- Trump Investment Accounts are designed to give every eligible child in America an opportunity to participate in long-term wealth building through the power of compound growth.
- Creating a new generation of investors by introducing children to ownership in major American companies at an early age.
- Showcasing strong collaboration between government leaders, business executives, and philanthropists to expand financial opportunities for families.
- Promoting financial literacy by encouraging parents, grandparents, and children to actively engage with and understand investing together.
- Celebrating significant philanthropic commitments, including large-scale contributions intended to help children build assets for the future.
- Demonstrating innovative efforts to provide broader access to investment opportunities for children from a wide range of economic backgrounds.
- Encouraging employer participation through matching contributions, helping families accelerate long-term savings growth.
- Focusing on expanding financial inclusion by making investment accounts accessible to millions of children nationwide.
- Illustrating the potential for public-private partnerships to create meaningful and lasting economic benefits for future generations.
- Highlighting support and recognition from leaders across different perspectives who view the initiative as a positive step toward increasing financial opportunity.
- Underscores the goal of helping children develop a stronger connection to the economy through tangible ownership and investment experience.
- Presents a vision for long-term wealth creation that could positively impact families and communities for decades to come.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in his Vertic with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's nice to have you with us if
you're listening on radio stations all over the country as well.
We do this show as a podcast. A reminder, three
days a week you can download Vertic with Ted Cruz
the podcast wherever you get your podcasts for free. And
we've got a big show for you right now.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, this week was a consequential week. Indeed, I think
this week was an historic week, a week that generations
will look back that what happened this week change the
future of America. We're gonna break that down for you,
but first I have to point out one of the
reasons it was consequential is one young Benjamin Ferguson lost
his wager to me. In the last podcast, Ben boldly
(00:41):
declared that Graham Platner was not going to step down
before the deadline to replace him. Yes, and he was
confident about it. He wanted to put a wager. He
wanted Mexican food, he wanted margaritas. He was He agreed
to top shelf and I got to say, I actually
felt guilty. It felt like you have information on this bed.
(01:04):
Is that what you're now coming clean about. It felt
like taking candy from a baby. It felt like beating
a Nazi communists in an election. Uh, here's the simple
reality reality, ben Comi's gonna com me, So we're gonna
come back to that in a minute. But just just
understand that our co host sadly is uh. I think
(01:26):
the technical term is a loser.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yes, I knew that word.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
By the way, you didn't even make it twenty seven
seconds before you started gloating.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I would have had you at least at a minute. Yeah,
you don't miss enough.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
With we got a pregloat at the front. But but
that is one reason this week is historic, but it's
not the biggest reason. The biggest reason that this week
is historic is on July fourth, on our nation's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday, the Trump accounts went live. The
Trump accounts, the accounts I wrote the legislation, I created
(01:57):
this program. They are now live, our investment accounts for
every single child in America, and I believe they are
going to have a profound impact for the future of
our kids. As our kids are going to experience the
miracle of compound growth, and as our kids are going
to become capitalists. We had an event this week in
(02:18):
the Oval Office with President Trump. I was there. We're
going to bring you inside that event with the President.
We're going to tell you everything that was happening behind
the scenes, celebrating what I think is an announcement that
will make a very real difference ten twenty thirty years
from now, not to mention fifty seventy five, one hundred
years from now. This week is when the Trump accounts launched.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about, especially taking
you behind the scenes on what happened at the White
House in just a moment. I also want to talk
to you about saying it really important and something that
you're going to want to know about. Most people think
the battle over funding abortion providers actually ended when Roe v.
Wade was overturned. Well it didn't. In fact, abortion providers
(03:02):
are doing more business than ever. Just the last fiscal year,
the largest abortion enterprise in the nation performed over four
hundred and thirty thousand abortions. Now, this is what's even
more shocking than that they received more than eight hundred
and thirty million dollars in government reimbursements and grants. Yes,
(03:25):
that's your tax dollars. That's our money being used to
end the lives of innocent preborn babies. At the same time,
one of the longest running newspapers in the United States
of America also revealed that many abortion facilities showed decrepit
quote factory like conditions and locations all across America. And
(03:46):
that is why I'm asking for you to help right now,
Americans United for Life for more than fifty years, AUL
has been the legal backbone of the pro life movement.
They literally shaped nearly every major pro life fall across America,
and today they're building on that legacy by leading the
charge to ensure the abortion industry is defunded forever. AUL
(04:10):
is working to make sure your tax dollars no longer
pay for abortions, and they're leading the coalition of pro
life friends, including three hundred leaders of pregnancy centers. And
that is why I want you to step in and help.
Aul's goal is real simple. They need your help to
make sure big abortion is permanently defunded. And right now,
(04:31):
every gift you make to AUL will be tripled through
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars matching challenge. That
means your support goes not one, not two, but three
times as far to defend unborn children by defunding abortion
facilities in America. So please don't wait. Help where you
(04:51):
can and make a huge difference. Go to Aul dot org.
That's Aul dot org forwards slash verdict. That's Aul dot
org forward slash verdict. Give your gift today to have
your gift tripled and protect your tax dollars from paying
for abortion in America.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So Santat that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Trump accounts was really fun. You and I don't. We
share schedules, but I don't look at them every day,
and I laugh at the trend that's happening. How many
times I have to sit on TV waiting for you
to talk or waiting for you to finish so that
I can then do my hit, And when it happens,
it does make me laugh. But the other morning I
was on TV and I didn't know they were going
to go Trump accounts, and they talked to in your earpiece,
(05:34):
so like, Ben, can you talk Trump accounts? And I
started laughing. I'm like, yes, I know an awful lot
about this. So I then had to wait for Trump
to announce this. They were carrying it live on TV
and then talk about you and then commentate on something.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They're like, do you know about this? And I'm like, yes.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
It was a really fun moment because I got to
advocate for these accounts afterwards. I said, look, don't just
set them up for your kids. Do it with your
children so they have ownership, so they understand what they're doing.
I said, if you're a grandparent watching right now in
Fox News, yes, I said, grandparents, get your grandkids. Set
up these accounts with the parents. Make this a family event.
The kids will understand it. There's an app they can use.
(06:12):
Don't do it for them, do it with them, And
I hope it was a really cool moment where people afterwards.
So that's a great idea because millions of Americans have
signed up for these accounts. As you mentioned, I think
it's going to completely transform everything. My kids now want
to see the app. They want to see what their
money's doing, and that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It is the number one app on the App Store
since since the moment it launched. Millions of Americans are
downloading the app for these Trump accounts, opening them for
their kids, and it's going to make just just a
massive difference. We were in in the Oval on Monday,
and we were there because right at nine point thirty,
President Trump got to ring in the bell to the
(06:50):
New York Stock Exchange, but also NASDAK and look New
York Stock Exchange. In NASDAQ or rival exchanges, they rarely cooperate.
The heads of both were there in the Oval, the
New York Stock Exchange and NASDAK. There was a giant
bell that they brought in that right at nine thirty,
Trump grabbed the rope and rang the bell, which is
(07:11):
what you do when you list a new company on
the Stock Exchange. You can go and ring the bell.
And it was a very cool moment in the Oval. Actually,
I said, right at nine thirty it was fairly amusing.
