Baby's first stock portfolio: Trump marks 'Trump Accounts' launch with historic bell-ringing

For the first time ever, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have jointly rung their bells from the White House.

President Trump rang the opening bells of both exchanges from the Oval Office on Monday, marking the official launch of Trump Accounts for children.

'Children, at the age of 18 and after, become very wealthy people, come into the world with essentially no money and end up, at a pretty young age, being very rich.'

The accounts, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, became available for contributions starting July 4 and are open to children who won't turn 18 by year's end.

Every eligible child gets a one-time $1,000 seed contribution from the federal government, and family or employers can add more, up to annual limits. The money is invested — by default in an S&P 500 ETF, with more options coming — and grows, tax-advantaged, until the child turns 18. Parents can enroll for free at TrumpAccounts.gov.

Attendees included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and his wife, and NYSE President Lynn Martin, along with executives from Nasdaq and other major firms. Michael and Susan Dell pledged a $6.25 billion commitment — $250 each to the first 25 million qualifying children signed up for Trump Accounts.

At the event, Trump urged attendees to "go out and buy a Dell computer" — and Dell stock jumped more than 7% following his remarks.

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Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Numerous companies including Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Robinhood also pledged to match the government's initial contribution for employees' children's accounts, while SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said she would give company stock to Trump Accounts for more than 2 million children nationwide.

Trump touted the accounts as a way for children to "become very wealthy people ... come into the world with essentially no money and end up, at a pretty young age, being very rich" by adulthood, adding that between individual contributions and seed funding, roughly $800 million in new capital would flow into the stock market for children this week alone.

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