Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Historic Week Launching Trump Accounts for every Kid in America—the Inside Story behind this Landmark Victory

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Historic Week Launching Trump Accounts for every Kid in America—the Inside Story behind this Landmark Victory · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome in his Vertic with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
0:03
Speaker 1: with you. It's nice to have you with us if
0:04
Speaker 1: you're listening on radio stations all over the country as well.
0:07
Speaker 1: We do this show as a podcast. A reminder, three
0:10
Speaker 1: days a week you can download Vertic with Ted Cruz
0:12
Speaker 1: the podcast wherever you get your podcasts for free. And
0:15
Speaker 1: we've got a big show for you right now.
0:17
Speaker 2: Well, this week was a consequential week. Indeed, I think
0:21
Speaker 2: this week was an historic week, a week that generations
0:24
Speaker 2: will look back that what happened this week change the
0:28
Speaker 2: future of America. We're gonna break that down for you,
0:30
Speaker 2: but first I have to point out one of the
0:32
Speaker 2: reasons it was consequential is one young Benjamin Ferguson lost
0:36
Speaker 2: his wager to me. In the last podcast, Ben boldly
0:41
Speaker 2: declared that Graham Platner was not going to step down
0:45
Speaker 2: before the deadline to replace him. Yes, and he was
0:49
Speaker 2: confident about it. He wanted to put a wager. He
0:52
Speaker 2: wanted Mexican food, he wanted margaritas. He was He agreed
0:55
Speaker 2: to top shelf and I got to say, I actually
0:59
Speaker 2: felt guilty. It felt like you have information on this bed.
1:04
Speaker 2: Is that what you're now coming clean about. It felt
1:07
Speaker 2: like taking candy from a baby. It felt like beating
1:10
Speaker 2: a Nazi communists in an election. Uh, here's the simple
1:15
Speaker 2: reality reality, ben Comi's gonna com me, So we're gonna
1:20
Speaker 2: come back to that in a minute. But just just
1:22
Speaker 2: understand that our co host sadly is uh. I think
1:26
Speaker 2: the technical term is a loser.
1:29
Speaker 3: Yes, I knew that word.
1:30
Speaker 1: By the way, you didn't even make it twenty seven
1:32
Speaker 1: seconds before you started gloating.
1:34
Speaker 3: I would have had you at least at a minute. Yeah,
1:36
Speaker 3: you don't miss enough.
1:37
Speaker 2: With we got a pregloat at the front. But but
1:40
Speaker 2: that is one reason this week is historic, but it's
1:43
Speaker 2: not the biggest reason. The biggest reason that this week
1:46
Speaker 2: is historic is on July fourth, on our nation's two
1:49
Speaker 2: hundred and fiftieth birthday, the Trump accounts went live. The
1:53
Speaker 2: Trump accounts, the accounts I wrote the legislation, I created
1:57
Speaker 2: this program. They are now live, our investment accounts for
2:01
Speaker 2: every single child in America, and I believe they are
2:05
Speaker 2: going to have a profound impact for the future of
2:09
Speaker 2: our kids. As our kids are going to experience the
2:12
Speaker 2: miracle of compound growth, and as our kids are going
2:15
Speaker 2: to become capitalists. We had an event this week in
2:18
Speaker 2: the Oval Office with President Trump. I was there. We're
2:21
Speaker 2: going to bring you inside that event with the President.
2:24
Speaker 2: We're going to tell you everything that was happening behind
2:26
Speaker 2: the scenes, celebrating what I think is an announcement that
2:31
Speaker 2: will make a very real difference ten twenty thirty years
2:34
Speaker 2: from now, not to mention fifty seventy five, one hundred
2:37
Speaker 2: years from now. This week is when the Trump accounts launched.
2:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got a lot to talk about, especially taking
2:44
Speaker 1: you behind the scenes on what happened at the White
2:46
Speaker 1: House in just a moment. I also want to talk
2:49
Speaker 1: to you about saying it really important and something that
2:51
Speaker 1: you're going to want to know about. Most people think
2:54
Speaker 1: the battle over funding abortion providers actually ended when Roe v.
2:58
Speaker 1: Wade was overturned. Well it didn't. In fact, abortion providers
3:02
Speaker 1: are doing more business than ever. Just the last fiscal year,
3:06
Speaker 1: the largest abortion enterprise in the nation performed over four
3:10
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand abortions. Now, this is what's even
3:15
Speaker 1: more shocking than that they received more than eight hundred
3:20
Speaker 1: and thirty million dollars in government reimbursements and grants. Yes,
3:25
Speaker 1: that's your tax dollars. That's our money being used to
3:28
Speaker 1: end the lives of innocent preborn babies. At the same time,
3:32
Speaker 1: one of the longest running newspapers in the United States
3:35
Speaker 1: of America also revealed that many abortion facilities showed decrepit
3:40
Speaker 1: quote factory like conditions and locations all across America. And
3:46
Speaker 1: that is why I'm asking for you to help right now,
3:49
Speaker 1: Americans United for Life for more than fifty years, AUL
3:53
Speaker 1: has been the legal backbone of the pro life movement.
3:56
Speaker 1: They literally shaped nearly every major pro life fall across America,
4:01
Speaker 1: and today they're building on that legacy by leading the
4:04
Speaker 1: charge to ensure the abortion industry is defunded forever. AUL
4:10
Speaker 1: is working to make sure your tax dollars no longer
4:13
Speaker 1: pay for abortions, and they're leading the coalition of pro
4:16
Speaker 1: life friends, including three hundred leaders of pregnancy centers. And
4:21
Speaker 1: that is why I want you to step in and help.