Actually it was not right at nine thirty that the
timing was slightly off because Scott Bess't the Treasury Secretary,
was talking and he kept talking, and there was a
(07:32):
clock there as it was nine to thirty. Best kept
talking and at about nine thirty and like seven seconds
Trump basically pushed him beside, said here I got to
ring the bell, so awesome Monday. The bell was wrong
about seven seconds late.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But in TV it was it was a moment late.
Was there any significance to the bell that was chosen.
We didn't get to hear that on TV and you
were in the in the oval for that. Was there
a significance because it was a cool looking bell.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it's a very cool looking bell and it has
on it carved Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange and
Trump accounts, and they made it for that moment. And
Trump said as the event went on, he said, you're
not getting this bell back. I'm keeping this bell, which
I think everyone anticipated. So the bell will be somewhere
in the White House. He said, He's going to put
the bell at the ballroom, So somewhere in the ballroom
(08:18):
the bell will be there. But it was a very
very cool moment. Listen to President Trump talking about the
Trump accounts on Monday.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Nobody cares about that, right, this is about the Trump accounts,
which you're absolutely incredible with children. Children can at the
age of eighteen and after it becomes very wealthy. People
come into the world with essentially no money and end
up a pretty young age being very rich. And that's
(08:48):
something that we wanted to do, the countries wanted to
do for twenty five years mining Win. Susan, You've been
so great. My gerstner Man has been so finandasty. He
pushed everybody. It was so good, and I just want
to thank everybody. It's a great it's a great on
and we'll.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Have a little fun and we want to be exactly
on time.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Are we allowed to be fifteen to twenty thirty seconds lately?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Typically nobody? And I'm going to ring that bell and
does that bill? Does it stay in the white ask?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not giving it back. You gotta love the present
there mentioning that bell, Senator. And also I love the
fact that you had the kids in the background talking.
What a great moment when you're talking about kids accounts
having those kids in the room as well well.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And those were kids there hearing about their future, about
investing for their future, and also about becoming capitalists, becoming
investors in the biggest employers in America.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All right, Senator, I want to play your comments as
well that you made in the oval after the President
talked about the importance of these accounts. You shepherd this
through the Senate. The President was very appreciative, and that's
why you were there. And I want people to hear
what you had to say as.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, mister President, this program. You know a second ago
Brad made reference to nineteen thirty five in Social Security.
Trump accounts are in many way Donald Trump's new deal.
But instead of having government taking care of everyone, Trump
accounts are about making every child and every American a capitalist.
(10:25):
Every one of our kids is now going to be
an owner of the biggest producers in our country. Kids,
you guys there, each of you are getting an account.
These folks here gave you two hundred and fifty dollars.
That's a lot of money that you have right now.
And you know what with that two hundred and fifty dollars,
(10:47):
You've purchased a little bit of a bunch of big companies.
You know, McDonald's. You now own a little bit of McDonald's.
When you go to McDonald's, you can look around and say,
I own this place. If you get on an airplane
and fly you look at a Boeing airplane, you now
(11:07):
own a little bit of Boeing. Can you believe it?
You're an owner of Boeing. That is transformation that changes
the way every child looks at the world and the
ability to accumulate life transforming savings, hundreds of thousands, millions
of dollars for the kids of single moms. That is powerful,
(11:29):
and mister President, in particular, I want to thank you
for your unequivocal commitment that this administration, your administration is
going to auto enroll every child in America. All seventy
million children will have accounts open for them, accounts that
can then receive gifts from people like Michael and Susan
(11:49):
and Brad. Accounts that let me say to every parent
at home, please right now, go to Trump Accounts dot gov.
Go to Trump Accounts dot gov. Sign your kids up.
To every employer. If you're not contributing to the accounts
of the employees of your kids, do so. Now match
their contribution, double their contribution. And to philanthropists, go adopt
(12:11):
a state, Go adopt your city, Go adopt a school.
Go say the kids in my community, the kindergarten class here,
We're going to help them get started. This is a moment,
I believe transformational to make sure the next two fifty
is even better than the first. Thank you as President.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Center.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I gotta say, I think one of the best things
that you said in that moment there was the fact
that you paint a picture for other philanthropists. What Michael
Dell and his wife have done in others on a grand,
nationwide scale is truly incredible. But there are a lot
of people that could do this in their hometown. I
was thinking of my hometown where I was born raised
in Memphis, and there's a company like FedEx that's there,
(12:55):
AutoZone that's there, International Paper. Those are three companies that
could say we're going to the city as you just
mentioned or the county and have a massive impact and
donate into these accounts. I hope that there's a lot
of philanthropists, a lot of businesses that will look at
their hometown. Whether it's a place like you know, Milwaukee
and Harley Davison are Ford in a place like Detroit.
(13:17):
You never know how that could change different cities in
a major way as well.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well. The way we designed the program, the way I
wrote the legislation, every newborn child has one thousand dollars
automatically seeded into the account. So if you have a
baby this year, one thousand bucks immediately appears in that account,
and then parents and family and employers can invest up
to five thousand a year. In a tax advantaged account
and all of that money gets put in the stock market.
(13:44):
And the S and P. Five hundred and we deliberately
wrote it so that there were two accelerators to make
the capital appreciation happen more quickly. Number one employers contributing
and matching. And this is a big deal. Think about
four oh one k's. Yeah, you know, over seventy years ago,
(14:07):
Congress passed section four oh one k of ARISA, and
at the time, I doubt anyone in Congress understood how
fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirements. Trump
accounts are four oh one k's for kids. Today, there's
more than twelve trillion dollars invested in four oh one k's.
(14:31):
In very short order, you're going to see trillions of
dollars invested in Trump accounts for kids. And one of
the reasons there's so much invested in four O one
k's is most employers, certainly most large employers, either contribute
to their employees four oh one k's or they match
contributions to four O one k's, and so that accelerates
(14:52):
the growth a lot. There are hundreds of companies that
have already announced that they are either going to contribute
or match contributions to TRUMP accounts. And I think this
is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like
matching four O one k's. I think it's going to
be a standard. You go to work at any big
company and the company is going to say, ben you
(15:13):
contribute to your kids TRUMP accounts, will match, will put
money in. And the reason that's so important is if
you look at compound growth, the numbers get really really big.
But what matters is is how much you get in early.
Because the longer you invest and the more you get
in early, the more those numbers grow and the bigger
(15:35):
they get. And so that accelerator is really big. The
second accelerator is we wrote the legislation so that these
counts can accept philanthropic gifts, that people can give money
to kids, particularly need kids. And so the pioneer on this,
the lead investor was Michael and Susan Dell. Michael and
(15:59):
Susan from Texas Austin. They're both very good friends of mine,
worth over two hundred billion dollars. Well, they announced six
and a quarter billion dollars they're giving away and they're
getting away two hundred and fifty dollars to every child
under age ten who lives in a zip code where
(16:19):
the median income is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
or less. And that means kids whose parents might not
have the money to invest are going to start with
that two point fifty. And we're seeing lots of other
entrepreneurs doing the same. Brad Gerson Gershner, who we've had
on this show. He's a very good friend of mine.
The Trump accounts were his idea. He's adopted the kids
(16:40):
in the state of Indiana. Ray Dalio has adopted the
kids in Connecticut. That is going to be a massive
accelerator to speeding up kids accumulating assets.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I want to go back a week before this moment
in the Oval office, because you've got some pretty interesting
details and stories to tell from a week in advance.
