Some US parents are refusing to claim Trump accounts for their children, saying they do not want the president’s name attached to their family’s finances despite the offer of a $1,000 federal contribution.
Israel Anthem, a 38-year-old father in Nashville, said he would not open an account for his 14-month-old daughter. “I’m not setting up one for my daughter,” he said. “I’ll put $1,000 of my own money in an account before I do that.”
Trump accounts were created under the president’s 2025 tax-and-spending law and are intended to help children build savings before they begin earning money themselves. Eligible US citizens born between 2025 and 2028 with valid Social Security numbers can receive a one-off federal payment of $1,000.
Nearly 70 million accounts have been created through automatic enrolment, according to White House spokesman Matthew Middleton. More than $8 billion has been deposited nationwide, a Treasury official said.
Parents must still claim the accounts to manage them and request the government contribution. Treasury data showed that, by July, more than 6.5 million families had signed up, including more than 1.5 million children eligible for the $1,000 payment.
Employers are also being encouraged to contribute. More than 50 companies had committed by August to putting money into Trump accounts for employees’ children, with Bank of America, BlackRock and Charles Schwab among those pledging to match the federal contribution.
For Anthem, however, the objection is not the investment structure or the potential financial return. “I don’t want to put my daughter’s name on something attached to Trump for the rest of her life,” he said.
Parents, relatives and employers can generally add to the accounts, subject to a combined annual limit of $5,000 during childhood. The money is invested in qualifying low-cost stock index funds, although returns are not guaranteed.
Withdrawals are generally restricted until the calendar year in which the child turns 18. Traditional individual retirement account rules then apply, including possible taxes and penalties for early withdrawals.
Why some parents are rejecting Trump accounts
Anthem said he understood the financial case but remained suspicious of the president’s motives. “I understand the logistics of it. I understand the math of it, but what I do not understand is Trump’s willingness to do something so supposedly generous.”
The White House has presented the scheme as a way for children to build wealth and strengthen their financial prospects. Middleton described it as a signature economic achievement designed to help every American child build savings.
The concept of government-backed savings accounts for children predates the Trump administration. In 2018, Democratic Senator Cory Booker proposed giving every newborn an account containing $1,000, followed by annual government deposits of up to $2,000 based on family income.
Booker has since supported Trump accounts and joined Republican Senator Ted Cruz in urging major companies to contribute. The senators said the scheme would make every American child “an immediate shareholder in America’s largest companies”.
Scott Rick, a University of Michigan marketing professor who studies financial decisions, said the political association could affect how people viewed the money. Research into mental accounting suggested that labels and earmarks could influence both feelings about money and how it was spent, he said.
“When money is psychologically tainted, we often avoid it,” Rick said. “For many, the $1,000 Trump account contribution is the fruit of a poisonous tree.”
He said parents were balancing the financial help they could provide against the values they wished to pass on to their children. Some might accept the contribution while separating their views of Mr Trump from the benefit, while others could see taking the money as an implicit endorsement.
Discussion on online forums has reflected the same divide. Some parents have said they would accept the government contribution but use other savings arrangements, such as a state 529 college account, for their own money.
Anthem said he would rather save independently for his daughter than accept a benefit associated with a president he opposed. “We’ll find money other ways,” he said.