4:24
Speaker 1: Aul's goal is real simple. They need your help to
4:27
Speaker 1: make sure big abortion is permanently defunded. And right now,
4:31
Speaker 1: every gift you make to AUL will be tripled through
4:35
Speaker 1: a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars matching challenge. That
4:38
Speaker 1: means your support goes not one, not two, but three
4:41
Speaker 1: times as far to defend unborn children by defunding abortion
4:46
Speaker 1: facilities in America. So please don't wait. Help where you
4:51
Speaker 1: can and make a huge difference. Go to Aul dot org.
4:56
Speaker 1: That's Aul dot org forwards slash verdict. That's Aul dot
5:03
Speaker 1: org forward slash verdict. Give your gift today to have
5:07
Speaker 1: your gift tripled and protect your tax dollars from paying
5:11
Speaker 1: for abortion in America.
5:12
Speaker 3: So Santat that.
5:13
Speaker 1: Trump accounts was really fun. You and I don't. We
5:16
Speaker 1: share schedules, but I don't look at them every day,
5:18
Speaker 1: and I laugh at the trend that's happening. How many
5:20
Speaker 1: times I have to sit on TV waiting for you
5:23
Speaker 1: to talk or waiting for you to finish so that
5:25
Speaker 1: I can then do my hit, And when it happens,
5:28
Speaker 1: it does make me laugh. But the other morning I
5:30
Speaker 1: was on TV and I didn't know they were going
5:31
Speaker 1: to go Trump accounts, and they talked to in your earpiece,
5:34
Speaker 1: so like, Ben, can you talk Trump accounts? And I
5:37
Speaker 1: started laughing. I'm like, yes, I know an awful lot
5:39
Speaker 1: about this. So I then had to wait for Trump
5:41
Speaker 1: to announce this. They were carrying it live on TV
5:44
Speaker 1: and then talk about you and then commentate on something.
5:47
Speaker 3: They're like, do you know about this? And I'm like, yes.
5:49
Speaker 1: It was a really fun moment because I got to
5:52
Speaker 1: advocate for these accounts afterwards. I said, look, don't just
5:54
Speaker 1: set them up for your kids. Do it with your
5:57
Speaker 1: children so they have ownership, so they understand what they're doing.
6:00
Speaker 1: I said, if you're a grandparent watching right now in
6:02
Speaker 1: Fox News, yes, I said, grandparents, get your grandkids. Set
6:06
Speaker 1: up these accounts with the parents. Make this a family event.
6:09
Speaker 1: The kids will understand it. There's an app they can use.
6:12
Speaker 1: Don't do it for them, do it with them, And
6:14
Speaker 1: I hope it was a really cool moment where people afterwards.
6:17
Speaker 1: So that's a great idea because millions of Americans have
6:19
Speaker 1: signed up for these accounts. As you mentioned, I think
6:21
Speaker 1: it's going to completely transform everything. My kids now want
6:24
Speaker 1: to see the app. They want to see what their
6:26
Speaker 1: money's doing, and that's pretty cool.
6:28
Speaker 2: It is the number one app on the App Store
6:31
Speaker 2: since since the moment it launched. Millions of Americans are
6:34
Speaker 2: downloading the app for these Trump accounts, opening them for
6:37
Speaker 2: their kids, and it's going to make just just a
6:41
Speaker 2: massive difference. We were in in the Oval on Monday,
6:45
Speaker 2: and we were there because right at nine point thirty,
6:47
Speaker 2: President Trump got to ring in the bell to the
6:50
Speaker 2: New York Stock Exchange, but also NASDAK and look New
6:54
Speaker 2: York Stock Exchange. In NASDAQ or rival exchanges, they rarely cooperate.
6:58
Speaker 2: The heads of both were there in the Oval, the
7:01
Speaker 2: New York Stock Exchange and NASDAK. There was a giant
7:04
Speaker 2: bell that they brought in that right at nine thirty,
7:08
Speaker 2: Trump grabbed the rope and rang the bell, which is
7:11
Speaker 2: what you do when you list a new company on
7:13
Speaker 2: the Stock Exchange. You can go and ring the bell.
7:16
Speaker 2: And it was a very cool moment in the Oval. Actually,
7:20
Speaker 2: I said, right at nine thirty it was fairly amusing.
7:23
Speaker 2: Actually it was not right at nine thirty that the
7:25
Speaker 2: timing was slightly off because Scott Bess't the Treasury Secretary,
7:29
Speaker 2: was talking and he kept talking, and there was a
7:32
Speaker 2: clock there as it was nine to thirty. Best kept
7:34
Speaker 2: talking and at about nine thirty and like seven seconds
7:37
Speaker 2: Trump basically pushed him beside, said here I got to
7:40
Speaker 2: ring the bell, so awesome Monday. The bell was wrong
7:43
Speaker 2: about seven seconds late.
7:44
Speaker 1: But in TV it was it was a moment late.
7:47
Speaker 1: Was there any significance to the bell that was chosen.
7:50
Speaker 1: We didn't get to hear that on TV and you
7:51
Speaker 1: were in the in the oval for that. Was there
7:53
Speaker 1: a significance because it was a cool looking bell.
7:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a very cool looking bell and it has
7:57
Speaker 2: on it carved Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange and
8:01
Speaker 2: Trump accounts, and they made it for that moment. And
8:04
Speaker 2: Trump said as the event went on, he said, you're
8:06
Speaker 2: not getting this bell back. I'm keeping this bell, which
8:09
Speaker 2: I think everyone anticipated. So the bell will be somewhere
8:12
Speaker 2: in the White House. He said, He's going to put
8:14
Speaker 2: the bell at the ballroom, So somewhere in the ballroom
8:18
Speaker 2: the bell will be there. But it was a very
8:20
Speaker 2: very cool moment. Listen to President Trump talking about the
8:24
Speaker 2: Trump accounts on Monday.