So let's go back to that and talk about what
was happening behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, there were a number of policy questions that were
being sorted out the week before that that that got
a little bumpy, And one of the things we try
to do in Verdict is take you behind the scenes
to what actually happens, how how the sausage got made.
There were three big questions that a week out were unresolved.
Number one, the Treasury Department. The career lawyers there, frankly
(17:28):
have been resisting this program from the beginning. When I
wrote the legislation over a year ago. The career lawyers
at Treasury didn't want to do it. They fought me
every step of the way.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
By the way, what was the logic behind that?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You know, it's hard, we don't know how to do this.
This is going to be really difficult to have accounts
for every kid. We don't. It was just bureaucratic inertia,
and and they just raised obstacle abster obstacle, and I
had to link arms with the White House and just
ram it through, like like which part of all legens
slate of power is vested in Congress? Are you confused about?
(18:03):
They also had ridiculous arguments like well, no, no, we
can't do this because the existing privacy laws don't let
us do that. It's like, yeah, okay, Congress wrote those
privacy laws. We're writing this law. Now we can change
the law. That's called legislating. And they just were dug in.
I mean, it was a year long battle. So the
(18:26):
three issues that a week out were real problems. Number One,
the career Treasury lawyers came back and said, Okay, when
a philanthropist is giving a gift, you can only put
one criterion on it. You can't put two or three
criteria on it. And so let's take Michael Dell's gift.
(18:49):
They came and said, look, I'm sorry, Dell cannot give
two hundred and fifty dollars to every child under ten
in every zip code where the media income is under
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They said, can't do it.
He's got to pick one or the other. He can
give it to all the kids under ten, He could
give it to all the kids in Texas if he wants.
(19:09):
He could give it to all the kids and zip
codes under two hundred fifty under one hundred and fifty
thousand median income. And that's just nonsense. I very deliberately
wrote the statue so that you could you could turn
those dials, you could direct your gift where you believed
it would have the greatest impact. But the Treasury lawyers
were dug in and that they were literally saying no, sorry,
(19:35):
Dell's gift. It's not gonna We're not gonna let it happen.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So I had Scott Bess at the Treasury Secretary. He
and I are friends. He's a good guy. I had
been talking to him for a year about the implementation
of these Trump accounts, how to ensure they're successful. I
went and had breakfast with him several months ago, had
a long detailed letter laying out the issues, met with him,
talked with him. Scott is a really good guy. But
(20:01):
at the end of the day, the career lawyers at Treasury,
the deep state were pressing back against Scott and pressing
back against the President. So finally, on July one, this
was headed to not being the success it needed to be.
And so I called the President and I got the
President on the phone about eleven thirty at night. At
the time, Heidi and nine and the girls, we were
(20:23):
on vacation. We went to Florida to the Panhandle. So
we're sitting there on vacation, playing at the beach. Really good,
you know, good family vacation, And eleven thirty at night,
I'm on the phone with the President and I said,
Miss President, this is messed up, and I need you
to fix it. And there were three issues. Number one,
the career lawyers trying to prevent targeting gifts to where
(20:46):
the donor wants to target them yep. Number two, Treasury
had been resisting allowing individual gifts of stock. So for example,
something that happened this week, Gwen Shotwell, the president of SpaceX,
announced that she is giving and her husband, She and
her husband together are giving three hundred and twenty five
(21:08):
million dollars in shares of SpaceX. And those are shares
of SpaceX that are going to be directed, I believe
to kids eleven to eighteen. She picked a different age
window than Dell did, and so kids eleven to eighteen,
and she has a few other criteria, they will actually
receive a share of SpaceX in their Trump.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Account, which is unbelievable based on what that could become.
You go back and look at SpaceX's at price, and
you look at things like Tesla, You look at things
like Walmart, you look at things like I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
The list goes on Tesla.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
You look at these companies, what one share is worth
can change these kids' lives literally.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, and I am having multiple conversations with major major
company owners and tech entrepreneurs about doing the same thing,
and so the accounts being able to receive an actual
share of stock. You can think of all of all
of the other stocks, whether it's it's it's SpaceX or
Tesla or or Google or open Ai or Anthropic. You know,
(22:13):
you look at these these big, big companies where I
will say, there is real interest in giving stock as
a charitable gift to the kids of America, and that
really is transformational in terms of growth. I think the
growth trajectory of especially those tech stocks, it historically has
(22:35):
been incredibly high, and I think it's likely to continue
to be very, very high. But Treasury had not not
yet put out any guidance that that Trump accounts could
accept single stock gifts. So that was the second issue.
And then the third issue was auto and roll. I
wrote this bill so that every child in America, all
(22:56):
seventy million kids, would automatically have an account opened for them,
that you wouldn't have to do anything to go and
affirmatively open the account. Rather, if you're a kid, you're
under eighteen, the government opens the account. It is there
for you. The reason auto and roll matters so much
if you look at there have been states that have
(23:17):
done similar things to what this program is. If you
look at Rhode Island at Oklahoma, for example, they've done
similar things. In one of them they had opt in,
in another they had auto en roll. The one that
had opt in, only fifty percent of the kids participated.
The one that had auto and roll, ninety nine percent
of the kids participated. So the difference is massive. If
(23:39):
you don't have if you don't have auto enroll, a
large chunk of kids will never get the account. And
I want every kid, And in fact, it's worse than that.
The ones who are less likely to go open the
account are low income kids, are kids whose families are
not financially sophisticated. And the entire point of this program, frankly,
(24:01):
it's not for the kids of rich people. The kids
kids of rich people can use it, but those parents
are often already working with their kids to invest. That's
already part of what they're doing with their kids. The
reason I'm so excited about this program, it is the
kid of a single mom who herself doesn't know anything
about the market. That kid will have an account and
(24:23):
will learn about compound growth, will learn about ownership. You know,
when I was talking to the kids that were in
the oval, and I was explaining, you guys just got
two hundred and fifty dollars, and I was pointing to
Michael and Susan Dell behind me. They gave you two
hundred and fifty dollars. And you couldn't see that on
the video. But the kids, who were really cute, they
were all, I would say, kind of seven to ten
(24:44):
years old, the sort of look of wonder what somebody
gave me two hundred and fifty dollars. Wow, And explaining
to them you now own McDonald's, not all of it,
but you own a little bit of it. You own Boweing,
you own Apple. That is really what gets me excited
about this. But on auto en roll, the career lawyers
(25:08):
and Treasury were fighting tooth and nail. So I got
President Trump on the phone eleven thirty at night, I
think it was July one, explained to him those three
issues and said, look, this is a problem. You care
deeply about this program, and the career lawyers at Treasury
are blocking it. He said, Ted, let me call Scott.
I'll call you right back. So he hung up the phone.
(25:28):
He called bess't I will say the conversation, I feel confident,
was frank and candid, and there may have been some
words used that are at least PG if not R rated.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If you've ever met the other end of one of
those phone calls, I have, you have as well. I'm
pretty sure. Yeah, they're usually up there in the PG
thirteen plus, says scenario. And if he's not happy, he
lets you know right away. You know where you stand.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And so then twenty thirty minutes later, about midnight, I
get a call from Besson's Who's Scott's really mad at
me now? And so Scott's yelling and dropping some F
bombs in my direction and he's like, you know, why
do you get the president all spun up? And I'm like, Scott,
I've been talking to you about these issues for a year.
