners of the
biggest employers in America. And so this event, when I
drafted the Trump account legislation, I included two accelerants deliberately
(02:21):
into the legislation. Number one, is the ability for employers
to contribute. So think about 401 s and how 401 s,
most employers, certainly most big employers, will either contribute to
a 401 or at least match the contribution of an employee. Likewise,
we are seeing that more and more for Trump accounts,
(02:42):
and that speeds it up because when you're talking about
investing over time, the faster you invest and the more
you invest early, the more it compounds and the bigger
it gets. And so Employer contributions are a huge accelerant.
And then the second huge accelerant is charitable contributions, the
ability to give directly into the Trump accounts of others.
(03:03):
We're seeing both of them. And this roundtable was multiple
CEOs and business leaders discussing how they're doing exactly that.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
All right, I want to take a moment real quick
and talk to you about something that's extremely important. Right now,
somewhere in the world, there's a child waiting, not waiting
for a birthday, not waiting for Christmas, but waiting for
someone just like you to choose them. That's what Compassion
International does every single day. They connect children living in
(03:32):
poverty with someone who will know their name, who will
pray for them, who will encourage them. and help provide
the food, the medical care, the education, and the hope
they need through a local church. Now this year, Compassion
is expanding into four new countries, Malawi, Zambia, Cambodia, and Myanmar,
(03:55):
meaning thousands of children are being reached, which is incredible,
for the very first time. And I want you to
join me for just $ 43 a month You can be
the reason one child stops waiting. Sponsor a child today
at Compassion.com. That's Compassion.com. I got to tell you, the
(04:18):
part of the Trump accounts I think is also going
to be the most successful aspect of it is you
get to set up these accounts in your kid's name.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You get to be interactive.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's not a piece of paper that comes in the
mail with a quarterly statement or a monthly statement. your
child can look at your phone and their account in
real time and see what's happening.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And so now what's happened with my kids is they
every day are wanting to know how much money they have.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I love this because now instead of them going and
buying something in the store the other day, my seven-year-old
George looked at me. He's like, dad, I want to
buy some more stock with our money.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I was like, great. How much money do you have?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
He's like, I got $ 6 and 12 cents.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now I love that because he had enough. He got $ 6.
I don't know what he got it from.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What like, It was like $ 6 and 12 cents. I'm like, buddy,
I love this. Yes, we'll invest it for you this week.
And there's a little bit of excitement and also competition. Like,
what are you in?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I'm in Ford. I'm in SpaceX. I'm in this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
They love the ownership. And that's how you create a
lifetime investment. idea and it's also teaching the value of
a dollar hey you can take a dollar now it
can be something else later but if your kids get
involved that means the parents get more involved which means
you think about saving for your kids more that is
the best part is I think technology with this it
(05:32):
is watching a kid's eyes light up when they see
an account with their name and their ownership is is
a total game changer I say it with excitement because
I'm witnessing it firsthand but this is why people need
to sign up for this if they haven't already.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Look, roughly half of Americans don't own a single stock
or a single bond. And I talked about creating a
whole new generation of capitalists. This is designed so that
kids see that and they see compound growth. They see
that they have an investment, but then it grows and
it grows upon itself and it grows upon itself. And
one of the things that was really important designing the
app is designing it so it doesn't just show the
(06:10):
total amount you have in the S & P 500,
but there are 500 stocks broken down in the S &
P 500. So you can see- how much you own
of Apple, how much you own of General Motors, how
much you own of ExxonMobil, how much you own of McDonald's.
And that investment makes it personal. You've got skin in
(06:30):
the game. And that was something I pressed the Trump
administration really vigorously on. They actually had a guy named
Joe Jebbia, who's a buddy of mine. He's actually a Texan.
He's from Austin. he is one of the founders of Airbnb.
So he's been very, very successful in business, but Airbnb
knows how to design an app that is consumer friendly.
(06:51):
And one of the things that was really important is
that when kids log onto these accounts, they see all
the individual stock holdings that they have and they are
right now. We also had at this round table, so
we had Michael Dell, we had Brad Gerstner, who is
the CEO of Altimeter Capital, and he's the one who
(07:11):
came up with the idea for the Trump account. He's
become a very close friend. He and I have worked
hand-in-hand the last two years to get this passed. We
had Michael Dell, who Dell is contributing and matching to
the Trump accounts of their kids, and Michael and Susan
are personally giving $ 6. 25 billion. We had the CEOs of
Bank of New York and Robinhood. And they're the two
(07:35):
companies that are implementing this, and it is remarkable. So
one of the things the CEO, Vlad Tenev, who's the
CEO of Robinhood, showed us is the new developments they're
putting on for philanthropy. Look, most of us are not
Michael Dell. We can't give $ 6. 25 billion, but this is
available for philanthropy if you want to give $ 100, if
you want to give $ 500 or $ 1, 000 or whatever you
(07:55):
can give. And one of the fun things is, for
Trump accounts, it also doesn't have to be massive accounts.
I mean, think about your kids' birthday parties, Ben.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Where you have Aunt Susie, who otherwise would have gotten
your kids an ugly sweater, who instead can give your
kids a hundred bucks into the Trump account or 50
bucks into the Trump account. And that over time, think
about a bar mitzvah, think about an eighth grade graduation
or 12th grade graduation where you tell people, hey, Here's
the link to give to the Trump accounts, and you
(08:32):
end up with investments where the kids see. And by
the way, just like you described with your boys, the
kids see as a practical matter, I have 20 bucks.
I can go buy a pepperoni pizza and eat it
and have nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Or I can invest 20 bucks and see it grow
and learning about the power of investing. That's going to
be one of the most long-lasting aspects of this.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's changed dynamics.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Dinner the other night, it was really fun to watch
my 10-year-old and his cousin, who's also 10, talk to
my son's uncle.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And they're like, hey. What should we invest in? What
are you investing in?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And then he was like, well, I like to invest
in things that I know that I use. And he
started talking to them like, what do you guys use?
What is it that you like? And they're like, well,
I like this. I like this.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, great.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And we were at the dinner table looking up the
stocks connected to the things that they use. But you
can see the light bulbs going off. And then we
had a conversation about what is the Walmart stock of
this generation, of our kids' generation, right? For me, it was,
and our parents was like, if you own Walmart, you
never touched it, it turned into X, right? It was
a stock. And so we had a conversation about if
(09:41):
you had a share of Walmart back in the day,
what it was worth today. And with AI, you can
easily figure these questions out, these answers. And their eyes
were just like, wait, if you own just one share
of Walmart when it came out, now it would be worth.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So then they're like, well, what's the Walmart stock of today?