8:27
Speaker 4: Nobody cares about that, right, this is about the Trump accounts,
8:31
Speaker 4: which you're absolutely incredible with children. Children can at the
8:35
Speaker 4: age of eighteen and after it becomes very wealthy. People
8:39
Speaker 4: come into the world with essentially no money and end
8:43
Speaker 4: up a pretty young age being very rich. And that's
8:48
Speaker 4: something that we wanted to do, the countries wanted to
8:51
Speaker 4: do for twenty five years mining Win. Susan, You've been
8:54
Speaker 4: so great. My gerstner Man has been so finandasty. He
8:58
Speaker 4: pushed everybody. It was so good, and I just want
9:01
Speaker 4: to thank everybody. It's a great it's a great on
9:04
Speaker 4: and we'll.
9:04
Speaker 2: Have a little fun and we want to be exactly
9:06
Speaker 2: on time.
9:07
Speaker 4: Are we allowed to be fifteen to twenty thirty seconds lately?
9:11
Speaker 2: Typically nobody? And I'm going to ring that bell and
9:16
Speaker 2: does that bill? Does it stay in the white ask?
9:18
Speaker 1: I'm not giving it back. You gotta love the present
9:24
Speaker 1: there mentioning that bell, Senator. And also I love the
9:26
Speaker 1: fact that you had the kids in the background talking.
9:29
Speaker 1: What a great moment when you're talking about kids accounts
9:31
Speaker 1: having those kids in the room as well well.
9:34
Speaker 2: And those were kids there hearing about their future, about
9:37
Speaker 2: investing for their future, and also about becoming capitalists, becoming
9:41
Speaker 2: investors in the biggest employers in America.
9:44
Speaker 1: All right, Senator, I want to play your comments as
9:46
Speaker 1: well that you made in the oval after the President
9:50
Speaker 1: talked about the importance of these accounts. You shepherd this
9:53
Speaker 1: through the Senate. The President was very appreciative, and that's
9:56
Speaker 1: why you were there. And I want people to hear
9:58
Speaker 1: what you had to say as.
9:59
Speaker 2: Well, mister President, this program. You know a second ago
10:04
Speaker 2: Brad made reference to nineteen thirty five in Social Security.
10:08
Speaker 2: Trump accounts are in many way Donald Trump's new deal.
10:14
Speaker 2: But instead of having government taking care of everyone, Trump
10:19
Speaker 2: accounts are about making every child and every American a capitalist.
10:25
Speaker 2: Every one of our kids is now going to be
10:28
Speaker 2: an owner of the biggest producers in our country. Kids,
10:31
Speaker 2: you guys there, each of you are getting an account.
10:36
Speaker 2: These folks here gave you two hundred and fifty dollars.
10:40
Speaker 2: That's a lot of money that you have right now.
10:44
Speaker 2: And you know what with that two hundred and fifty dollars,
10:47
Speaker 2: You've purchased a little bit of a bunch of big companies.
10:51
Speaker 2: You know, McDonald's. You now own a little bit of McDonald's.
10:57
Speaker 2: When you go to McDonald's, you can look around and say,
11:00
Speaker 2: I own this place. If you get on an airplane
11:04
Speaker 2: and fly you look at a Boeing airplane, you now
11:07
Speaker 2: own a little bit of Boeing. Can you believe it?
11:10
Speaker 2: You're an owner of Boeing. That is transformation that changes
11:17
Speaker 2: the way every child looks at the world and the
11:20
Speaker 2: ability to accumulate life transforming savings, hundreds of thousands, millions
11:25
Speaker 2: of dollars for the kids of single moms. That is powerful,
11:29
Speaker 2: and mister President, in particular, I want to thank you
11:32
Speaker 2: for your unequivocal commitment that this administration, your administration is
11:38
Speaker 2: going to auto enroll every child in America. All seventy
11:42
Speaker 2: million children will have accounts open for them, accounts that
11:46
Speaker 2: can then receive gifts from people like Michael and Susan
11:49
Speaker 2: and Brad. Accounts that let me say to every parent
11:53
Speaker 2: at home, please right now, go to Trump Accounts dot gov.
11:57
Speaker 2: Go to Trump Accounts dot gov. Sign your kids up.
12:00
Speaker 2: To every employer. If you're not contributing to the accounts
12:03
Speaker 2: of the employees of your kids, do so. Now match
12:05
Speaker 2: their contribution, double their contribution. And to philanthropists, go adopt
12:11
Speaker 2: a state, Go adopt your city, Go adopt a school.
12:14
Speaker 2: Go say the kids in my community, the kindergarten class here,
12:19
Speaker 2: We're going to help them get started. This is a moment,
12:22
Speaker 2: I believe transformational to make sure the next two fifty
12:27
Speaker 2: is even better than the first. Thank you as President.
12:34
Speaker 3: Center.
12:34
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I think one of the best things
12:36
Speaker 1: that you said in that moment there was the fact
12:38
Speaker 1: that you paint a picture for other philanthropists. What Michael
12:41
Speaker 1: Dell and his wife have done in others on a grand,
12:44
Speaker 1: nationwide scale is truly incredible. But there are a lot
12:47
Speaker 1: of people that could do this in their hometown. I
12:50
Speaker 1: was thinking of my hometown where I was born raised
12:52
Speaker 1: in Memphis, and there's a company like FedEx that's there,
12:55
Speaker 1: AutoZone that's there, International Paper. Those are three companies that
12:59
Speaker 1: could say we're going to the city as you just
13:01
Speaker 1: mentioned or the county and have a massive impact and
13:04
Speaker 1: donate into these accounts. I hope that there's a lot
13:07
Speaker 1: of philanthropists, a lot of businesses that will look at
13:10
Speaker 1: their hometown. Whether it's a place like you know, Milwaukee
13:13
Speaker 1: and Harley Davison are Ford in a place like Detroit.