It is July one, The program is going live on
(26:19):
July fourth. I said, listen, you want this to be
a total success. I want this to be a total success.
We're on the same page. We just need to get
it done. Yeah, And so what ended up happening because
of those and then I talked to Trump later that night.
I talked to him at about seven am the next morning,
but he was driving saying fix it, fix it, fix it.
Several things happened because of those phone calls. Number One,
(26:42):
Treasury put out a guidance saying Trump accounts can receive
single stocks, so that you can now get the SpaceX,
you can get the kids can get single stocks that
are given. That's going to unleash billions and billions in
new charity to kids. Number two, they made clear the
Dell criteria. Other donor can tailor their gifts. That's now clarified.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Senator, I want to go back to something that you
mentioned a moment ago, and this fight over auto en roll.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
People are listening, they're in different states.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Is this a DC issue or is this a state
advocacy issue where you can get your state to do something.
I think it's an important question to ask and answer
because you mentioned two states earlier that they did enrollment
for their kids accounts a little differently. One was you
auto and roll, one was opt in, and it was
a big difference. So what should Americans be advocating for
(27:32):
right now and where does that go next?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, this is a DC issue, This is a Department
of Treasury issue. The two states I mentioned, Rhode Island
and Oklahoma. Those were state programs. Those were smaller programs
that were sort of similar that they'd set up at
the state level. Here. As a result of my conversations
with the President and with the Treasury Secretary, what they
did do is announced prior to July fourth that the
(27:54):
Social Security Administration, when a new child is born, is
going to work with that with child's pay parents to
open a Trump account at the time of birth. It's
unclear if that is full auto and roll, but it
is at least a significant step in the direction of
auto and roll. That's helpful because if we get auto
and roll on birth, that's a good thing. You get
(28:15):
about three point seven million newborns a year, so that
automatically opening those accounts matters. They have yet to do
auto and roll for all kids up to age eighteen.
They are about seventy million kids in America that are
under eighteen. My objective is every one of them will
(28:35):
have an account. Why is that important? It's important? Number
one because that account, once open, can be a vehicle
for the philanthropy. You look at the Michael Dell Gift.
If a kid doesn't have an account, he can't get
the money. Michael Dell is getting. He can't get the
share of SpaceX that Gwen Shotwell is getting. You have
to have an account to have a bucket to be
(28:56):
able to receive that philanthropy. And the purpose of this
is to get everyone to get kids understanding what it
means to be an owner, to be an investor, to
have a stake in the economy. That's what got me
so excited about this idea and where it stands. You know,
if you listen back to what I said at the
(29:17):
Oval Office, I said at the Oval and very importantly,
President Trump is committed to auto enrolling all seventy million kids.
I said that in the Oval. Now the President has
said that before, Scott Besson has said that before. But again,
the Treasury career staff, the lawyers are still fighting back.
We're gonna get it done. I believe we will get
(29:39):
all seventy million auto enrolled. It hasn't happened yet. Millions
of kids have enrolled, have gone and gotten the app
and enrolled, so there's already a lot that has happened.
But my objective is, and I'd like to see it
in the next sixty days, all seventy million kids have
the account opened. And by the way, one of the
(30:00):
arguments the Treasury staff pushes back is they say, well,
what about fraud, What if an account is fraudulent? And
my response is, look open the account and you can
have and you're required to have a Sobial security number.
So this was designed so it illegal. Aliens are not eligible.
You have to have a Sobial security number. But I said, look, fraud.
(30:21):
You can check fraud on the back end, and you
can vigorously check fraud on the back end to make
sure that a kid is a real kid, that they're
the person, and that it's not somebody else. That doesn't
stop you from opening the account because when you open
the account, at least initially the account is in government custody,
so there's not a fraud risk until the money is
(30:42):
going physically to another person. You can check fraud on
the back end. The long and short of it is
I have a high level of confidence. And I will
say after the event, I stayed in the Oval with
President Trump and Michael and Susan Dall and Brad Gershner,
and we stayed for another thirty forty minutes, just the
five of us talking about the need for auto and
(31:04):
roll and the President was unequivocal we are going to
get it done, and so I'm confident we're going to
But that is a really big deal.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, it is all right.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I got to ask the cynical question as well, and
there's people there going to say Democrats may try to
undo this down the road. Do they have the power?
Is this one of those things like once it's there,
it's there. They can't shut it off and unwind it
and undo it easily. Because this is something I hope
stays indefinitely.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
You know that there is very little opportunity for Democrat
mischief on this because this is not a government program.
That is the government, say, you know, providing ongoing welfare,
doing ongoing things. What this is simply is creating these accounts.
The one thousand dollars seating is automatic, but at the
end of it, the money is the kids. So look,
(31:56):
if the money was the government's, the government could use
them for something bad. But think about your four oh
one k, think about your IRA. Yes it's the government
that created the vehicle a four oh one k account
or IRA account that you could invest it. But you're
not terribly worried about the government coming in and spending
your four oh one k on something that you don't
(32:17):
approve of, it's yours, you control it. That's the way
we structure this. Also, these are four to oh one
k's for kids. A couple other points on this. The
Trump administration has been very vocal about wanting to take
equity stakes of companies. So, for example, they took an
equity stake of Intel. They're talking about wanting an equity
(32:38):
stake of open Ai. I've expressed very real concerns. I
don't like the government owning parts of companies. I think
that is a very bad precedent. Your question, what happens
when the Democrats take over. Look, if the government is
a major shareholder in companies, they will use that power
for bad ends. So I don't like that outcome. I'll
(33:00):
I'll tell you what I'm suggesting to President Trump. All right,
if you want to take equity stakes and companies, rather
than have the government keep those stakes, take the five
or ten percent of Intel or open Ai or what
have you, and put them in kids Trump accounts, give
them to the people, get them out of Washington. That
(33:21):
that is perfectly okay and could end up having an
enormous value because again, the more you accumulate quickly, the
faster these accounts grow, and the beauty of that is,
once the money goes to the kid's accounts, the danger
of government mischief is substantially lower. I will point out
(33:42):
there are multiple Democrats now celebrating the Trump accounts. I
want you to listen to Wesmore, Democrat, governor of Maryland,
talking about the Trump accounts.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
I will give this administration credit for this is that
we've had Democratic presidences and Republican presidents who have not
been able to get this done, and it actually got done.
So I actually this is actually a smart policy. I
hate the fact that.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
He called the Trump accounts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And here's Democrat Corey Booker also praising the accounts.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
American Opportunity accounts, or baby bonds are now live. These
are private tax advantage, interest bearing savings accounts that will
be assigned to every child's Social Security number at birth.
