Monday marked a historic day at the White House for two reasons: it was the first time a sitting president rang the opening bell of the stock market from the Oval Office, and the occasion was used to mark the launch of Trump Accounts, the new children’s investment program at the center of the administration’s economic messaging.
President Donald Trump rang the bell jointly for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq (that itself a first, since the two exchanges had never opened trading together) surrounded by Cabinet officials, CEOs and the Dell billionaire family behind the largest private gift to the program.
Ahead of the bell-ringing, Treasury Department officials disclosed on a call with reporters that more than 6 million children have signed up for Trump Accounts since enrollment opened earlier this year, and that 1.4 million of them are eligible for the $1,000 federal seed deposit—a total of roughly $1.4 billion in government money already earmarked for the accounts.
“On launch day, eligible children who have activated their account saw their $1,000,” one Treasury official said on the call. “Other contributions will be invested after that, on the sixth. On the Fourth of July, the market was obviously closed.”
