Israel Anthem doesn’t want a Trump account for his 14-month-old daughter.
“I’m not setting up one for my daughter,” the 38-year-old Nashville father told Fortune. “I’ll put $1,000 of my own money in an account before I do that.”
Nearly 70 million Trump accounts have been created through automatic enrollment, White House spokesman Matthew Middleton told Fortune, and more than $8 billion has already been deposited nationwide, according to a Treasury official. But parents still need to claim those accounts to manage them and request the $1,000 federal contribution for an eligible child. As of July, Treasury data showed more than 6.5 million families had signed up, including more than 1.5 million children eligible for the $1,000.
Employers have money riding on that step, too. By August, more than 50 companies had committed to contributing to Trump accounts for employees’ children, according to the Treasury Department, with employers including Bank of America, BlackRock, and Charles Schwab pledging to match the $1,000. For some parents, though, the money comes with a name they don’t want attached to their kid.
“I don’t want to put my daughter’s name on something attached to Trump for the rest of her life,” he said.
The program is meant to give children a cushion long before they have a paycheck of their own. Created under Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending law, Trump accounts are a type of individual retirement account for children. A one-time $1,000 federal contribution is available to eligible U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028 who have valid Social Security numbers.
Parents, relatives, and employers can add money, generally subject to a combined annual limit of $5,000 during childhood. The funds go into qualifying low-cost stock index funds, giving the savings time to grow, although returns aren’t guaranteed. Withdrawals are generally restricted until the calendar year the child turns 18, when traditional IRA rules begin to apply, including potential taxes and early-withdrawal penalties.
The financial appeal hasn’t eased Anthem’s distrust, though. “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 emphasized the program’s potential to help children build wealth. “With Trump Accounts, President Trump has secured a signature economic achievement designed to help every American child build savings and support a stronger financial future,” Middleton said.
The idea of giving children government-funded savings was around before Trump put his name on the accounts. In 2018, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey proposed giving every American newborn a $1,000 account, followed by annual government deposits of up to $2,000 depending on family income. His American Opportunity Accounts proposal, often called “baby bonds,” were aimed at narrowing wealth inequality.
Booker has since backed Trump accounts, joining Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a letter urging Fortune 1000 CEOs to contribute. In it, the senators wrote that the accounts “ensure that every American child is an immediate shareholder in America’s largest companies.”
When free money feels personal
For parents like Anthem, though, the issue isn’t what the accounts invest in. It’s whose name is on them.
It’s a reaction that fits a broader pattern in how people think about money, according to Scott Rick, a University of Michigan marketing professor who studies financial decisions and their role in relationships. Research on mental accounting suggests that labels and earmarks shape how people feel about money and how they use it, he said.
“When money is psychologically tainted, we often avoid it,” he told Fortune. “For many, the $1,000 Trump account contribution is the fruit of a poisonous tree.”
Deciding on a child’s behalf adds another layer, Rick said. Parents are weighing what they can provide financially against the values they want to pass down, and either choice can feel like doing right by their kid.
“How could I possibly make my child an implicit Trump supporter? How could I possibly deprive my child of free money, especially in this economy? Good parents could ask both questions,” he said.
Parents who accept the money may share those objections but feel they can’t afford to pass it up, Rick said. Others find it easier to separate their feelings about Trump from the financial benefit for their child.
“Some people are just more capable of ‘separating the art from the artist,’ so to speak,” he said. “Indeed, there is some rationality to accepting the windfall here.”
Parents are also taking to online forums to get advice from others in hopes of distinguishing between accepting the government contribution and investing their own money.
“Free money is free money,” one Reddit user wrote in the NewParents subreddit, adding that Trump-supporting relatives were welcome to contribute. The commenter said their own savings would go into their state’s 529 college savings account instead.
Another Reddit commenter said they planned to open an account for their son, pointing to their own experience still paying off college and postgraduate loans at nearly 40. “I see it as a benefit for my child rather than anything political,” the commenter wrote. “I wouldn’t care whose name was on the account, but that’s just me.”
Anthem has little interest in claiming his daughter’s account. Even with the financial pressures of parenthood, he said he would rather put aside his own money than accept a benefit so closely associated with a president he opposes.
“We’ll find money other ways,” he said.
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