13:17
Speaker 1: You never know how that could change different cities in
13:20
Speaker 1: a major way as well.
13:21
Speaker 2: Well. The way we designed the program, the way I
13:24
Speaker 2: wrote the legislation, every newborn child has one thousand dollars
13:29
Speaker 2: automatically seeded into the account. So if you have a
13:31
Speaker 2: baby this year, one thousand bucks immediately appears in that account,
13:35
Speaker 2: and then parents and family and employers can invest up
13:38
Speaker 2: to five thousand a year. In a tax advantaged account
13:41
Speaker 2: and all of that money gets put in the stock market.
13:44
Speaker 2: And the S and P. Five hundred and we deliberately
13:49
Speaker 2: wrote it so that there were two accelerators to make
13:53
Speaker 2: the capital appreciation happen more quickly. Number one employers contributing
13:58
Speaker 2: and matching. And this is a big deal. Think about
14:01
Speaker 2: four oh one k's. Yeah, you know, over seventy years ago,
14:07
Speaker 2: Congress passed section four oh one k of ARISA, and
14:11
Speaker 2: at the time, I doubt anyone in Congress understood how
14:16
Speaker 2: fundamentally they were changing how Americans save for retirements. Trump
14:21
Speaker 2: accounts are four oh one k's for kids. Today, there's
14:26
Speaker 2: more than twelve trillion dollars invested in four oh one k's.
14:31
Speaker 2: In very short order, you're going to see trillions of
14:34
Speaker 2: dollars invested in Trump accounts for kids. And one of
14:39
Speaker 2: the reasons there's so much invested in four O one
14:41
Speaker 2: k's is most employers, certainly most large employers, either contribute
14:46
Speaker 2: to their employees four oh one k's or they match
14:49
Speaker 2: contributions to four O one k's, and so that accelerates
14:52
Speaker 2: the growth a lot. There are hundreds of companies that
14:57
Speaker 2: have already announced that they are either going to contribute
15:00
Speaker 2: or match contributions to TRUMP accounts. And I think this
15:04
Speaker 2: is going to become a ubiquitous employee benefit, just like
15:07
Speaker 2: matching four O one k's. I think it's going to
15:10
Speaker 2: be a standard. You go to work at any big
15:11
Speaker 2: company and the company is going to say, ben you
15:13
Speaker 2: contribute to your kids TRUMP accounts, will match, will put
15:17
Speaker 2: money in. And the reason that's so important is if
15:21
Speaker 2: you look at compound growth, the numbers get really really big.
15:25
Speaker 2: But what matters is is how much you get in early.
15:28
Speaker 2: Because the longer you invest and the more you get
15:31
Speaker 2: in early, the more those numbers grow and the bigger
15:35
Speaker 2: they get. And so that accelerator is really big. The
15:39
Speaker 2: second accelerator is we wrote the legislation so that these
15:44
Speaker 2: counts can accept philanthropic gifts, that people can give money
15:49
Speaker 2: to kids, particularly need kids. And so the pioneer on this,
15:54
Speaker 2: the lead investor was Michael and Susan Dell. Michael and
15:59
Speaker 2: Susan from Texas Austin. They're both very good friends of mine,
16:04
Speaker 2: worth over two hundred billion dollars. Well, they announced six
16:07
Speaker 2: and a quarter billion dollars they're giving away and they're
16:11
Speaker 2: getting away two hundred and fifty dollars to every child
16:15
Speaker 2: under age ten who lives in a zip code where
16:19
Speaker 2: the median income is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
16:22
Speaker 2: or less. And that means kids whose parents might not
16:25
Speaker 2: have the money to invest are going to start with
16:27
Speaker 2: that two point fifty. And we're seeing lots of other
16:30
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs doing the same. Brad Gerson Gershner, who we've had
16:35
Speaker 2: on this show. He's a very good friend of mine.
16:37
Speaker 2: The Trump accounts were his idea. He's adopted the kids
16:40
Speaker 2: in the state of Indiana. Ray Dalio has adopted the
16:43
Speaker 2: kids in Connecticut. That is going to be a massive
16:46
Speaker 2: accelerator to speeding up kids accumulating assets.
16:51
Speaker 1: I want to go back a week before this moment
16:54
Speaker 1: in the Oval office, because you've got some pretty interesting
16:57
Speaker 1: details and stories to tell from a week in advance.
16:59
Speaker 1: So let's go back to that and talk about what
17:01
Speaker 1: was happening behind the scenes.
17:03
Speaker 2: Well, there were a number of policy questions that were
17:06
Speaker 2: being sorted out the week before that that that got
17:09
Speaker 2: a little bumpy, And one of the things we try
17:11
Speaker 2: to do in Verdict is take you behind the scenes
17:13
Speaker 2: to what actually happens, how how the sausage got made.
17:18
Speaker 2: There were three big questions that a week out were unresolved.
17:22
Speaker 2: Number one, the Treasury Department. The career lawyers there, frankly
17:28
Speaker 2: have been resisting this program from the beginning. When I
17:30
Speaker 2: wrote the legislation over a year ago. The career lawyers
17:34
Speaker 2: at Treasury didn't want to do it. They fought me
17:36
Speaker 2: every step of the way.
17:38
Speaker 3: By the way, what was the logic behind that?
17:41
Speaker 2: You know, it's hard, we don't know how to do this.