So you have all these conversations.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And I say.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It with pure joy, finally I say the government really
got something right. Like they got something right. It's going
to have a massive impact for kids and it's a
way for parents to also get involved.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But I'll say it.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
If you've not done this with your children or your
grandkids yet, make it a priority because I, there's no
way a kid doesn't get excited or locked in on
this because it just fun to see their name with
ownership and a real company. And then they understand they
start asking questions and, And that's how you change an
entire generation.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Well, and on the employer side, so we had Robert Eisen,
the CEO of American Airlines there, and American Airlines announced
that they're going to match the contributions to Trump accounts
for all their employees.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Incredible.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And they have employees all over the country. They have
40,000 employees just in the state of Texas. And you
look at those employees for those kids, I think this
is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like
401k accounts are now. And to give you a sense...
Why do I say the Trump accounts are the most
consequential element of the working family's tax cut? You know,
(11:07):
in 1974 is when Congress passed Section 401k of ERISA.
And I don't think anyone in Congress had any idea
how fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirement. Today, Ben,
there's more than $ 12 trillion invested in 401k accounts. It's
a massive amount of cash. Trump accounts are 401ks for kids.
(11:27):
They're going to be We're going to have trillions of
dollars invested in Trump accounts and the employer contributions. Dell
is doing it. American is doing it. Lots and lots
of companies are doing so. But then the second piece
of it, and I'm urging, you know, Cory Booker. This
is also there's now bipartisan support for this. Cory Booker
is a liberal Democrat from New Jersey. He and I
(11:50):
together co-authored a letter to the CEO of every one
of the Fortune 1000 companies. urging every one of them
to contribute to the Trump accounts of the kids of
their employees to match, to help grow, because that accelerates
the growth massively. But the second piece, the philanthropic piece.
So Michael and Susan Dell's gift, what they're giving is
(12:10):
$ 250 to every child under age 10 who lives in
a zip code where the median income is $ 150, 000 or less.
And I wrote the statutes so you could adjust those
dials and you can target your gifts. Brad Gerster, whose
idea this was, Brad is giving money to every kid
(12:31):
in the state of Indiana, which is where he's from,
where he grew up, under the age of five, again,
who lives in zip codes where the median income is
$ 150, 000 or less. Now, let me tell you another really
cool element of the Trump accounts, which is, at my urging,
and I had to work very hard to get the
Treasury Department to do this, Treasury has issued guidance That
(12:54):
not only can you contribute money to the Trump accounts,
and it's a charitable contribution, it's tax deductible. So not
only can you contribute money to Trump accounts of kids,
you can also contribute individual shares of stock.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Which is a game changer. It's a massive game changer.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
One of the people at the roundtable was Gwen Shotwell. Now,
Gwen is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.
And obviously SpaceX just had a massive IPO.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And Gwen made an enormous amount of money. And after that,
she announced that she was giving 2 million shares of SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
To Trump accounts. And in part because Michael Dell did
kids under 10, she decided to give it to kids
between the ages of 10 and 18.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And so 2 million kids are going to get a
single share of SpaceX in their account. And that means
they're now invested, and they can see as SpaceX grows
and succeeds and does better, they're looking at that going, wow.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That is amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And by the way, her gift was worth over $ 300 million. So,
I mean, you want to talk about real money.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
$ 300 million giving away two kids. And I will tell you,
I'm in conversations with multiple founders and CEOs who started
incredibly successful companies. And I'm going to tell you in
the coming year, we are going to see literally billions
of dollars, I believe, of shares of companies, big AI companies,
(14:29):
big tech companies, given directly to kids. And that's a
powerful thing. I want you to listen to David Sachs.
So David Sachs is an incredibly successful tech investor. He's
the chairman of the President's Committee on Science and Technology.
So he's the AI czar and the crypto czar for
President Trump. And David is a longtime friend of mine.
(14:51):
He was at the roundtable with us. Listen to what
David had to say about the Trump accounts.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Thanks to Trump accounts, the next generation of Americans is
going to have direct ownership in these AI companies. So
they're going to be participating as owners in the AI revolution.
And I think Gwynne Shotwell's gift, I think, is exactly
the right template for this, where you've got 2 million
kids who are now going to own a share of
SpaceX AI, and they're going to be tracking that. And
(15:17):
now they have a vested interest in the success of AI.
And I hope that all the other AI companies will
follow suit and make.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
By the way, I couldn't agree with him more. He
hopes they follow suit. That's the reason why you guys
wrote it this way. It also makes it easy. If
you talk to people that want to give money away...
Their biggest concern is they're going to give a bunch
of money away and then they're going to have this
big thing that happens and then it doesn't really get implemented.
This is such a great way to encourage responsible giving
(15:47):
because it's going to have an impact for these kids
for a very long time and the future growth.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It's not going to be.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, shelled out a bunch of bureaucrats and nonprofits
start getting their friends involved.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And we see things like that that happen.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
This is a direct way to say, I'm going to
impact a child and it's something that's going to grow
and help them as they get older. If you, if
you're someone that's worked hard your whole life and you
built something incredible like SpaceX to see that continue to
grow long after you're gone, that's a legacy. That's legacy
building that gets, I think CEOs excited as well.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, and there are several aspects of this. One, you know,
one of the reasons Michael and Susan Dell got so excited,
so Michael chairs the CEO Council of Invest America that
has been supporting the Trump accounts and has been a
coalition behind it. And Michael and Susan are worth somewhere
between $ 100 and $ 200 billion, depending on where the market
is at any given day, but it's a massive amount
of money. He's one of the 10 wealthiest people on
(16:42):
planet Earth. And they both are quite responsible about their philanthropy.
They intend to give away the a huge portion of
the wealth they've accumulated. And the problem is it's such
a large amount of money that it's hard to give away.
I mean, there are not, there are very few charities
that can take a billion dollars. Like it's so much
(17:03):
money that it crushes a charity if you give them
that much money. And so they're trying to think very responsibly.
How do you give money away so it has a
maximum impact and it can be used productively? And I'll
tell you what is so potent about the Trump accounts.
It is infinitely scalable. You can literally give, there's no
sum of money someone has that is too much to
(17:23):
be able to give to Trump accounts. It has zero
friction and zero transaction costs. So if you give a
hundred dollars, a hundred dollars goes to the count, not 99,
not 95, every penny of it. There's no administration, there's
no overhead, there's no guy getting rich. So you're putting
every bit of leverage to impact and in the impact
(17:44):
of a child becoming an investor, starting to accumulate that
will grow and compound over time. And, and so let's
take the six, six and a quarter billion dollars that,
that gives $ 250 to 25 million kids. Now that's a
ton of money, but you know what, if Michael and
Susan decided, I don't know if they're going to, but
they could decide, suppose they decided they wanted to 10
(18:06):
X that. Yeah. Well, instead of giving $ 250, they could
give $ 2, 500 instead of six and a quarter billion dollars,
that would be $ 62 billion. And yet it would be
There are enough kids that it could absorb that. And
by the way, look, if you have other people giving
and suddenly that twenty five hundred dollars becomes five thousand
(18:27):
or ten thousand dollars, the math becomes amazing. If suddenly
kids and we're talking millions of kids, low income kids have, say,
10 grand invested in the market at a young age.
