President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office Wednesday that nearly 70 million children now have Trump Accounts, with more than 60 million of those created through a newly completed automatic enrollment process. The announcement framed the rollout as a milestone for the federal savings program, even as officials acknowledged that auto-enrollment alone does not put money into a child's account.
The scale of the rollout is striking: nearly 70 million Trump Accounts have now been created, according to Newsweek, which reports that every child under 18 with a valid Social Security number is eligible for an account. But the one-time $1,000 federal seed contribution is far narrower in scope — it is available only to U.S. citizen children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, per the same report. The Internal Revenue Service says an eligible child must not have turned 18 before the end of the calendar year in which the account election is made, and must hold a valid Social Security number.
As President Trump put it during the announcement, covered live by WBAL-TV, every member of the next generation will now have an investment account, and he suggested that children could potentially be very rich by the time they turn 18. Frank Bisignano, whom the station identifies as CEO of the IRS and commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said 10 million of the 70 million accounts are now funded with $4.5 billion — and he added that figure would increase over the weekend.
Claiming an Account Is a Separate Step
Automatic enrollment alone will not trigger the $1,000 deposit, according to CNBC. Families must still claim their child's account before they can manage it, contribute money or access certain benefits, Newsweek reports. That process requires an adult to verify their identity, demonstrate their relationship to the child, review the child's information and accept the account agreement.
Per WBAL-TV, parents and guardians use the Trump Account app to complete that claiming process, and eligible children must have their account claimed to receive the one-time $1,000 Treasury seed contribution. The money that does land in accounts is turned over to private firms that invest it in index funds, the station reports, and families can add up to $5,000 per account each year on top of the federal seed money.
Children cannot touch any of it until they turn 18, at which point the money can be used for purposes including attending school, starting a business or buying a home, according to WBAL-TV. Investor.gov notes that once a child turns 18, most of the program's special rules no longer apply and traditional IRA rules generally take over.
Corporate Donors and a Celebrity Send-Off
Companies and individuals have stepped in to help fund accounts, WBAL-TV reports, naming Nvidia, Steak 'n Shake, and Michael and Susan Dell among the contributors. Susan Dell said during the announcement that knowing someone believes in you and your future matters just as much as the money, and that the accounts are meant for children and meant to encourage them to dream big, per WBAL-TV's account. Senator Ted Cruz suggested family members could treat a contribution to a child's Trump Account as a gift, the station reported, and Trump distributed commemorative coins to children present for the announcement.
Why Participation Had Lagged Before Auto-Enrollment
The push toward automatic enrollment follows months of sluggish voluntary sign-ups. As of mid-September, only about 7 million to 8 million American children had been signed up for Trump Accounts, CNBC reports, and just 5% of low- and moderate-income families had opened one before the switch to automatic enrollment. The gap matters because Commonwealth projects that roughly 14.4 million children born between 2025 and 2028 will qualify for the $1,000 seed funding, according to the same CNBC report — and the organization estimates that about 20% of eligible babies may not claim their deposit, potentially leaving $2.88 billion in federal seed dollars unclaimed by children in low- and moderate-income households during the pilot phase.
A separate CNBC report on the underlying regulations notes they could boost enrollment by about 2 million accounts a year going forward. A Congressional Research Service summary found that in a comparable prior program, 44% of households proactively claimed accounts before an automatic-enrollment transition, while nearly all households that received accounts automatically went on to retain them.
What the $1,000 Could Grow Into — and Its Critics
Using a 10% average annual return as a reference point, WBAL-TV reports that a $1,000 seed investment could grow to about $5,600 over 18 years — though after taxes and an early-withdrawal penalty, that same account could actually be worth closer to $3,600. Newsweek reports that critics have questioned the fiscal cost of the federal seed contributions and attached tax incentives, along with concerns about market risk and wealth inequality.
The Federal Register notice tied to the program states that, to effectuate automatic enrollment, the Treasury Secretary would make the qualifying election on or about Oct. 1, 2026, for individuals meeting the program's age and Social Security number requirements. The IRS has separately detailed proposed regulations governing the $1,000 pilot-program contribution for eligible children born in the 2025-2028 window.