17:44
Speaker 2: This is going to be really difficult to have accounts
17:46
Speaker 2: for every kid. We don't. It was just bureaucratic inertia,
17:50
Speaker 2: and and they just raised obstacle abster obstacle, and I
17:54
Speaker 2: had to link arms with the White House and just
17:56
Speaker 2: ram it through, like like which part of all legens
18:00
Speaker 2: slate of power is vested in Congress? Are you confused about?
18:03
Speaker 2: They also had ridiculous arguments like well, no, no, we
18:07
Speaker 2: can't do this because the existing privacy laws don't let
18:10
Speaker 2: us do that. It's like, yeah, okay, Congress wrote those
18:13
Speaker 2: privacy laws. We're writing this law. Now we can change
18:17
Speaker 2: the law. That's called legislating. And they just were dug in.
18:23
Speaker 2: I mean, it was a year long battle. So the
18:26
Speaker 2: three issues that a week out were real problems. Number One,
18:32
Speaker 2: the career Treasury lawyers came back and said, Okay, when
18:37
Speaker 2: a philanthropist is giving a gift, you can only put
18:41
Speaker 2: one criterion on it. You can't put two or three
18:44
Speaker 2: criteria on it. And so let's take Michael Dell's gift.
18:49
Speaker 2: They came and said, look, I'm sorry, Dell cannot give
18:53
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty dollars to every child under ten
18:58
Speaker 2: in every zip code where the media income is under
19:01
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They said, can't do it.
19:03
Speaker 2: He's got to pick one or the other. He can
19:05
Speaker 2: give it to all the kids under ten, He could
19:07
Speaker 2: give it to all the kids in Texas if he wants.
19:09
Speaker 2: He could give it to all the kids and zip
19:11
Speaker 2: codes under two hundred fifty under one hundred and fifty
19:16
Speaker 2: thousand median income. And that's just nonsense. I very deliberately
19:20
Speaker 2: wrote the statue so that you could you could turn
19:23
Speaker 2: those dials, you could direct your gift where you believed
19:26
Speaker 2: it would have the greatest impact. But the Treasury lawyers
19:29
Speaker 2: were dug in and that they were literally saying no, sorry,
19:35
Speaker 2: Dell's gift. It's not gonna We're not gonna let it happen.
19:38
Speaker 3: Amazing.
19:39
Speaker 2: So I had Scott Bess at the Treasury Secretary. He
19:43
Speaker 2: and I are friends. He's a good guy. I had
19:45
Speaker 2: been talking to him for a year about the implementation
19:49
Speaker 2: of these Trump accounts, how to ensure they're successful. I
19:53
Speaker 2: went and had breakfast with him several months ago, had
19:55
Speaker 2: a long detailed letter laying out the issues, met with him,
19:58
Speaker 2: talked with him. Scott is a really good guy. But
20:01
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, the career lawyers at Treasury,
20:04
Speaker 2: the deep state were pressing back against Scott and pressing
20:07
Speaker 2: back against the President. So finally, on July one, this
20:12
Speaker 2: was headed to not being the success it needed to be.
20:15
Speaker 2: And so I called the President and I got the
20:18
Speaker 2: President on the phone about eleven thirty at night. At
20:21
Speaker 2: the time, Heidi and nine and the girls, we were
20:23
Speaker 2: on vacation. We went to Florida to the Panhandle. So
20:25
Speaker 2: we're sitting there on vacation, playing at the beach. Really good,
20:28
Speaker 2: you know, good family vacation, And eleven thirty at night,
20:32
Speaker 2: I'm on the phone with the President and I said,
20:34
Speaker 2: Miss President, this is messed up, and I need you
20:38
Speaker 2: to fix it. And there were three issues. Number one,
20:42
Speaker 2: the career lawyers trying to prevent targeting gifts to where
20:46
Speaker 2: the donor wants to target them yep. Number two, Treasury
20:51
Speaker 2: had been resisting allowing individual gifts of stock. So for example,
20:56
Speaker 2: something that happened this week, Gwen Shotwell, the president of SpaceX,
21:02
Speaker 2: announced that she is giving and her husband, She and
21:05
Speaker 2: her husband together are giving three hundred and twenty five
21:08
Speaker 2: million dollars in shares of SpaceX. And those are shares
21:14
Speaker 2: of SpaceX that are going to be directed, I believe
21:16
Speaker 2: to kids eleven to eighteen. She picked a different age
21:18
Speaker 2: window than Dell did, and so kids eleven to eighteen,
21:23
Speaker 2: and she has a few other criteria, they will actually
21:26
Speaker 2: receive a share of SpaceX in their Trump.
21:30
Speaker 1: Account, which is unbelievable based on what that could become.
21:34
Speaker 1: You go back and look at SpaceX's at price, and
21:37
Speaker 1: you look at things like Tesla, You look at things
21:39
Speaker 1: like Walmart, you look at things like I mean.
21:42
Speaker 3: The list goes on Tesla.
21:44
Speaker 1: You look at these companies, what one share is worth
21:47
Speaker 1: can change these kids' lives literally.
21:50
Speaker 2: Well, and I am having multiple conversations with major major
21:55
Speaker 2: company owners and tech entrepreneurs about doing the same thing,
22:00
Speaker 2: and so the accounts being able to receive an actual
22:03
Speaker 2: share of stock. You can think of all of all
22:06
Speaker 2: of the other stocks, whether it's it's it's SpaceX or
22:09
Speaker 2: Tesla or or Google or open Ai or Anthropic. You know,
22:13
Speaker 2: you look at these these big, big companies where I
22:17
Speaker 2: will say, there is real interest in giving stock as
22:22
Speaker 2: a charitable gift to the kids of America, and that
22:26
Speaker 2: really is transformational in terms of growth. I think the
22:30
Speaker 2: growth trajectory of especially those tech stocks, it historically has
22:35
Speaker 2: been incredibly high, and I think it's likely to continue
22:37
Speaker 2: to be very, very high. But Treasury had not not
22:42
Speaker 2: yet put out any guidance that that Trump accounts could
22:45
Speaker 2: accept single stock gifts. So that was the second issue.