The compounding we're talking about these kids being able to
accumulate millions of dollars that totally changes not just their perspective.
(18:49):
But their entire future, because look, kids of wealthy people,
they learn to invest, they learn to save. But kids
of parents who are not in the market often don't understand.
They don't understand compound growth. They're not taught a culture
of saving and investing. This is going to change their
whole worldview. And look, you're seeing it with your boys'
(19:12):
first hands.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, it truly is incredible.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It's going to be so fun to see how this grows,
as you mentioned, and the excitement around it. And I
think it's really important with this show that we tell you,
we remind you, you get your kids, your grandkids involved,
have the conversation with your parents. nieces or your nephews
and make sure they're doing it it's free money i
mean that's i was talking to a lot of my
friends they have not done this and and they're and
(19:35):
they're smart i'm like guys it's free money for your
kids why are you not doing.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Change so that's going to change one of the most
important so i wrote the statute so that it would
be auto enroll so right now the way it has
been launched it's opt in. So you have to go
and affirmatively sign into it. You've got about seven million
people who have done so. There are about 70 million
kids in America. The way I wrote it was that
it that that Treasury would automatically enroll every child in America.
(20:02):
And by the way, it was a fight. The career
lawyers at Treasury did not want to make it auto enroll.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And I remember this.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
The White House was with me. We wrote it that way.
And one of the people who was at the roundtable
was Frank Bisognano, who is this who is the head
of the IRS. And he's the one charged by Treasury
with implementing this. And he has committed and President Trump
has committed that they're going to do auto enroll. They're
going to create the accounts for 70 million kids. Now,
there are a couple of huge benefits from that. Number one.
(20:31):
If you have an opt out rather than an opt in,
you get massively higher take up rates. And that's been true.
There have been some states like Oklahoma and Rhode Island
who've done similar programs at a smaller scale. And the
difference between opt out and opt in is massive. We
want every kid to participate. And also, if it's opt in,
you end up having a skew where wealthier kids, kids
(20:52):
from families that are more financially sophisticated are more likely
to opt in. And low-income kids whose parents are not
invested in the market themselves are less likely to opt in.
And the entire point of this program is to help
the kid of the single mom waiting tables. And so
the auto-enroll is massively important. But you know why it's
even more important?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Because with the charitable gifts, you've got to have the
account open to be a vessel to put. Michael Dell
can't put his $ 6. 25 billion in unless you have 25
million accounts that are open that can take it. Gwen
Shotwell's two million shares can't go to kids unless those
accounts are open. So you need to have the auto enroll.
That's going to happen. I believe that it's going to
(21:35):
happen this year. I talked to the head of the
IRS today who is working to implement it right now.
That's a huge deal. And by the way, I want
you to listen to Brad Gerstner, this very successful venture
capitalist whose idea this was and who he and I
have worked hand in hand. In fact, Brad, Michael Dell,
and I at the roundtable, they referred to the three
(21:57):
of us as the three amigos. And we literally have
been on the phone nonstop talking to the president, regularly
talking to Scott Besant, the treasury secretary, talking to the
head of the IRS to get this implemented and get
it right. Give a listen to Brad Gerstner at the
roundtable we did this week.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Legislation championed by this senator. And let me tell you,
I stomped around Capitol Hill for years. Everybody loved the idea.
But it's amazing in Washington. Everybody loves the idea, but
nobody can find their pen to actually begin drafting a
piece of legislation. It takes an entrepreneurial warrior like this
(22:32):
senator who says, I'm going to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It doesn't happen without that.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
And then Michael Dell, who, you know, through our partnership
from day one, did the work, did the study, said
this is if we could make this happen, it would
change the country.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And together.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Talking with the president, getting the president's entrepreneurial leadership. And
you know, when we saw President Trump, it would have
been very easy for him to say, great idea, talk
to my people. And this would have went to die
like every other idea. Instead, he said, I'm calling the
speaker and telling them to put it in the bill.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And the only way we could put it in the
bill is.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
If we had drafted the legislation, scored it, and had
it ready to go. That's why this became the law
of the land. But why I'm so excited to be
here in Texas today is there are 7.3 million kids
in the state of Texas eligible for a Trump account.
Hundreds of thousands have already claimed their account, but we're
going to get all 7.3 million signed up. Stay tuned.
(23:34):
In the months ahead, because of the leadership of Frank,
we're going to make sure that no child in this
country is left behind. The President said very clearly, every child.
The Invest America Act left the discretion to the Treasury
Secretary and to Frank to get every child automatically signed
up for.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
An account, and that's what we intend to do.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You can even just hear it in his voice. He
is really excited about what this means and how it
came together.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
He fought hard for it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You guys, the three amigos got it done.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Uh, and, and it's going to be your legacy. I
said this to you early on.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think in a, in a private conversation, I remember
I was like, this is going to be what you're
going to be remembered by from your time.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And it may be the most important thing you've ever
done in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah. Look, it, it, it, uh, I don't think that's
an exaggeration. This and school choice, the federal school choice program,
are the two most consequential things I've been able to
do in the Senate, and they both, I think, are
going to make a massive difference for kids for generations
to come. You remember the origin story of the Trump accounts.
You know it, but it's a fun story, and verdict
(24:37):
listeners have heard it before, but not everyone has heard it.
It actually started from a poker game. And by the way,
you and I played poker. You just had a birthday, right?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I had a birthday.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
You turned 74. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Halfway to 90 is, I think, how you described it.
I just want everybody to know. I'm halfway, closer to
90 than I am to zero. So there's, yeah, it's
all perspective, folks.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You are past the halfway point now.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
And so we had a poker game and you and
I played poker together. But another poker game.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hold on.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I'm going to give you accolades. You were one of
the winners at the birthday poker. I just want people
to know you did come out ahead. You did not
lose money at my birthday party. I want to make
that very clear.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I did take home chips and I took home cash.
And I will say my daughter's investment accounts, thank you
for that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Well played. Well played. But it was another poker game
where this came up.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah. It was another. So two years ago, I do
every year I do a poker fundraiser, which which you've
been to. We do it. Do it out in Vegas.