Senator Corey Booker says each account will start with one
thousand dollars from the federal government.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
We're doing this today.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
But twenty twenty five years from now, the ground that
we're seeing is going to re harvest beyond our dreams
that were truly astonished each and.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
Every one of us and roorid issue. Senator Booker has
been looking forward to making this possible for years. He
believed this will help close the racial and economic wealth
gap by allowing every child to benefit from the financial
power of compound interest.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Senator, this goes back to exactly what you said when
you hear Republicans and sim leading Democrats saying the same thing,
it's a great day for this country.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it is. And look to be clear, Corey Booker
voted against the Trump accounts, and he did have an
idea which he calls baby bonds, which is opening savings
accounts for people that just pay interest. I would say
the baby bonds are kind of the kissing cousin of
this idea. But what makes this idea so powerful is
it's not interest. It is equity. It is ownership in
(35:27):
the stock market that is powerful. But that being said,
I welcome the support of Corey Booker. I welcome the
support of Wesmore and other Democrats. This is transformational victories
for our kids, and I'm glad to see Democrats supporting
it and celebrating it as well.
Welcome in his Vertic with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you. It's nice to have you with us if
you're listening on radio stations all over the country as well.
We do this show as a podcast. A reminder, three
days a week you can download Vertic with Ted Cruz
the podcast wherever you get your podcasts for free. And
we've got a big show for you right now.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, this week was a consequential week. Indeed, I think
this week was an historic week, a week that generations
will look back that what happened this week change the
future of America. We're gonna break that down for you,
but first I have to point out one of the
reasons it was consequential is one young Benjamin Ferguson lost
his wager to me. In the last podcast, Ben boldly
(00:41):
declared that Graham Platner was not going to step down
before the deadline to replace him. Yes, and he was
confident about it. He wanted to put a wager. He
wanted Mexican food, he wanted margaritas. He was He agreed
to top shelf and I got to say, I actually
felt guilty. It felt like you have information on this bed.
(01:04):
Is that what you're now coming clean about. It felt
like taking candy from a baby. It felt like beating
a Nazi communists in an election. Uh, here's the simple
reality reality, ben Comi's gonna com me, So we're gonna
come back to that in a minute. But just just
understand that our co host sadly is uh. I think
(01:26):
the technical term is a loser.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yes, I knew that word.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
By the way, you didn't even make it twenty seven
seconds before you started gloating.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I would have had you at least at a minute. Yeah,
you don't miss enough.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
With we got a pregloat at the front. But but
that is one reason this week is historic, but it's
not the biggest reason. The biggest reason that this week
is historic is on July fourth, on our nation's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday, the Trump accounts went live. The
Trump accounts, the accounts I wrote the legislation, I created
(01:57):
this program. They are now live, our investment accounts for
every single child in America, and I believe they are
going to have a profound impact for the future of
our kids. As our kids are going to experience the
miracle of compound growth, and as our kids are going
to become capitalists. We had an event this week in
(02:18):
the Oval Office with President Trump. I was there. We're
going to bring you inside that event with the President.
We're going to tell you everything that was happening behind
the scenes, celebrating what I think is an announcement that
will make a very real difference ten twenty thirty years
from now, not to mention fifty seventy five, one hundred
years from now. This week is when the Trump accounts launched.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about, especially taking
you behind the scenes on what happened at the White
House in just a moment. I also want to talk
to you about saying it really important and something that
you're going to want to know about. Most people think
the battle over funding abortion providers actually ended when Roe v.
Wade was overturned. Well it didn't. In fact, abortion providers
(03:02):
are doing more business than ever. Just the last fiscal year,
the largest abortion enterprise in the nation performed over four
hundred and thirty thousand abortions. Now, this is what's even
more shocking than that they received more than eight hundred
and thirty million dollars in government reimbursements and grants. Yes,
(03:25):
that's your tax dollars. That's our money being used to
end the lives of innocent preborn babies. At the same time,
one of the longest running newspapers in the United States
of America also revealed that many abortion facilities showed decrepit
quote factory like conditions and locations all across America. And
(03:46):
that is why I'm asking for you to help right now,
Americans United for Life for more than fifty years, AUL
has been the legal backbone of the pro life movement.
They literally shaped nearly every major pro life fall across America,
and today they're building on that legacy by leading the
charge to ensure the abortion industry is defunded forever. AUL
(04:10):
is working to make sure your tax dollars no longer
pay for abortions, and they're leading the coalition of pro
life friends, including three hundred leaders of pregnancy centers. And
that is why I want you to step in and help.
Aul's goal is real simple. They need your help to
make sure big abortion is permanently defunded. And right now,
(04:31):
every gift you make to AUL will be tripled through
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars matching challenge. That
means your support goes not one, not two, but three
times as far to defend unborn children by defunding abortion
facilities in America. So please don't wait. Help where you
(04:51):
can and make a huge difference. Go to Aul dot org.
That's Aul dot org forwards slash verdict. That's Aul dot
org forward slash verdict. Give your gift today to have
your gift tripled and protect your tax dollars from paying
for abortion in America.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So Santat that.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Trump accounts was really fun. You and I don't. We
share schedules, but I don't look at them every day,
and I laugh at the trend that's happening. How many
times I have to sit on TV waiting for you
to talk or waiting for you to finish so that
I can then do my hit, And when it happens,
it does make me laugh. But the other morning I
was on TV and I didn't know they were going
to go Trump accounts, and they talked to in your earpiece,
(05:34):
so like, Ben, can you talk Trump accounts? And I
started laughing. I'm like, yes, I know an awful lot
about this. So I then had to wait for Trump
to announce this. They were carrying it live on TV
and then talk about you and then commentate on something.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They're like, do you know about this? And I'm like, yes.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
It was a really fun moment because I got to
advocate for these accounts afterwards. I said, look, don't just
set them up for your kids. Do it with your
children so they have ownership, so they understand what they're doing.
I said, if you're a grandparent watching right now in
Fox News, yes, I said, grandparents, get your grandkids. Set
up these accounts with the parents. Make this a family event.
The kids will understand it. There's an app they can use.
(06:12):
Don't do it for them, do it with them, And
I hope it was a really cool moment where people afterwards.
So that's a great idea because millions of Americans have
signed up for these accounts. As you mentioned, I think
it's going to completely transform everything. My kids now want
to see the app. They want to see what their
money's doing, and that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It is the number one app on the App Store
since since the moment it launched. Millions of Americans are
downloading the app for these Trump accounts, opening them for
their kids, and it's going to make just just a
massive difference. We were in in the Oval on Monday,
and we were there because right at nine point thirty,
President Trump got to ring in the bell to the
(06:50):
New York Stock Exchange, but also NASDAK and look New
York Stock Exchange. In NASDAQ or rival exchanges, they rarely cooperate.
The heads of both were there in the Oval, the
New York Stock Exchange and NASDAK. There was a giant
bell that they brought in that right at nine thirty,
Trump grabbed the rope and rang the bell, which is
(07:11):
what you do when you list a new company on
the Stock Exchange. You can go and ring the bell.
And it was a very cool moment in the Oval. Actually,
I said, right at nine thirty it was fairly amusing.
Actually it was not right at nine thirty that the
timing was slightly off because Scott Bess't the Treasury Secretary,
was talking and he kept talking, and there was a
(07:32):
clock there as it was nine to thirty. Best kept
talking and at about nine thirty and like seven seconds
Trump basically pushed him beside, said here I got to
ring the bell, so awesome Monday. The bell was wrong
about seven seconds late.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
But in TV it was it was a moment late.
Was there any significance to the bell that was chosen.