22:49
Speaker 2: And then the third issue was auto and roll. I
22:52
Speaker 2: wrote this bill so that every child in America, all
22:56
Speaker 2: seventy million kids, would automatically have an account opened for them,
23:01
Speaker 2: that you wouldn't have to do anything to go and
23:04
Speaker 2: affirmatively open the account. Rather, if you're a kid, you're
23:07
Speaker 2: under eighteen, the government opens the account. It is there
23:10
Speaker 2: for you. The reason auto and roll matters so much
23:15
Speaker 2: if you look at there have been states that have
23:17
Speaker 2: done similar things to what this program is. If you
23:19
Speaker 2: look at Rhode Island at Oklahoma, for example, they've done
23:22
Speaker 2: similar things. In one of them they had opt in,
23:28
Speaker 2: in another they had auto en roll. The one that
23:30
Speaker 2: had opt in, only fifty percent of the kids participated.
23:33
Speaker 2: The one that had auto and roll, ninety nine percent
23:36
Speaker 2: of the kids participated. So the difference is massive. If
23:39
Speaker 2: you don't have if you don't have auto enroll, a
23:43
Speaker 2: large chunk of kids will never get the account. And
23:46
Speaker 2: I want every kid, And in fact, it's worse than that.
23:49
Speaker 2: The ones who are less likely to go open the
23:51
Speaker 2: account are low income kids, are kids whose families are
23:56
Speaker 2: not financially sophisticated. And the entire point of this program, frankly,
24:01
Speaker 2: it's not for the kids of rich people. The kids
24:03
Speaker 2: kids of rich people can use it, but those parents
24:06
Speaker 2: are often already working with their kids to invest. That's
24:09
Speaker 2: already part of what they're doing with their kids. The
24:12
Speaker 2: reason I'm so excited about this program, it is the
24:15
Speaker 2: kid of a single mom who herself doesn't know anything
24:20
Speaker 2: about the market. That kid will have an account and
24:23
Speaker 2: will learn about compound growth, will learn about ownership. You know,
24:28
Speaker 2: when I was talking to the kids that were in
24:30
Speaker 2: the oval, and I was explaining, you guys just got
24:32
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty dollars, and I was pointing to
24:34
Speaker 2: Michael and Susan Dell behind me. They gave you two
24:37
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars. And you couldn't see that on
24:39
Speaker 2: the video. But the kids, who were really cute, they
24:42
Speaker 2: were all, I would say, kind of seven to ten
24:44
Speaker 2: years old, the sort of look of wonder what somebody
24:47
Speaker 2: gave me two hundred and fifty dollars. Wow, And explaining
24:51
Speaker 2: to them you now own McDonald's, not all of it,
24:55
Speaker 2: but you own a little bit of it. You own Boweing,
24:57
Speaker 2: you own Apple. That is really what gets me excited
25:03
Speaker 2: about this. But on auto en roll, the career lawyers
25:08
Speaker 2: and Treasury were fighting tooth and nail. So I got
25:10
Speaker 2: President Trump on the phone eleven thirty at night, I
25:13
Speaker 2: think it was July one, explained to him those three
25:17
Speaker 2: issues and said, look, this is a problem. You care
25:20
Speaker 2: deeply about this program, and the career lawyers at Treasury
25:23
Speaker 2: are blocking it. He said, Ted, let me call Scott.
25:26
Speaker 2: I'll call you right back. So he hung up the phone.
25:28
Speaker 2: He called bess't I will say the conversation, I feel confident,
25:34
Speaker 2: was frank and candid, and there may have been some
25:38
Speaker 2: words used that are at least PG if not R rated.
25:44
Speaker 1: If you've ever met the other end of one of
25:45
Speaker 1: those phone calls, I have, you have as well. I'm
25:49
Speaker 1: pretty sure. Yeah, they're usually up there in the PG
25:52
Speaker 1: thirteen plus, says scenario. And if he's not happy, he
25:54
Speaker 1: lets you know right away. You know where you stand.
25:58
Speaker 2: And so then twenty thirty minutes later, about midnight, I
26:01
Speaker 2: get a call from Besson's Who's Scott's really mad at
26:04
Speaker 2: me now? And so Scott's yelling and dropping some F
26:07
Speaker 2: bombs in my direction and he's like, you know, why
26:10
Speaker 2: do you get the president all spun up? And I'm like, Scott,
26:12
Speaker 2: I've been talking to you about these issues for a year.
26:16
Speaker 2: It is July one, The program is going live on
26:19
Speaker 2: July fourth. I said, listen, you want this to be
26:22
Speaker 2: a total success. I want this to be a total success.
26:24
Speaker 2: We're on the same page. We just need to get
26:27
Speaker 2: it done. Yeah, And so what ended up happening because
26:31
Speaker 2: of those and then I talked to Trump later that night.
26:33
Speaker 2: I talked to him at about seven am the next morning,
26:36
Speaker 2: but he was driving saying fix it, fix it, fix it.
26:39
Speaker 2: Several things happened because of those phone calls. Number One,
26:42
Speaker 2: Treasury put out a guidance saying Trump accounts can receive
26:46
Speaker 2: single stocks, so that you can now get the SpaceX,
26:48
Speaker 2: you can get the kids can get single stocks that
26:51
Speaker 2: are given. That's going to unleash billions and billions in
26:55
Speaker 2: new charity to kids. Number two, they made clear the
26:58
Speaker 2: Dell criteria. Other donor can tailor their gifts. That's now clarified.