And I love to play poker. And we bring a
number of poker pros who are buddies of mine. They
come play. And so April two years ago, I'm I'm
I'm playing poker. And one of the people there is
Phil Helmuth, who Phil is is one of the greatest
(25:51):
poker players to have ever lived. He's won the World Series.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
He's he's.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Phil would tell you he's the greatest poker player I've
ever lived, and he's easily on the very, very short list.
We're playing late at night, and he asks me, he says, hey, Ted,
do you know Brad Gerstner? And at the time, I
did not. I did not know Brad. And I said, no,
tell me who he is. And he says he's an
amazingly successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, and he has
(26:17):
this idea called Invest America. And I had never heard
of it, and he describes it to me, and it's
what became the Trump Accounts. And I said, wow, I'd
be really interested in that. That sounds like the sort
of policy I could get really excited about. And so
Phil pulls out his cell phone and he puts together
a text thread and he texts Brad and me and
puts me on the thread and says, you two really
(26:38):
need to talk. And the next week, Brad gets on
a plane and flies to D.C. and sits down in
my office and he just pitches the idea. He said,
here's the idea, lays it out. And I listened to
it and I said, this is fantastic. Let's do it.
And I called my policy team in. And I said,
let's draft the bill right now. And we drafted it
(26:58):
right there. That is the bill that became the Trump accounts.
It is literally that bill that we drafted out of
that meeting. And the wild thing is, if I'm not
sitting at three in the morning at the Bellagio playing
poker with Phil Hellmuth two years ago, the Trump accounts
don't exist. There's literally trillions of dollars that are not
invested for our kids without that poker game.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And it is.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think the legacy, the rewards from this for our
kids and their kids and their kids are just going
to keep reverberating for a long time to come.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I'll say it again. Sign your kids up for this.
Don't wait.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
There's money out there. It's free money. It is there
for you right now. Get your Trump accounts open and
do it with your kids. It's really, really educational and really.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Really fun.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
All right, Senator, I want to pivot real quick and
move to James Tallarico. He'd be the perfect candidate for
California for Senate. He's running, though, in Texas, and there's
those Zoom meetings, and they're coming out of what he
actually believes and what he's actually said, and it's a
really bad look, especially in Texas.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Well, I got to say, it is a sharp contrast
to what we talked about in the first part of
the pod was the Trump accounts and capitalism and creating
a whole new generation of capitalists, and that's I am
a diehard unapologetic capitalist. I believe that if people are
invested in the future of America, that's good for everyone. Well,
it turns out James Tallarico believes exactly the opposite, and
(28:27):
he's running for Senate. It's a very close race in Texas.
He's not going to win. Ken Paxton is going to
be the next senator from Texas because James Tallarico is
a radical. He's extreme. Now, he's trying to hide that.
He's trying to pretend... that he's somehow middle of the road.
This is a guy who says God is non-binary. This
is a guy who says there are six genders, whatever
(28:48):
the hell those six are. But this week, there's a
video that was unearthed where a few years back, James
Tallarico was on a Zoom call with a bunch of
Sierra Club activists. I want you to listen to what
Tallarico said. This is in his own words, him speaking
to radical left-wing activists just a few years ago in 2020.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
The multifaceted threat of a climate crisis and economic crisis
and a social justice crisis. I think that kind of
New Deal effort would be the only approach to start
to address all three in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Thank you very much. The second question, communities of color
receive the most harm from the impacts of climate change
and yet receive the least government support to deal with it.
Tell us about one of the committees you are on
or hope to be on and the most important actions
that committee could take to fight for climate justice and
(29:49):
mitigate the impacts of climate change for all Texans.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
Yeah, and I'm so thankful that you asked this question
and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the
link between climate change and white supremacy and capitalism in
our country. And I think only in the ways that
all three of those oppressive systems work together are we
going to be able to begin the process of dismantling them.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Dismantling.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That word, if you didn't hear it, he just talked
about dismantling what makes this country this country.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Well, what he specifically said is he said capitalism, climate change,
and white supremacy are are all linked together. They are
all three systems of oppression, and he wants to dismantle
all three. Now, again, you mentioned he'd be a great
Senate candidate in California. Sadly, that is probably the case.
(30:43):
But he ain't a great candidate in Texas, because there
are very few Texans who want to dismantle capitalism. That's
in his own words. That's not me speaking for him.
That's what he's saying he wants to do. And by
the way, in that same conversation... he said the oil
and gas industry is going to go away. And he
says that Texas's leadership of the oil and gas industry,
(31:07):
he said, is like, quote, being a leader in cassette
tapes in the 1980s. That industry is not going to last.
So he wants oil and gas to go away, which
would destroy millions of jobs in the state of Texas.
And by the way, would massively benefit communist China. And
Tallarico has also voted to allow communist China to buy
(31:31):
hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas land, including land
next to military bases in Texas. So he wants to
end oil and gas in Texas and dismantle capitalism. Well, listen,
comrade Tallarico, I get in the woke circles you run
in where when you say God is non-binary. People clap
(31:54):
and go, oh, yes, oh, yes, so nice. Remember, Tallarico
is also the guy who declared his campaign was going
to be vegan because meat is destroying the world. This
is a woke radical, and the media is deeply invested
in making sure you don't know that. So this portion
(32:14):
of the podcast, look, I'm going to ask everyone to
share this podcast, but especially the video. Watch Tallarico.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Watch, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Own words, and he thinks he's just talking to left-wing radicals.
So on the campaign trail today, he's not admitting he
wants to dismantle capitalism. That's just what he tells the radicals,
the DSA nuts who elected Mondami, who are supporting El-Said.
That is James Tallarico's base, and it's why he's going
to lose this Senate race in Texas, because we don't
(32:43):
want a nutcase who wants to dismantle capitalism. We want
capitalism to grow. We want free enterprise. And we want
every American to be an investor, invested in capitalism, invested
in the future of our country.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Don't forget to share the podcast. We do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
And the Senator and I will see you back here
on Friday morning.
Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
you as well. Senator, it's the middle of the day.
You're rested. It's been a fabulous week. The book is
killing it, by the way. It's still at the top
of the list on Amazon. Congratulations for that as well.
And you had an amazing week with American companies getting
behind something that we've been advocating, you've been fighting for
(00:21):
for a long time with the Trump accounts. And you
got to do some really cool things with some CEOs
this week that said, we're behind this. We're advocating for
it and we're going to give to our employees.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Well, this week in Austin, I chaired a roundtable along
with Michael Dell of CEOs from across Texas and across
the country. And it was a roundtable. We had about
30 CEOs sitting around the table talking about the Trump
accounts and how transformational this policy is. As you know,
the Trump accounts, I authored the Trump accounts last year
(00:52):
as part of the Working Families Tax Cut. It was
signed into law. I think the Trump accounts may well
be the single most consequential element of the entire tax
cut that passed last year. And it has been implemented.