We didn't get to hear that on TV and you
were in the in the oval for that. Was there
a significance because it was a cool looking bell.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it's a very cool looking bell and it has
on it carved Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange and
Trump accounts, and they made it for that moment. And
Trump said as the event went on, he said, you're
not getting this bell back. I'm keeping this bell, which
I think everyone anticipated. So the bell will be somewhere
in the White House. He said, He's going to put
the bell at the ballroom, So somewhere in the ballroom
(08:18):
the bell will be there. But it was a very
very cool moment. Listen to President Trump talking about the
Trump accounts on Monday.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Nobody cares about that, right, this is about the Trump accounts,
which you're absolutely incredible with children. Children can at the
age of eighteen and after it becomes very wealthy. People
come into the world with essentially no money and end
up a pretty young age being very rich. And that's
(08:48):
something that we wanted to do, the countries wanted to
do for twenty five years mining Win. Susan, You've been
so great. My gerstner Man has been so finandasty. He
pushed everybody. It was so good, and I just want
to thank everybody. It's a great it's a great on
and we'll.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Have a little fun and we want to be exactly
on time.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Are we allowed to be fifteen to twenty thirty seconds lately?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Typically nobody? And I'm going to ring that bell and
does that bill? Does it stay in the white ask?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not giving it back. You gotta love the present
there mentioning that bell, Senator. And also I love the
fact that you had the kids in the background talking.
What a great moment when you're talking about kids accounts
having those kids in the room as well well.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And those were kids there hearing about their future, about
investing for their future, and also about becoming capitalists, becoming
investors in the biggest employers in America.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
All right, Senator, I want to play your comments as
well that you made in the oval after the President
talked about the importance of these accounts. You shepherd this
through the Senate. The President was very appreciative, and that's
why you were there. And I want people to hear
what you had to say as.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well, mister President, this program. You know a second ago
Brad made reference to nineteen thirty five in Social Security.
Trump accounts are in many way Donald Trump's new deal.
But instead of having government taking care of everyone, Trump
accounts are about making every child and every American a capitalist.
(10:25):
Every one of our kids is now going to be
an owner of the biggest producers in our country. Kids,
you guys there, each of you are getting an account.
These folks here gave you two hundred and fifty dollars.
That's a lot of money that you have right now.
And you know what with that two hundred and fifty dollars,
(10:47):
You've purchased a little bit of a bunch of big companies.
You know, McDonald's. You now own a little bit of McDonald's.
When you go to McDonald's, you can look around and say,
I own this place. If you get on an airplane
and fly you look at a Boeing airplane, you now
(11:07):
own a little bit of Boeing. Can you believe it?
You're an owner of Boeing. That is transformation that changes
the way every child looks at the world and the
ability to accumulate life transforming savings, hundreds of thousands, millions
of dollars for the kids of single moms. That is powerful,
(11:29):
and mister President, in particular, I want to thank you
for your unequivocal commitment that this administration, your administration is
going to auto enroll every child in America. All seventy
million children will have accounts open for them, accounts that
can then receive gifts from people like Michael and Susan
(11:49):
and Brad. Accounts that let me say to every parent
at home, please right now, go to Trump Accounts dot gov.
Go to Trump Accounts dot gov. Sign your kids up.
To every employer. If you're not contributing to the accounts
of the employees of your kids, do so. Now match
their contribution, double their contribution. And to philanthropists, go adopt
(12:11):
a state, Go adopt your city, Go adopt a school.
Go say the kids in my community, the kindergarten class here,
We're going to help them get started. This is a moment,
I believe transformational to make sure the next two fifty
is even better than the first. Thank you as President.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Center.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I gotta say, I think one of the best things
that you said in that moment there was the fact
that you paint a picture for other philanthropists. What Michael
Dell and his wife have done in others on a grand,
nationwide scale is truly incredible. But there are a lot
of people that could do this in their hometown. I
was thinking of my hometown where I was born raised
in Memphis, and there's a company like FedEx that's there,
(12:55):
AutoZone that's there, International Paper. Those are three companies that
could say we're going to the city as you just
mentioned or the county and have a massive impact and
donate into these accounts. I hope that there's a lot
of philanthropists, a lot of businesses that will look at
their hometown. Whether it's a place like you know, Milwaukee
and Harley Davison are Ford in a place like Detroit.
(13:17):
You never know how that could change different cities in
a major way as well.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Well. The way we designed the program, the way I
wrote the legislation, every newborn child has one thousand dollars
automatically seeded into the account. So if you have a
baby this year, one thousand bucks immediately appears in that account,
and then parents and family and employers can invest up
to five thousand a year. In a tax advantaged account
and all of that money gets put in the stock market.
(13:44):
And the S and P. Five hundred and we deliberately
wrote it so that there were two accelerators to make
the capital appreciation happen more quickly. Number one employers contributing
and matching. And this is a big deal. Think about
four oh one k's. Yeah, you know, over seventy years ago,
(14:07):
Congress passed section four oh one k of ARISA, and
at the time, I doubt anyone in Congress understood how
fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirements. Trump
accounts are four oh one k's for kids. Today, there's
more than twelve trillion dollars invested in four oh one k's.
(14:31):
In very short order, you're going to see trillions of
dollars invested in Trump accounts for kids. And one of
the reasons there's so much invested in four O one
k's is most employers, certainly most large employers, either contribute
to their employees four oh one k's or they match
contributions to four O one k's, and so that accelerates
(14:52):
the growth a lot. There are hundreds of companies that
have already announced that they are either going to contribute
or match contributions to TRUMP accounts. And I think this
is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like
matching four O one k's. I think it's going to
be a standard. You go to work at any big
company and the company is going to say, ben you
(15:13):
contribute to your kids TRUMP accounts, will match, will put
money in. And the reason that's so important is if
you look at compound growth, the numbers get really really big.
But what matters is is how much you get in early.
Because the longer you invest and the more you get
in early, the more those numbers grow and the bigger
(15:35):
they get. And so that accelerator is really big. The
second accelerator is we wrote the legislation so that these
counts can accept philanthropic gifts, that people can give money
to kids, particularly need kids. And so the pioneer on this,
the lead investor was Michael and Susan Dell. Michael and
(15:59):
Susan from Texas Austin. They're both very good friends of mine,
worth over two hundred billion dollars. Well, they announced six
and a quarter billion dollars they're giving away and they're
getting away two hundred and fifty dollars to every child
under age ten who lives in a zip code where
(16:19):
the median income is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
or less. And that means kids whose parents might not
have the money to invest are going to start with
that two point fifty. And we're seeing lots of other
entrepreneurs doing the same. Brad Gerson Gershner, who we've had
on this show. He's a very good friend of mine.
The Trump accounts were his idea. He's adopted the kids
(16:40):
in the state of Indiana. Ray Dalio has adopted the
kids in Connecticut. That is going to be a massive
accelerator to speeding up kids accumulating assets.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I want to go back a week before this moment
in the Oval office, because you've got some pretty interesting
details and stories to tell from a week in advance.
So let's go back to that and talk about what
was happening behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, there were a number of policy questions that were
being sorted out the week before that that that got
a little bumpy, And one of the things we try
to do in Verdict is take you behind the scenes
to what actually happens, how how the sausage got made.
There were three big questions that a week out were unresolved.
Number one, the Treasury Department. The career lawyers there, frankly
(17:28):
have been resisting this program from the beginning. When I
wrote the legislation over a year ago. The career lawyers
at Treasury didn't want to do it. They fought me
every step of the way.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
By the way, what was the logic behind that?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You know, it's hard, we don't know how to do this.
