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QJuanisha Green was checking her emails when she saw one from the IRS, which gave her pause. The subject line of the email was titled “Claim your child’s Trump account today!” »
“I asked myself, ‘Is this a legitimate IRS website?’ » said the mother of two from Philadelphia. The email explains that nearly 70 million Trump accounts were created for children under 18 with valid Social Security numbers, whether their parents wanted them or not.
“I don’t know how I feel about it,” recalls Green, a business consultant and department chair at a college.
President Donald Trump announced automatic enrollment in Trump Accounts – a new type of individual retirement account for those under 18 – during an event in the Oval Office on October 7.
Children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 are eligible for a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the government, but parents must request this contribution. Parents must also claim the Trump account before they can manage it.
Older children are also eligible for a Trump account, although they are not eligible for the $1,000. Some parents, however, said they knew nothing about the accounts until they were notified by the IRS that an account had been set up.
And there is no way to opt out of automatic account opening.
Once a Trump account has been claimed, it currently cannot be closed, regardless of how the account was created, according to a Treasury official. The email Green received from the IRS, seen by The Independent, encouraged her to download the Trump Accounts app to activate her children’s accounts.
“Created by President Donald J. Trump’s landmark tax cuts for working families legislation, Trump accounts help children build long-term savings and participate in America’s economic future,” the email said.
The president’s branding was off-putting to Green, but his children, ages 10 and 14, automatically have a Trump account against his wishes.
“When he gave the instruction to go to the special Trump website, I was like, OK, I’m definitely not going to sign up because anything associated with this president in that way, I’m just like, ‘No, thanks!'” she said. “I don’t want to be associated with this in any form.”
Green’s other concerns were about protecting her children’s personal data.
“I just have a lack of confidence in this administration, especially with everything they did earlier around Elon Musk and his potential access to the IRS database,” she said, referring to the chaos inside the billionaire’s now-defunct Department of Government Effectiveness.
Musk requested access to IRS systems containing sensitive taxpayer data. It ultimately failed after a major outcry, but a judge ruled last week that the Office of Personnel Management violated federal law by sharing other sensitive government information about federal employees with Musk’s DOGE agents.
Texas mom Kate Pospisil, who lives near Austin, said she was “horrified” that her 5-year-old daughter had a Trump account without her consent.
“The fact that a government entity could open a financial account run by a bank and a brokerage firm in my daughter’s name without my consent, without my approval, without any signage or anything… it’s horrible,” she said. The Independent.
“There should have been an opt-out option for my child and for my family,” added the 39-year-old digital advertising editor.
For Pospisil, his problem with the Trump account isn’t so much about the name “Trump.”
“I don’t want anyone to make a decision for my child other than his father, without my consent,” she explained. “We are the adults responsible for his well-being and his transition to adulthood, and I feel like a valid parental decision has been overturned by the government. And to me, that’s very troubling, regardless of who’s in charge.”
Treasury designated Bank of New York Mellon to support the Trump Accounts program and the bank partnered with Robinhood Securities as its initial brokerage provider and fiduciary.
This does not suit Pospisil. “I don’t know what information was shared with these private entities,” she explained. “I understand that the government has this information, but these private entities didn’t have it before October 1, and now they have it, and they have it without my consent. And to me, that’s a huge problem.”
Neither Green’s nor Pospisil’s children qualify for the $1,000 government contribution and have said they are not going to “activate” and claim their children’s Trump accounts. But the accounts themselves will still exist.
Outside donors can still contribute to unclaimed accounts. Automatic enrollment allows eligible children to begin benefiting from eligible philanthropic and government contributions as soon as possible, according to a Treasury official.
Experts encouraged parents to try to separate politics from financial aspects.
“I can understand why some parents feel uncomfortable with the government automatically opening an investment account in their child’s name,” said Liliya Rose Strong, an investor and mother of two. “But personally, I try to keep politics out of my investment decisions.”
“Both of my children were born before 2025, so neither of them qualifies for the $1,000 federal contribution,” she added. “But if they did, I would happily accept it while continuing to invest in their 529 plans.”
But for parents like Green and Pospisil, that’s easier said than done and they have no intention of demanding accountability from their children.
“We weren’t necessarily comfortable with a government account that didn’t have a lot of information about it,” Pospisil said.
“There are still a lot of unanswered questions,” Green added.
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