President Donald Trump recently touted the $1,000 that babies can receive when their parents open Trump Accounts in their names. The tax-advantaged accounts can be opened for any child under the age of 18, and more than 7 million accounts are already active.

How Trump Accounts Work

The accounts are designed to give every parent the opportunity to invest in their children’s future, not just wealthy families with trust funds. After the Trump Accounts are set up, parents, relatives, friends, and employers can contribute to them. The money is turned over to private firms that invest it in index funds, a type of mutual fund that tracks the performance of the stock market. The money can’t be accessed until the child turns 18, and only then for specific purposes, such as going to school, opening a business, or buying a home.

Some parents who opened accounts earlier this month for their babies say they’re still waiting for their $1,000 in seed money from the U.S. Treasury. The Treasury Department said that the lag between opening an account and receiving the seed funding constitutes ‘standard processing time, like receiving a tax refund,’ and that the overwhelming majority of parents are waiting only one to two days.

Support for Trump Accounts

Boosters of the program say it’s a chance to give more Americans a stake in the stock market. They hope it will stem the rising popularity of democratic socialists, who seek to raise taxes on corporations and wealthy people to ease the cost of things like food and healthcare for low-income and middle-class Americans.

Original reporting: Texarkana Gazette — read the source article.