We had at the roundtable, we had, number one, Michael Dell,
obviously the CEO of Dell, and someone, Michael and Susan,
have personally pledged and are giving six and a quarter
(01:17):
billion dollars to kids all across the country in the
Trump accounts. And just to remind everyone how the Trump
accounts operate, The Trump accounts are designed to be, and
this year will be, personal investment accounts that for every
single child in America, there are over 70 million kids
under 18 in America, every child will have a personal
(01:37):
investment account open for him or her. Newborn children will
have it seeded with $ 1, 000. And parents, family, employers can
contribute $ 5, 000 a year in a tax advantage account. All
of that's invested in the stock market. which gives every
kid in America the miracle of compound growth. That's going
(01:58):
to enable kids to accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars
in investments, which will change their whole lives. But number two,
we will create a whole new generation of capitalists as
our kids are going to be the owners of the
biggest employers in America. And so this event, when I
drafted the Trump account legislation, I included two accelerants deliberately
(02:21):
into the legislation. Number one, is the ability for employers
to contribute. So think about 401 s and how 401 s,
most employers, certainly most big employers, will either contribute to
a 401 or at least match the contribution of an employee. Likewise,
we are seeing that more and more for Trump accounts,
(02:42):
and that speeds it up because when you're talking about
investing over time, the faster you invest and the more
you invest early, the more it compounds and the bigger
it gets. And so Employer contributions are a huge accelerant.
And then the second huge accelerant is charitable contributions, the
ability to give directly into the Trump accounts of others.
(03:03):
We're seeing both of them. And this roundtable was multiple
CEOs and business leaders discussing how they're doing exactly that.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
All right, I want to take a moment real quick
and talk to you about something that's extremely important. Right now,
somewhere in the world, there's a child waiting, not waiting
for a birthday, not waiting for Christmas, but waiting for
someone just like you to choose them. That's what Compassion
International does every single day. They connect children living in
(03:32):
poverty with someone who will know their name, who will
pray for them, who will encourage them. and help provide
the food, the medical care, the education, and the hope
they need through a local church. Now this year, Compassion
is expanding into four new countries, Malawi, Zambia, Cambodia, and Myanmar,
(03:55):
meaning thousands of children are being reached, which is incredible,
for the very first time. And I want you to
join me for just $ 43 a month You can be
the reason one child stops waiting. Sponsor a child today
at Compassion.com. That's Compassion.com. I got to tell you, the
(04:18):
part of the Trump accounts I think is also going
to be the most successful aspect of it is you
get to set up these accounts in your kid's name.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
You get to be interactive.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's not a piece of paper that comes in the
mail with a quarterly statement or a monthly statement. your
child can look at your phone and their account in
real time and see what's happening.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And so now what's happened with my kids is they
every day are wanting to know how much money they have.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I love this because now instead of them going and
buying something in the store the other day, my seven-year-old
George looked at me. He's like, dad, I want to
buy some more stock with our money.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I was like, great. How much money do you have?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
He's like, I got $ 6 and 12 cents.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now I love that because he had enough. He got $ 6.
I don't know what he got it from.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What like, It was like $ 6 and 12 cents. I'm like, buddy,
I love this. Yes, we'll invest it for you this week.
And there's a little bit of excitement and also competition. Like,
what are you in?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I'm in Ford. I'm in SpaceX. I'm in this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
They love the ownership. And that's how you create a
lifetime investment. idea and it's also teaching the value of
a dollar hey you can take a dollar now it
can be something else later but if your kids get
involved that means the parents get more involved which means
you think about saving for your kids more that is
the best part is I think technology with this it
(05:32):
is watching a kid's eyes light up when they see
an account with their name and their ownership is is
a total game changer I say it with excitement because
I'm witnessing it firsthand but this is why people need
to sign up for this if they haven't already.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Look, roughly half of Americans don't own a single stock
or a single bond. And I talked about creating a
whole new generation of capitalists. This is designed so that
kids see that and they see compound growth. They see
that they have an investment, but then it grows and
it grows upon itself and it grows upon itself. And
one of the things that was really important designing the
app is designing it so it doesn't just show the
(06:10):
total amount you have in the S & P 500,
but there are 500 stocks broken down in the S &
P 500. So you can see- how much you own
of Apple, how much you own of General Motors, how
much you own of ExxonMobil, how much you own of McDonald's.
And that investment makes it personal. You've got skin in
(06:30):
the game. And that was something I pressed the Trump
administration really vigorously on. They actually had a guy named
Joe Jebbia, who's a buddy of mine. He's actually a Texan.
He's from Austin. he is one of the founders of Airbnb.
So he's been very, very successful in business, but Airbnb
knows how to design an app that is consumer friendly.
(06:51):
And one of the things that was really important is
that when kids log onto these accounts, they see all
the individual stock holdings that they have and they are
right now. We also had at this round table, so
we had Michael Dell, we had Brad Gerstner, who is
the CEO of Altimeter Capital, and he's the one who
(07:11):
came up with the idea for the Trump account. He's
become a very close friend. He and I have worked
hand-in-hand the last two years to get this passed. We
had Michael Dell, who Dell is contributing and matching to
the Trump accounts of their kids, and Michael and Susan
are personally giving $ 6. 25 billion. We had the CEOs of
Bank of New York and Robinhood. And they're the two
(07:35):
companies that are implementing this, and it is remarkable. So
one of the things the CEO, Vlad Tenev, who's the
CEO of Robinhood, showed us is the new developments they're
putting on for philanthropy. Look, most of us are not
Michael Dell. We can't give $ 6. 25 billion, but this is
available for philanthropy if you want to give $ 100, if
you want to give $ 500 or $ 1, 000 or whatever you
(07:55):
can give. And one of the fun things is, for
Trump accounts, it also doesn't have to be massive accounts.
I mean, think about your kids' birthday parties, Ben.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Where you have Aunt Susie, who otherwise would have gotten
your kids an ugly sweater, who instead can give your
kids a hundred bucks into the Trump account or 50
bucks into the Trump account. And that over time, think
about a bar mitzvah, think about an eighth grade graduation
or 12th grade graduation where you tell people, hey, Here's
the link to give to the Trump accounts, and you
(08:32):
end up with investments where the kids see. And by
the way, just like you described with your boys, the
kids see as a practical matter, I have 20 bucks.
I can go buy a pepperoni pizza and eat it
and have nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Or I can invest 20 bucks and see it grow
and learning about the power of investing. That's going to
be one of the most long-lasting aspects of this.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's changed dynamics.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Dinner the other night, it was really fun to watch
my 10-year-old and his cousin, who's also 10, talk to
my son's uncle.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And they're like, hey. What should we invest in? What
are you investing in?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
And then he was like, well, I like to invest
in things that I know that I use. And he
started talking to them like, what do you guys use?