This is going to be really difficult to have accounts
for every kid. We don't. It was just bureaucratic inertia,
and and they just raised obstacle abster obstacle, and I
had to link arms with the White House and just
ram it through, like like which part of all legens
slate of power is vested in Congress? Are you confused about?
(18:03):
They also had ridiculous arguments like well, no, no, we
can't do this because the existing privacy laws don't let
us do that. It's like, yeah, okay, Congress wrote those
privacy laws. We're writing this law. Now we can change
the law. That's called legislating. And they just were dug in.
I mean, it was a year long battle. So the
(18:26):
three issues that a week out were real problems. Number One,
the career Treasury lawyers came back and said, Okay, when
a philanthropist is giving a gift, you can only put
one criterion on it. You can't put two or three
criteria on it. And so let's take Michael Dell's gift.
(18:49):
They came and said, look, I'm sorry, Dell cannot give
two hundred and fifty dollars to every child under ten
in every zip code where the media income is under
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They said, can't do it.
He's got to pick one or the other. He can
give it to all the kids under ten, He could
give it to all the kids in Texas if he wants.
(19:09):
He could give it to all the kids and zip
codes under two hundred fifty under one hundred and fifty
thousand median income. And that's just nonsense. I very deliberately
wrote the statue so that you could you could turn
those dials, you could direct your gift where you believed
it would have the greatest impact. But the Treasury lawyers
were dug in and that they were literally saying no, sorry,
(19:35):
Dell's gift. It's not gonna We're not gonna let it happen.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So I had Scott Bess at the Treasury Secretary. He
and I are friends. He's a good guy. I had
been talking to him for a year about the implementation
of these Trump accounts, how to ensure they're successful. I
went and had breakfast with him several months ago, had
a long detailed letter laying out the issues, met with him,
talked with him. Scott is a really good guy. But
(20:01):
at the end of the day, the career lawyers at Treasury,
the deep state were pressing back against Scott and pressing
back against the President. So finally, on July one, this
was headed to not being the success it needed to be.
And so I called the President and I got the
President on the phone about eleven thirty at night. At
the time, Heidi and nine and the girls, we were
(20:23):
on vacation. We went to Florida to the Panhandle. So
we're sitting there on vacation, playing at the beach. Really good,
you know, good family vacation, And eleven thirty at night,
I'm on the phone with the President and I said,
Miss President, this is messed up, and I need you
to fix it. And there were three issues. Number one,
the career lawyers trying to prevent targeting gifts to where
(20:46):
the donor wants to target them yep. Number two, Treasury
had been resisting allowing individual gifts of stock. So for example,
something that happened this week, Gwen Shotwell, the president of SpaceX,
announced that she is giving and her husband, She and
her husband together are giving three hundred and twenty five
(21:08):
million dollars in shares of SpaceX. And those are shares
of SpaceX that are going to be directed, I believe
to kids eleven to eighteen. She picked a different age
window than Dell did, and so kids eleven to eighteen,
and she has a few other criteria, they will actually
receive a share of SpaceX in their Trump.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Account, which is unbelievable based on what that could become.
You go back and look at SpaceX's at price, and
you look at things like Tesla, You look at things
like Walmart, you look at things like I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
The list goes on Tesla.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
You look at these companies, what one share is worth
can change these kids' lives literally.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, and I am having multiple conversations with major major
company owners and tech entrepreneurs about doing the same thing,
and so the accounts being able to receive an actual
share of stock. You can think of all of all
of the other stocks, whether it's it's it's SpaceX or
Tesla or or Google or open Ai or Anthropic. You know,
(22:13):
you look at these these big, big companies where I
will say, there is real interest in giving stock as
a charitable gift to the kids of America, and that
really is transformational in terms of growth. I think the
growth trajectory of especially those tech stocks, it historically has
(22:35):
been incredibly high, and I think it's likely to continue
to be very, very high. But Treasury had not not
yet put out any guidance that that Trump accounts could
accept single stock gifts. So that was the second issue.
And then the third issue was auto and roll. I
wrote this bill so that every child in America, all
(22:56):
seventy million kids, would automatically have an account opened for them,
that you wouldn't have to do anything to go and
affirmatively open the account. Rather, if you're a kid, you're
under eighteen, the government opens the account. It is there
for you. The reason auto and roll matters so much
if you look at there have been states that have
(23:17):
done similar things to what this program is. If you
look at Rhode Island at Oklahoma, for example, they've done
similar things. In one of them they had opt in,
in another they had auto en roll. The one that
had opt in, only fifty percent of the kids participated.
The one that had auto and roll, ninety nine percent
of the kids participated. So the difference is massive. If
(23:39):
you don't have if you don't have auto enroll, a
large chunk of kids will never get the account. And
I want every kid, And in fact, it's worse than that.
The ones who are less likely to go open the
account are low income kids, are kids whose families are
not financially sophisticated. And the entire point of this program, frankly,
(24:01):
it's not for the kids of rich people. The kids
kids of rich people can use it, but those parents
are often already working with their kids to invest. That's
already part of what they're doing with their kids. The
reason I'm so excited about this program, it is the
kid of a single mom who herself doesn't know anything
about the market. That kid will have an account and
(24:23):
will learn about compound growth, will learn about ownership. You know,
when I was talking to the kids that were in
the oval, and I was explaining, you guys just got
two hundred and fifty dollars, and I was pointing to
Michael and Susan Dell behind me. They gave you two
hundred and fifty dollars. And you couldn't see that on
the video. But the kids, who were really cute, they
were all, I would say, kind of seven to ten
(24:44):
years old, the sort of look of wonder what somebody
gave me two hundred and fifty dollars. Wow, And explaining
to them you now own McDonald's, not all of it,
but you own a little bit of it. You own Boweing,
you own Apple. That is really what gets me excited
about this. But on auto en roll, the career lawyers
(25:08):
and Treasury were fighting tooth and nail. So I got
President Trump on the phone eleven thirty at night, I
think it was July one, explained to him those three
issues and said, look, this is a problem. You care
deeply about this program, and the career lawyers at Treasury
are blocking it. He said, Ted, let me call Scott.
I'll call you right back. So he hung up the phone.
(25:28):
He called bess't I will say the conversation, I feel confident,
was frank and candid, and there may have been some
words used that are at least PG if not R rated.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If you've ever met the other end of one of
those phone calls, I have, you have as well. I'm
pretty sure. Yeah, they're usually up there in the PG
thirteen plus, says scenario. And if he's not happy, he
lets you know right away. You know where you stand.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
And so then twenty thirty minutes later, about midnight, I
get a call from Besson's Who's Scott's really mad at
me now? And so Scott's yelling and dropping some F
bombs in my direction and he's like, you know, why
do you get the president all spun up? And I'm like, Scott,
I've been talking to you about these issues for a year.
It is July one, The program is going live on
(26:19):
July fourth. I said, listen, you want this to be
a total success. I want this to be a total success.
We're on the same page. We just need to get
it done. Yeah, And so what ended up happening because
of those and then I talked to Trump later that night.
I talked to him at about seven am the next morning,
but he was driving saying fix it, fix it, fix it.