27:04
Speaker 1: Senator, I want to go back to something that you
27:06
Speaker 1: mentioned a moment ago, and this fight over auto en roll.
27:09
Speaker 3: People are listening, they're in different states.
27:11
Speaker 1: Is this a DC issue or is this a state
27:15
Speaker 1: advocacy issue where you can get your state to do something.
27:18
Speaker 1: I think it's an important question to ask and answer
27:20
Speaker 1: because you mentioned two states earlier that they did enrollment
27:23
Speaker 1: for their kids accounts a little differently. One was you
27:26
Speaker 1: auto and roll, one was opt in, and it was
27:28
Speaker 1: a big difference. So what should Americans be advocating for
27:32
Speaker 1: right now and where does that go next?
27:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a DC issue, This is a Department
27:36
Speaker 2: of Treasury issue. The two states I mentioned, Rhode Island
27:39
Speaker 2: and Oklahoma. Those were state programs. Those were smaller programs
27:42
Speaker 2: that were sort of similar that they'd set up at
27:44
Speaker 2: the state level. Here. As a result of my conversations
27:48
Speaker 2: with the President and with the Treasury Secretary, what they
27:50
Speaker 2: did do is announced prior to July fourth that the
27:54
Speaker 2: Social Security Administration, when a new child is born, is
27:58
Speaker 2: going to work with that with child's pay parents to
28:00
Speaker 2: open a Trump account at the time of birth. It's
28:03
Speaker 2: unclear if that is full auto and roll, but it
28:07
Speaker 2: is at least a significant step in the direction of
28:10
Speaker 2: auto and roll. That's helpful because if we get auto
28:13
Speaker 2: and roll on birth, that's a good thing. You get
28:15
Speaker 2: about three point seven million newborns a year, so that
28:18
Speaker 2: automatically opening those accounts matters. They have yet to do
28:24
Speaker 2: auto and roll for all kids up to age eighteen.
28:28
Speaker 2: They are about seventy million kids in America that are
28:31
Speaker 2: under eighteen. My objective is every one of them will
28:35
Speaker 2: have an account. Why is that important? It's important? Number
28:38
Speaker 2: one because that account, once open, can be a vehicle
28:42
Speaker 2: for the philanthropy. You look at the Michael Dell Gift.
28:46
Speaker 2: If a kid doesn't have an account, he can't get
28:48
Speaker 2: the money. Michael Dell is getting. He can't get the
28:50
Speaker 2: share of SpaceX that Gwen Shotwell is getting. You have
28:54
Speaker 2: to have an account to have a bucket to be
28:56
Speaker 2: able to receive that philanthropy. And the purpose of this
29:01
Speaker 2: is to get everyone to get kids understanding what it
29:06
Speaker 2: means to be an owner, to be an investor, to
29:08
Speaker 2: have a stake in the economy. That's what got me
29:11
Speaker 2: so excited about this idea and where it stands. You know,
29:15
Speaker 2: if you listen back to what I said at the
29:17
Speaker 2: Oval Office, I said at the Oval and very importantly,
29:21
Speaker 2: President Trump is committed to auto enrolling all seventy million kids.
29:25
Speaker 2: I said that in the Oval. Now the President has
29:28
Speaker 2: said that before, Scott Besson has said that before. But again,
29:32
Speaker 2: the Treasury career staff, the lawyers are still fighting back.
29:36
Speaker 2: We're gonna get it done. I believe we will get
29:39
Speaker 2: all seventy million auto enrolled. It hasn't happened yet. Millions
29:43
Speaker 2: of kids have enrolled, have gone and gotten the app
29:45
Speaker 2: and enrolled, so there's already a lot that has happened.
29:49
Speaker 2: But my objective is, and I'd like to see it
29:52
Speaker 2: in the next sixty days, all seventy million kids have
29:57
Speaker 2: the account opened. And by the way, one of the
30:00
Speaker 2: arguments the Treasury staff pushes back is they say, well,
30:02
Speaker 2: what about fraud, What if an account is fraudulent? And
30:05
Speaker 2: my response is, look open the account and you can
30:09
Speaker 2: have and you're required to have a Sobial security number.
30:13
Speaker 2: So this was designed so it illegal. Aliens are not eligible.
30:16
Speaker 2: You have to have a Sobial security number. But I said, look, fraud.
30:21
Speaker 2: You can check fraud on the back end, and you
30:23
Speaker 2: can vigorously check fraud on the back end to make
30:26
Speaker 2: sure that a kid is a real kid, that they're
30:29
Speaker 2: the person, and that it's not somebody else. That doesn't
30:32
Speaker 2: stop you from opening the account because when you open
30:34
Speaker 2: the account, at least initially the account is in government custody,
30:38
Speaker 2: so there's not a fraud risk until the money is
30:42
Speaker 2: going physically to another person. You can check fraud on
30:45
Speaker 2: the back end. The long and short of it is
30:47
Speaker 2: I have a high level of confidence. And I will
30:50
Speaker 2: say after the event, I stayed in the Oval with
30:53
Speaker 2: President Trump and Michael and Susan Dall and Brad Gershner,
30:56
Speaker 2: and we stayed for another thirty forty minutes, just the
31:00
Speaker 2: five of us talking about the need for auto and
31:04
Speaker 2: roll and the President was unequivocal we are going to
31:07
Speaker 2: get it done, and so I'm confident we're going to
31:11
Speaker 2: But that is a really big deal.
31:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is all right.
31:14
Speaker 1: I got to ask the cynical question as well, and
31:16
Speaker 1: there's people there going to say Democrats may try to
31:19
Speaker 1: undo this down the road. Do they have the power?
31:23
Speaker 1: Is this one of those things like once it's there,
31:24
Speaker 1: it's there. They can't shut it off and unwind it
31:28
Speaker 1: and undo it easily. Because this is something I hope
31:31
Speaker 1: stays indefinitely.
31:33
Speaker 2: You know that there is very little opportunity for Democrat
31:37
Speaker 2: mischief on this because this is not a government program.
31:40
Speaker 2: That is the government, say, you know, providing ongoing welfare,
31:45
Speaker 2: doing ongoing things. What this is simply is creating these accounts.
31:50
Speaker 2: The one thousand dollars seating is automatic, but at the
31:53
Speaker 2: end of it, the money is the kids. So look,
31:56
Speaker 2: if the money was the government's, the government could use
31:59
Speaker 2: them for something bad. But think about your four oh
32:01
Speaker 2: one k, think about your IRA. Yes it's the government
32:05
Speaker 2: that created the vehicle a four oh one k account
32:08
Speaker 2: or IRA account that you could invest it. But you're
32:11
Speaker 2: not terribly worried about the government coming in and spending
32:14
Speaker 2: your four oh one k on something that you don't
32:17
Speaker 2: approve of, it's yours, you control it. That's the way
32:20
Speaker 2: we structure this. Also, these are four to oh one
32:23
Speaker 2: k's for kids. A couple other points on this. The
32:27
Speaker 2: Trump administration has been very vocal about wanting to take
32:32
Speaker 2: equity stakes of companies. So, for example, they took an
32:34
Speaker 2: equity stake of Intel. They're talking about wanting an equity
32:38
Speaker 2: stake of open Ai. I've expressed very real concerns. I
32:43
Speaker 2: don't like the government owning parts of companies. I think
32:46
Speaker 2: that is a very bad precedent. Your question, what happens
32:49
Speaker 2: when the Democrats take over. Look, if the government is
32:52
Speaker 2: a major shareholder in companies, they will use that power
32:56
Speaker 2: for bad ends. So I don't like that outcome. I'll
33:00
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what I'm suggesting to President Trump. All right,
33:02
Speaker 2: if you want to take equity stakes and companies, rather
33:06
Speaker 2: than have the government keep those stakes, take the five
33:10
Speaker 2: or ten percent of Intel or open Ai or what
33:13
Speaker 2: have you, and put them in kids Trump accounts, give
33:16
Speaker 2: them to the people, get them out of Washington. That
33:21
Speaker 2: that is perfectly okay and could end up having an
33:24
Speaker 2: enormous value because again, the more you accumulate quickly, the
33:30
Speaker 2: faster these accounts grow, and the beauty of that is,
33:34
Speaker 2: once the money goes to the kid's accounts, the danger
33:37
Speaker 2: of government mischief is substantially lower. I will point out
33:42
Speaker 2: there are multiple Democrats now celebrating the Trump accounts. I
33:46
Speaker 2: want you to listen to Wesmore, Democrat, governor of Maryland,
33:49
Speaker 2: talking about the Trump accounts.
33:51
Speaker 5: I will give this administration credit for this is that
33:54
Speaker 5: we've had Democratic presidences and Republican presidents who have not
33:57
Speaker 5: been able to get this done, and it actually got done.
34:01
Speaker 5: So I actually this is actually a smart policy. I
34:06
Speaker 5: hate the fact that.
34:06
Speaker 3: He called the Trump accounts.
34:09
Speaker 2: And here's Democrat Corey Booker also praising the accounts.
34:14
Speaker 6: American Opportunity accounts, or baby bonds are now live. These
34:18
Speaker 6: are private tax advantage, interest bearing savings accounts that will
34:22
Speaker 6: be assigned to every child's Social Security number at birth.
34:27
Speaker 6: Senator Corey Booker says each account will start with one
34:30
Speaker 6: thousand dollars from the federal government.
34:33
Speaker 2: We're doing this today.
34:34
Speaker 3: But twenty twenty five years from now, the ground that
34:38
Speaker 3: we're seeing is going to re harvest beyond our dreams
34:41
Speaker 3: that were truly astonished each and.
34:43
Speaker 6: Every one of us and roorid issue. Senator Booker has
34:46
Speaker 6: been looking forward to making this possible for years. He
34:49
Speaker 6: believed this will help close the racial and economic wealth
34:52
Speaker 6: gap by allowing every child to benefit from the financial
34:56
Speaker 6: power of compound interest.
34:58
Speaker 1: Senator, this goes back to exactly what you said when
35:01
Speaker 1: you hear Republicans and sim leading Democrats saying the same thing,
35:04
Speaker 1: it's a great day for this country.
35:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And look to be clear, Corey Booker
35:09
Speaker 2: voted against the Trump accounts, and he did have an
35:12
Speaker 2: idea which he calls baby bonds, which is opening savings
35:16
Speaker 2: accounts for people that just pay interest. I would say
35:19
Speaker 2: the baby bonds are kind of the kissing cousin of
35:22
Speaker 2: this idea. But what makes this idea so powerful is
35:24
Speaker 2: it's not interest. It is equity. It is ownership in
35:27
Speaker 2: the stock market that is powerful. But that being said,
35:31
Speaker 2: I welcome the support of Corey Booker. I welcome the
35:34
Speaker 2: support of Wesmore and other Democrats. This is transformational victories
35:39
Speaker 2: for our kids, and I'm glad to see Democrats supporting
35:42
Speaker 2: it and celebrating it as well.