Rory O’Neil, WOR national correspondent Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Rory O’Neill about the Trump plan to provide money to newborns and how to go about getting on board.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the Trump accounts is a big, big story, and
it's important that we know exactly how they work so
that you can use them for your children, your children
to come, and your grandchildren. So let's get the details
on that, because we touched on it, but we really
didn't get into the details, and the details are important.

(00:21):
Rory O'Neil wr national correspondent with us every day at
this time. So Rory, I know a lot of people
are going to be interested in this, so maybe you
can walk it, walk us through it. Who is eligible
and how do you get the money?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Right?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So, Trump Accounts dot gov is the website. Trump Accounts
with an S dot gov is the website you can
put your email address in and at least get updates.
They have not started taking applications just yet. That's gonna
launch on July fourth of next year for America's two
hundred and fiftieth. But the accounts are essentially savings accounts

(00:57):
that will be managed investment accounts really that are being
set up to help young kids that when they turn
eighteen will then be eligible to take out that money
to buy a home, to pay for college, even to
start a business. Now, during the Trump administration, two point zero.
So from January of this year through December of twenty

(01:18):
twenty eight, all of those accounts come with a one
thousand dollars bonus for babies born during that time. Now,
if you have a ten year old, you can still
qualify for these Trump accounts and perhaps then be open
to other donations like what we saw yesterday from the
Dell family giving more than six billion dollars. That's going
to kick in two hundred and fifty dollars additionally to

(01:41):
each of these accounts for kids under ten.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Right, so the accounts from the Trump account right, the
Trump accounts, that's one thousand dollars, but that's only for
people that were born from January twenty twenty five, and
on the Dell accounts go back further in that.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Right they do, so they'll be giving out money to
kids under the age of ten who open up these accounts,
But there are rules about zip codes and how much
money you can make in the household, so it's a
little bit more restricted. But for the one thousand dollars
startup bonus, I guess or seed money, that's to all
children born from January of twenty five through December of

(02:23):
twenty twenty eight. Again, you can find that information at
Trump Accounts dot gov. They're just giving information right now.
The full application goes online July of next year.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Do we know who manages these accounts.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
I haven't seen a specific name, but essentially the Treasury
Department is contributing the money and then the money is
invested in stock funds, so that you're hoping to get
better than one and a half percent that you get
a savings account. Plus, parents can also contribute up to
twenty five hundred dollars each year, same way they would
for their retirement accounts. And these accounts are open so

(02:57):
that say you have a baby next year and you're
company wants to support you, and like, oh, for little Timmy,
we're going to put five hundred dollars into his account,
sort of like we would have done with a savings
bond years ago. Right. Instead, you can make contributions to
these kinds of accounts.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
And it could accrue a whole lot more money than
a savings bond. I mean potentially, at the age of eighteen,
you have a nice amount of money.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, right, especially if the parents can put in twenty
five hundred bucks or local governments, you know, because now
you could say, well, the city of whatever wants to
contribute to these funds as well, So maybe there's a
fun there or some sort of a charitable organization or
other philanthropists like the Dells come along eight Elon Musk,
where's you're six and a half billion? You know, Yeah,
these kinds of things to really pump up the dollar

(03:41):
bonds of these things.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I feel good about myself when I give like five
hundred dollars to the Salvation Army Man. To have six
point two billion dollars laying around that you can contribute,
I'd love to be there, to be able to give
up that much money and not.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Hurt, right, and they still have one hundred and eighty
billion leftover. They're not eating Rahmen or anything for.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
The rest of the Year's Rory.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Now, I don't feel that I am good enough w
our National correspondent.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
We'll be back tomorrow morning again at seven point fifty.
Thanks so much, Rory, Thank Larry