Several things happened because of those phone calls. Number One,
(26:42):
Treasury put out a guidance saying Trump accounts can receive
single stocks, so that you can now get the SpaceX,
you can get the kids can get single stocks that
are given. That's going to unleash billions and billions in
new charity to kids. Number two, they made clear the
Dell criteria. Other donor can tailor their gifts. That's now clarified.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Senator, I want to go back to something that you
mentioned a moment ago, and this fight over auto en roll.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
People are listening, they're in different states.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Is this a DC issue or is this a state
advocacy issue where you can get your state to do something.
I think it's an important question to ask and answer
because you mentioned two states earlier that they did enrollment
for their kids accounts a little differently. One was you
auto and roll, one was opt in, and it was
a big difference. So what should Americans be advocating for
(27:32):
right now and where does that go next?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, this is a DC issue, This is a Department
of Treasury issue. The two states I mentioned, Rhode Island
and Oklahoma. Those were state programs. Those were smaller programs
that were sort of similar that they'd set up at
the state level. Here. As a result of my conversations
with the President and with the Treasury Secretary, what they
did do is announced prior to July fourth that the
(27:54):
Social Security Administration, when a new child is born, is
going to work with that with child's pay parents to
open a Trump account at the time of birth. It's
unclear if that is full auto and roll, but it
is at least a significant step in the direction of
auto and roll. That's helpful because if we get auto
and roll on birth, that's a good thing. You get
(28:15):
about three point seven million newborns a year, so that
automatically opening those accounts matters. They have yet to do
auto and roll for all kids up to age eighteen.
They are about seventy million kids in America that are
under eighteen. My objective is every one of them will
(28:35):
have an account. Why is that important? It's important? Number
one because that account, once open, can be a vehicle
for the philanthropy. You look at the Michael Dell Gift.
If a kid doesn't have an account, he can't get
the money. Michael Dell is getting. He can't get the
share of SpaceX that Gwen Shotwell is getting. You have
to have an account to have a bucket to be
(28:56):
able to receive that philanthropy. And the purpose of this
is to get everyone to get kids understanding what it
means to be an owner, to be an investor, to
have a stake in the economy. That's what got me
so excited about this idea and where it stands. You know,
if you listen back to what I said at the
(29:17):
Oval Office, I said at the Oval and very importantly,
President Trump is committed to auto enrolling all seventy million kids.
I said that in the Oval. Now the President has
said that before, Scott Besson has said that before. But again,
the Treasury career staff, the lawyers are still fighting back.
We're gonna get it done. I believe we will get
(29:39):
all seventy million auto enrolled. It hasn't happened yet. Millions
of kids have enrolled, have gone and gotten the app
and enrolled, so there's already a lot that has happened.
But my objective is, and I'd like to see it
in the next sixty days, all seventy million kids have
the account opened. And by the way, one of the
(30:00):
arguments the Treasury staff pushes back is they say, well,
what about fraud, What if an account is fraudulent? And
my response is, look open the account and you can
have and you're required to have a Sobial security number.
So this was designed so it illegal. Aliens are not eligible.
You have to have a Sobial security number. But I said, look, fraud.
(30:21):
You can check fraud on the back end, and you
can vigorously check fraud on the back end to make
sure that a kid is a real kid, that they're
the person, and that it's not somebody else. That doesn't
stop you from opening the account because when you open
the account, at least initially the account is in government custody,
so there's not a fraud risk until the money is
(30:42):
going physically to another person. You can check fraud on
the back end. The long and short of it is
I have a high level of confidence. And I will
say after the event, I stayed in the Oval with
President Trump and Michael and Susan Dall and Brad Gershner,
and we stayed for another thirty forty minutes, just the
five of us talking about the need for auto and
(31:04):
roll and the President was unequivocal we are going to
get it done, and so I'm confident we're going to
But that is a really big deal.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Yeah, it is all right.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I got to ask the cynical question as well, and
there's people there going to say Democrats may try to
undo this down the road. Do they have the power?
Is this one of those things like once it's there,
it's there. They can't shut it off and unwind it
and undo it easily. Because this is something I hope
stays indefinitely.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
You know that there is very little opportunity for Democrat
mischief on this because this is not a government program.
That is the government, say, you know, providing ongoing welfare,
doing ongoing things. What this is simply is creating these accounts.
The one thousand dollars seating is automatic, but at the
end of it, the money is the kids. So look,
(31:56):
if the money was the government's, the government could use
them for something bad. But think about your four oh
one k, think about your IRA. Yes it's the government
that created the vehicle a four oh one k account
or IRA account that you could invest it. But you're
not terribly worried about the government coming in and spending
your four oh one k on something that you don't
(32:17):
approve of, it's yours, you control it. That's the way
we structure this. Also, these are four to oh one
k's for kids. A couple other points on this. The
Trump administration has been very vocal about wanting to take
equity stakes of companies. So, for example, they took an
equity stake of Intel. They're talking about wanting an equity
(32:38):
stake of open Ai. I've expressed very real concerns. I
don't like the government owning parts of companies. I think
that is a very bad precedent. Your question, what happens
when the Democrats take over. Look, if the government is
a major shareholder in companies, they will use that power
for bad ends. So I don't like that outcome. I'll
(33:00):
I'll tell you what I'm suggesting to President Trump. All right,
if you want to take equity stakes and companies, rather
than have the government keep those stakes, take the five
or ten percent of Intel or open Ai or what
have you, and put them in kids Trump accounts, give
them to the people, get them out of Washington. That
(33:21):
that is perfectly okay and could end up having an
enormous value because again, the more you accumulate quickly, the
faster these accounts grow, and the beauty of that is,
once the money goes to the kid's accounts, the danger
of government mischief is substantially lower. I will point out
(33:42):
there are multiple Democrats now celebrating the Trump accounts. I
want you to listen to Wesmore, Democrat, governor of Maryland,
talking about the Trump accounts.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
I will give this administration credit for this is that
we've had Democratic presidences and Republican presidents who have not
been able to get this done, and it actually got done.
So I actually this is actually a smart policy. I
hate the fact that.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
He called the Trump accounts.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
And here's Democrat Corey Booker also praising the accounts.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
American Opportunity accounts, or baby bonds are now live. These
are private tax advantage, interest bearing savings accounts that will
be assigned to every child's Social Security number at birth.
Senator Corey Booker says each account will start with one
thousand dollars from the federal government.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
We're doing this today.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
But twenty twenty five years from now, the ground that
we're seeing is going to re harvest beyond our dreams
that were truly astonished each and.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
Every one of us and roorid issue. Senator Booker has
been looking forward to making this possible for years. He
believed this will help close the racial and economic wealth
gap by allowing every child to benefit from the financial
power of compound interest.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Senator, this goes back to exactly what you said when
you hear Republicans and sim leading Democrats saying the same thing,
it's a great day for this country.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yeah, it is. And look to be clear, Corey Booker
voted against the Trump accounts, and he did have an
idea which he calls baby bonds, which is opening savings
accounts for people that just pay interest. I would say
the baby bonds are kind of the kissing cousin of
this idea. But what makes this idea so powerful is
it's not interest. It is equity. It is ownership in
(35:27):
the stock market that is powerful. But that being said,
I welcome the support of Corey Booker. I welcome the
support of Wesmore and other Democrats. This is transformational victories
for our kids, and I'm glad to see Democrats supporting
it and celebrating it as well.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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