What is it that you like? And they're like, well,
I like this. I like this.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, great.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And we were at the dinner table looking up the
stocks connected to the things that they use. But you
can see the light bulbs going off. And then we
had a conversation about what is the Walmart stock of
this generation, of our kids' generation, right? For me, it was,
and our parents was like, if you own Walmart, you
never touched it, it turned into X, right? It was
a stock. And so we had a conversation about if
(09:41):
you had a share of Walmart back in the day,
what it was worth today. And with AI, you can
easily figure these questions out, these answers. And their eyes
were just like, wait, if you own just one share
of Walmart when it came out, now it would be worth.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So then they're like, well, what's the Walmart stock of today?
So you have all these conversations.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
And I say.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
It with pure joy, finally I say the government really
got something right. Like they got something right. It's going
to have a massive impact for kids and it's a
way for parents to also get involved.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But I'll say it.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
If you've not done this with your children or your
grandkids yet, make it a priority because I, there's no
way a kid doesn't get excited or locked in on
this because it just fun to see their name with
ownership and a real company. And then they understand they
start asking questions and, And that's how you change an
entire generation.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Well, and on the employer side, so we had Robert Eisen,
the CEO of American Airlines there, and American Airlines announced
that they're going to match the contributions to Trump accounts
for all their employees.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Incredible.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And they have employees all over the country. They have
40,000 employees just in the state of Texas. And you
look at those employees for those kids, I think this
is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like
401k accounts are now. And to give you a sense...
Why do I say the Trump accounts are the most
consequential element of the working family's tax cut? You know,
(11:07):
in 1974 is when Congress passed Section 401k of ERISA.
And I don't think anyone in Congress had any idea
how fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirement. Today, Ben,
there's more than $ 12 trillion invested in 401k accounts. It's
a massive amount of cash. Trump accounts are 401ks for kids.
(11:27):
They're going to be We're going to have trillions of
dollars invested in Trump accounts and the employer contributions. Dell
is doing it. American is doing it. Lots and lots
of companies are doing so. But then the second piece
of it, and I'm urging, you know, Cory Booker. This
is also there's now bipartisan support for this. Cory Booker
is a liberal Democrat from New Jersey. He and I
(11:50):
together co-authored a letter to the CEO of every one
of the Fortune 1000 companies. urging every one of them
to contribute to the Trump accounts of the kids of
their employees to match, to help grow, because that accelerates
the growth massively. But the second piece, the philanthropic piece.
So Michael and Susan Dell's gift, what they're giving is
(12:10):
$ 250 to every child under age 10 who lives in
a zip code where the median income is $ 150, 000 or less.
And I wrote the statutes so you could adjust those
dials and you can target your gifts. Brad Gerster, whose
idea this was, Brad is giving money to every kid
(12:31):
in the state of Indiana, which is where he's from,
where he grew up, under the age of five, again,
who lives in zip codes where the median income is
$ 150, 000 or less. Now, let me tell you another really
cool element of the Trump accounts, which is, at my urging,
and I had to work very hard to get the
Treasury Department to do this, Treasury has issued guidance That
(12:54):
not only can you contribute money to the Trump accounts,
and it's a charitable contribution, it's tax deductible. So not
only can you contribute money to Trump accounts of kids,
you can also contribute individual shares of stock.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Which is a game changer. It's a massive game changer.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
One of the people at the roundtable was Gwen Shotwell. Now,
Gwen is the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX.
And obviously SpaceX just had a massive IPO.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And Gwen made an enormous amount of money. And after that,
she announced that she was giving 2 million shares of SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
That's incredible.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
To Trump accounts. And in part because Michael Dell did
kids under 10, she decided to give it to kids
between the ages of 10 and 18.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
That's so cool.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And so 2 million kids are going to get a
single share of SpaceX in their account. And that means
they're now invested, and they can see as SpaceX grows
and succeeds and does better, they're looking at that going, wow.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That is amazing.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And by the way, her gift was worth over $ 300 million. So,
I mean, you want to talk about real money.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
$ 300 million giving away two kids. And I will tell you,
I'm in conversations with multiple founders and CEOs who started
incredibly successful companies. And I'm going to tell you in
the coming year, we are going to see literally billions
of dollars, I believe, of shares of companies, big AI companies,
(14:29):
big tech companies, given directly to kids. And that's a
powerful thing. I want you to listen to David Sachs.
So David Sachs is an incredibly successful tech investor. He's
the chairman of the President's Committee on Science and Technology.
So he's the AI czar and the crypto czar for
President Trump. And David is a longtime friend of mine.
(14:51):
He was at the roundtable with us. Listen to what
David had to say about the Trump accounts.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Thanks to Trump accounts, the next generation of Americans is
going to have direct ownership in these AI companies. So
they're going to be participating as owners in the AI revolution.
And I think Gwynne Shotwell's gift, I think, is exactly
the right template for this, where you've got 2 million
kids who are now going to own a share of
SpaceX AI, and they're going to be tracking that. And
(15:17):
now they have a vested interest in the success of AI.
And I hope that all the other AI companies will
follow suit and make.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
By the way, I couldn't agree with him more. He
hopes they follow suit. That's the reason why you guys
wrote it this way. It also makes it easy. If
you talk to people that want to give money away...
Their biggest concern is they're going to give a bunch
of money away and then they're going to have this
big thing that happens and then it doesn't really get implemented.
This is such a great way to encourage responsible giving
(15:47):
because it's going to have an impact for these kids
for a very long time and the future growth.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It's not going to be.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
You know, shelled out a bunch of bureaucrats and nonprofits
start getting their friends involved.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
And we see things like that that happen.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
This is a direct way to say, I'm going to
impact a child and it's something that's going to grow
and help them as they get older. If you, if
you're someone that's worked hard your whole life and you
built something incredible like SpaceX to see that continue to
grow long after you're gone, that's a legacy. That's legacy
building that gets, I think CEOs excited as well.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, and there are several aspects of this. One, you know,
one of the reasons Michael and Susan Dell got so excited,
so Michael chairs the CEO Council of Invest America that
has been supporting the Trump accounts and has been a
coalition behind it. And Michael and Susan are worth somewhere
between $ 100 and $ 200 billion, depending on where the market
is at any given day, but it's a massive amount
of money. He's one of the 10 wealthiest people on
(16:42):
planet Earth. And they both are quite responsible about their philanthropy.
They intend to give away the a huge portion of
the wealth they've accumulated. And the problem is it's such
a large amount of money that it's hard to give away.
I mean, there are not, there are very few charities
that can take a billion dollars. Like it's so much
(17:03):
money that it crushes a charity if you give them
that much money. And so they're trying to think very responsibly.
