The Fourth of July was not only a day to celebrate our country’s independence. It marks the date of a new kind of investment account for children of citizens who are under 18 and who have Social Security account numbers. The Trump Accounts (530A accounts) are a brilliant idea. Often compared to “starter IRA accounts,” the children are the owners of the accounts, which are to be managed by a responsible adult -- guardian or parent. Funds in these accounts must be conservatively invested in U.S. stock index funds. Fund fees must be low -- no more than 0.1%. Contributions are not deductible, but growth of the accounts is tax-deferred. Except for rare cases, like the death of the beneficiary, the funds cannot be withdrawn until the child reaches 18, at which point they are taxed as ordinary income at the child’s rate -- which normally will be small if the funds are withdrawn while young. Once the child reaches 18, the Trump account automatically converts to a standard traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Employers, charities, or family members can contribute with annual contributions for each account limited to $5,000. Even sweeter, employers can contribute up to $2,500 tax-free to accounts. Sweeter yet, for those children born between 2025 and 2028, there will be a federal contribution of $1,000 to start the account off.

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To open one of these accounts, use IRS Form 4547 or use the online portal trumpaccounts.gov.

A number of private individuals and foundations, notably Michael and Susan Dell, have kicked in a lot to these accounts -- the Dells over $6 billion while SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and her husband contributed SpaceX stock valued at over $300 million. Aside from these standalone gifts, hundreds of institutions, companies, and philanthropists have made or pledged contributions.

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On July 9, just five days after these accounts went into effect, the popularity of the program was manifest:

@EricLDaugh

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JUST IN: In a MASSIVE shock to the Fake News, Trump Accounts in 5 days have received a SURGE of +$125 MILLION DOLLARS for America's children -- that's not even counting $1,000 seed money and wealthy donor contributions. 6.5 MILLION American children have accounts, and a vast majority of contributions are below $250, per Washington Examiner THIS IS BECOMING A HUGE WIN The benefits of this will be felt for generations. Imagine the compounding interest these kids will see when they are grown! 

According to Washington Examiner:

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Beyond the money itself, the Trump Accounts app has performed remarkably compared to other federal government tech rollouts, holding the top overall spot in the Apple App Store. Its average rating of 4.75 stars across nearly 3,500 reviews gives it better marks than the Robinhood app.

For comparison, the 2013 rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s Healthcare.gov website was plagued by numerous technical glitches that were well documented in media reports at the time. A leaked internal memo from the Obama administration showed that only six individuals were able to enroll the first day the website went live, and there were just 248 enrollments by the end of the first 48 hours.

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The Trump administration acknowledged anecdotal evidence that some Trump Accounts users are seeing errors but stressed that “99.9% of users have not encountered any hiccups and that customer support was working quickly with the 0.1% of cases that require assistance.” A Treasury Department official claimed that users have waited, on average, “0.2 seconds when contacting customer support by phone and 0.5 seconds when contacting via chat.”

Even some frequent critics of the president have given Trump Accounts glowing reviews. In a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane Show, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) likened the program to baby bonds, calling it “one of the fastest ways that you can address both child poverty and the racial wealth gap.”

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“I will give this administration credit for this, is that we’ve had Democratic presidents and Republican presidents who have not been able to get this done, and it actually got done,” Moore added. “So I actually, this is actually a smart policy.”

Consider the genius of this program. It encourages millions of people, many of whom are not investors, to become actual stakeholders in our economy. (Not the pretend kind of stakeholder the left promotes -- vague hordes of people with no skin in the game who are to be given a share of control.) Smart children will start to watch the stock market and learn about compounding and why it matters. For children who would not otherwise have assets in their youth for further education, to buy a car or residence, or start a business, this gives them a leg up once available only to those the beneficiaries of generational wealth.

DAVID SACKS: “One of the numbers that I saw that was kind of amazing… again, it just goes back to the power of compounding… Is that if a Trump Account had been maxed out and you have the standard market rate of return that we’ve had for, say the past 30 years… Then by age 28, that kid will be a millionaire.”

For some, other investment options might be more advantageous, but generally speaking, the overall benefits for society are huge and include: encouraging household savings to take advantage of the tax-deferred benefits; increasing the wealth and personal savings level of the beneficiaries. Kids under 18 might want to help reach that $5,000 annual contribution maximum by deferring spending to add to their accounts on their own from personal earnings (paper routes may be dying, but there’s babysitting and lawn cutting).

A few countries have some sort of saving programs to provide a financial boost for minors: the UK, Israel, Singapore, various Indian states, and Canada. They vary in different respects from each other. But the Trump Funds are uniquely American in that by specifying investment in equity funds and converting these funds to IRAs when the beneficiaries reach 18, they set the stage for long-term participation in the stock market, something worth encouraging from both an individual and national viewpoint.

Now, what’s needed is middle school stock-watching programs.