How do you give money away so it has a
maximum impact and it can be used productively? And I'll
tell you what is so potent about the Trump accounts.
It is infinitely scalable. You can literally give, there's no
sum of money someone has that is too much to
(17:23):
be able to give to Trump accounts. It has zero
friction and zero transaction costs. So if you give a
hundred dollars, a hundred dollars goes to the count, not 99,
not 95, every penny of it. There's no administration, there's
no overhead, there's no guy getting rich. So you're putting
every bit of leverage to impact and in the impact
(17:44):
of a child becoming an investor, starting to accumulate that
will grow and compound over time. And, and so let's
take the six, six and a quarter billion dollars that,
that gives $ 250 to 25 million kids. Now that's a
ton of money, but you know what, if Michael and
Susan decided, I don't know if they're going to, but
they could decide, suppose they decided they wanted to 10
(18:06):
X that. Yeah. Well, instead of giving $ 250, they could
give $ 2, 500 instead of six and a quarter billion dollars,
that would be $ 62 billion. And yet it would be
There are enough kids that it could absorb that. And
by the way, look, if you have other people giving
and suddenly that twenty five hundred dollars becomes five thousand
(18:27):
or ten thousand dollars, the math becomes amazing. If suddenly
kids and we're talking millions of kids, low income kids have, say,
10 grand invested in the market at a young age.
The compounding we're talking about these kids being able to
accumulate millions of dollars that totally changes not just their perspective.
(18:49):
But their entire future, because look, kids of wealthy people,
they learn to invest, they learn to save. But kids
of parents who are not in the market often don't understand.
They don't understand compound growth. They're not taught a culture
of saving and investing. This is going to change their
whole worldview. And look, you're seeing it with your boys'
(19:12):
first hands.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, it truly is incredible.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It's going to be so fun to see how this grows,
as you mentioned, and the excitement around it. And I
think it's really important with this show that we tell you,
we remind you, you get your kids, your grandkids involved,
have the conversation with your parents. nieces or your nephews
and make sure they're doing it it's free money i
mean that's i was talking to a lot of my
friends they have not done this and and they're and
(19:35):
they're smart i'm like guys it's free money for your
kids why are you not doing.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Change so that's going to change one of the most
important so i wrote the statute so that it would
be auto enroll so right now the way it has
been launched it's opt in. So you have to go
and affirmatively sign into it. You've got about seven million
people who have done so. There are about 70 million
kids in America. The way I wrote it was that
it that that Treasury would automatically enroll every child in America.
(20:02):
And by the way, it was a fight. The career
lawyers at Treasury did not want to make it auto enroll.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And I remember this.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
The White House was with me. We wrote it that way.
And one of the people who was at the roundtable
was Frank Bisognano, who is this who is the head
of the IRS. And he's the one charged by Treasury
with implementing this. And he has committed and President Trump
has committed that they're going to do auto enroll. They're
going to create the accounts for 70 million kids. Now,
there are a couple of huge benefits from that. Number one.
(20:31):
If you have an opt out rather than an opt in,
you get massively higher take up rates. And that's been true.
There have been some states like Oklahoma and Rhode Island
who've done similar programs at a smaller scale. And the
difference between opt out and opt in is massive. We
want every kid to participate. And also, if it's opt in,
you end up having a skew where wealthier kids, kids
(20:52):
from families that are more financially sophisticated are more likely
to opt in. And low-income kids whose parents are not
invested in the market themselves are less likely to opt in.
And the entire point of this program is to help
the kid of the single mom waiting tables. And so
the auto-enroll is massively important. But you know why it's
even more important?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Because with the charitable gifts, you've got to have the
account open to be a vessel to put. Michael Dell
can't put his $ 6. 25 billion in unless you have 25
million accounts that are open that can take it. Gwen
Shotwell's two million shares can't go to kids unless those
accounts are open. So you need to have the auto enroll.
That's going to happen. I believe that it's going to
(21:35):
happen this year. I talked to the head of the
IRS today who is working to implement it right now.
That's a huge deal. And by the way, I want
you to listen to Brad Gerstner, this very successful venture
capitalist whose idea this was and who he and I
have worked hand in hand. In fact, Brad, Michael Dell,
and I at the roundtable, they referred to the three
(21:57):
of us as the three amigos. And we literally have
been on the phone nonstop talking to the president, regularly
talking to Scott Besant, the treasury secretary, talking to the
head of the IRS to get this implemented and get
it right. Give a listen to Brad Gerstner at the
roundtable we did this week.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Legislation championed by this senator. And let me tell you,
I stomped around Capitol Hill for years. Everybody loved the idea.
But it's amazing in Washington. Everybody loves the idea, but
nobody can find their pen to actually begin drafting a
piece of legislation. It takes an entrepreneurial warrior like this
(22:32):
senator who says, I'm going to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It doesn't happen without that.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
And then Michael Dell, who, you know, through our partnership
from day one, did the work, did the study, said
this is if we could make this happen, it would
change the country.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
And together.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Talking with the president, getting the president's entrepreneurial leadership. And
you know, when we saw President Trump, it would have
been very easy for him to say, great idea, talk
to my people. And this would have went to die
like every other idea. Instead, he said, I'm calling the
speaker and telling them to put it in the bill.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And the only way we could put it in the
bill is.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
If we had drafted the legislation, scored it, and had
it ready to go. That's why this became the law
of the land. But why I'm so excited to be
here in Texas today is there are 7.3 million kids
in the state of Texas eligible for a Trump account.
Hundreds of thousands have already claimed their account, but we're
going to get all 7.3 million signed up. Stay tuned.
(23:34):
In the months ahead, because of the leadership of Frank,
we're going to make sure that no child in this
country is left behind. The President said very clearly, every child.
The Invest America Act left the discretion to the Treasury
Secretary and to Frank to get every child automatically signed
up for.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
An account, and that's what we intend to do.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You can even just hear it in his voice. He
is really excited about what this means and how it
came together.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
He fought hard for it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You guys, the three amigos got it done.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Uh, and, and it's going to be your legacy. I
said this to you early on.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
I think in a, in a private conversation, I remember
I was like, this is going to be what you're
going to be remembered by from your time.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
And it may be the most important thing you've ever
done in the Senate.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah. Look, it, it, it, uh, I don't think that's
an exaggeration. This and school choice, the federal school choice program,
are the two most consequential things I've been able to
do in the Senate, and they both, I think, are
going to make a massive difference for kids for generations
to come. You remember the origin story of the Trump accounts.
You know it, but it's a fun story, and verdict
(24:37):
listeners have heard it before, but not everyone has heard it.
It actually started from a poker game. And by the way,
you and I played poker. You just had a birthday, right?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I had a birthday.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
You turned 74. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Halfway to 90 is, I think, how you described it.
I just want everybody to know. I'm halfway, closer to
90 than I am to zero. So there's, yeah, it's
all perspective, folks.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You are past the halfway point now.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
And so we had a poker game and you and
I played poker together. But another poker game.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Hold on.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I'm going to give you accolades. You were one of
the winners at the birthday poker. I just want people
to know you did come out ahead. You did not
lose money at my birthday party. I want to make
that very clear.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I did take home chips and I took home cash.
And I will say my daughter's investment accounts, thank you
for that.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Well played. Well played. But it was another poker game
where this came up.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah. It was another. So two years ago, I do
every year I do a poker fundraiser, which which you've
been to. We do it. Do it out in Vegas.
And I love to play poker. And we bring a
number of poker pros who are buddies of mine. They
come play. And so April two years ago, I'm I'm
I'm playing poker. And one of the people there is
Phil Helmuth, who Phil is is one of the greatest
(25:51):
poker players to have ever lived. He's won the World Series.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
He's he's.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Phil would tell you he's the greatest poker player I've
ever lived, and he's easily on the very, very short list.
We're playing late at night, and he asks me, he says, hey, Ted,
do you know Brad Gerstner? And at the time, I
did not. I did not know Brad. And I said, no,
tell me who he is. And he says he's an
amazingly successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, and he has
(26:17):
this idea called Invest America. And I had never heard
of it, and he describes it to me, and it's
what became the Trump Accounts. And I said, wow, I'd
be really interested in that. That sounds like the sort
of policy I could get really excited about. And so
Phil pulls out his cell phone and he puts together
a text thread and he texts Brad and me and
puts me on the thread and says, you two really
(26:38):
need to talk. And the next week, Brad gets on
a plane and flies to D.C. and sits down in
my office and he just pitches the idea. He said,
here's the idea, lays it out. And I listened to
it and I said, this is fantastic. Let's do it.
And I called my policy team in. And I said,
let's draft the bill right now. And we drafted it
(26:58):
right there. That is the bill that became the Trump accounts.
It is literally that bill that we drafted out of
that meeting. And the wild thing is, if I'm not
sitting at three in the morning at the Bellagio playing
poker with Phil Hellmuth two years ago, the Trump accounts
don't exist. There's literally trillions of dollars that are not
invested for our kids without that poker game.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And it is.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think the legacy, the rewards from this for our
kids and their kids and their kids are just going
to keep reverberating for a long time to come.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, I'll say it again. Sign your kids up for this.
Don't wait.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
There's money out there. It's free money. It is there
for you right now. Get your Trump accounts open and
do it with your kids. It's really, really educational and really.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Really fun.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
All right, Senator, I want to pivot real quick and
move to James Tallarico. He'd be the perfect candidate for
California for Senate. He's running, though, in Texas, and there's
those Zoom meetings, and they're coming out of what he
actually believes and what he's actually said, and it's a
really bad look, especially in Texas.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Well, I got to say, it is a sharp contrast
to what we talked about in the first part of
the pod was the Trump accounts and capitalism and creating
a whole new generation of capitalists, and that's I am
a diehard unapologetic capitalist. I believe that if people are
invested in the future of America, that's good for everyone. Well,
it turns out James Tallarico believes exactly the opposite, and
(28:27):
he's running for Senate. It's a very close race in Texas.
He's not going to win. Ken Paxton is going to
be the next senator from Texas because James Tallarico is
a radical. He's extreme. Now, he's trying to hide that.
He's trying to pretend... that he's somehow middle of the road.
This is a guy who says God is non-binary. This
is a guy who says there are six genders, whatever
(28:48):
the hell those six are. But this week, there's a
video that was unearthed where a few years back, James
Tallarico was on a Zoom call with a bunch of
Sierra Club activists. I want you to listen to what
Tallarico said. This is in his own words, him speaking
to radical left-wing activists just a few years ago in 2020.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
The multifaceted threat of a climate crisis and economic crisis
and a social justice crisis. I think that kind of
New Deal effort would be the only approach to start
to address all three in a thoughtful and meaningful way.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Thank you very much. The second question, communities of color
receive the most harm from the impacts of climate change
and yet receive the least government support to deal with it.
Tell us about one of the committees you are on
or hope to be on and the most important actions
that committee could take to fight for climate justice and
(29:49):
mitigate the impacts of climate change for all Texans.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
Yeah, and I'm so thankful that you asked this question
and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the
link between climate change and white supremacy and capitalism in
our country. And I think only in the ways that
all three of those oppressive systems work together are we
going to be able to begin the process of dismantling them.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Dismantling.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That word, if you didn't hear it, he just talked
about dismantling what makes this country this country.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Well, what he specifically said is he said capitalism, climate change,
and white supremacy are are all linked together. They are
all three systems of oppression, and he wants to dismantle
all three. Now, again, you mentioned he'd be a great
Senate candidate in California. Sadly, that is probably the case.
(30:43):
But he ain't a great candidate in Texas, because there
are very few Texans who want to dismantle capitalism. That's
in his own words. That's not me speaking for him.
That's what he's saying he wants to do. And by
the way, in that same conversation... he said the oil
and gas industry is going to go away. And he
says that Texas's leadership of the oil and gas industry,
(31:07):
he said, is like, quote, being a leader in cassette
tapes in the 1980s. That industry is not going to last.
So he wants oil and gas to go away, which
would destroy millions of jobs in the state of Texas.
And by the way, would massively benefit communist China. And
Tallarico has also voted to allow communist China to buy
(31:31):
hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas land, including land
next to military bases in Texas. So he wants to
end oil and gas in Texas and dismantle capitalism. Well, listen,
comrade Tallarico, I get in the woke circles you run
in where when you say God is non-binary. People clap
(31:54):
and go, oh, yes, oh, yes, so nice. Remember, Tallarico
is also the guy who declared his campaign was going
to be vegan because meat is destroying the world. This
is a woke radical, and the media is deeply invested
in making sure you don't know that. So this portion
(32:14):
of the podcast, look, I'm going to ask everyone to
share this podcast, but especially the video. Watch Tallarico.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Watch, yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Own words, and he thinks he's just talking to left-wing radicals.
So on the campaign trail today, he's not admitting he
wants to dismantle capitalism. That's just what he tells the radicals,
the DSA nuts who elected Mondami, who are supporting El-Said.
That is James Tallarico's base, and it's why he's going
to lose this Senate race in Texas, because we don't
(32:43):
want a nutcase who wants to dismantle capitalism. We want
capitalism to grow. We want free enterprise. And we want
every American to be an investor, invested in capitalism, invested
in the future of our country.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Don't forget to share the podcast. We do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
And the Senator and I will see you back here
on Friday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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