Trump Accounts: a BlackRock feeder in a baby blanket

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-11

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: Trump Accounts: a BlackRock feeder in a baby blanket

A White House launch with the NYSE bell, four corporate backers, and a thousand-dollar seed the Tax Foundation says benefits 'a minority' of 'relatively well-off' families — because the on-ramp was always the donors'.

They rang the opening bell from the Oval Office for this one. A BlackRock-branded baby blanket called Trump Accounts, with a thousand-dollar seed and an app you have to download, and we’re supposed to clap because Wall Street learned to spell ‘newborn.’

Here’s the part they hope you skim past: the corporate backers are BlackRock, Visa, Dell, and Edward Jones. BlackRock — the fucking biggest asset manager on earth — is thrilled to see six million families’ savings routed into low-cost index funds. The fees are ‘low-cost.’ The AUM is not. Every dollar a working family puts in is a dollar Wall Street gets to manage. That’s the whole business model: package the program, get the on-ramp, and let compound interest do the marketing for you.

The Tax Foundation looked at the signup and said it’s too damn complicated — only a ‘minority that benefits’ will actually use it, and that minority is ‘relatively well-informed, relatively well-off.’ Cato said basically the same damn thing: the thousand bucks is the only thing that matters, and most families would be better off with a 529 or an IRA they already understand. Cato also pointed out the early-withdrawal trap: a 10% penalty plus taxes if a kid takes the money out before 59½, unless it’s for college, a house, or a ‘personal emergency.’ Translation: a poor kid at 18 who needs to fix the car or help with rent gets penalized for being poor. The rich kid who maxes the five-thousand-a-year cap gets the two-hundred-seventy-one-thousand payout.

So the program they sold as ‘for the children’ works for the children who already have a 529 and a parent with a stockbroker. The kids it claims to help get the picture and the penalty. BlackRock gets the AUM. The White House gets the bell-ringing. The donor class gets the on-ramp. And we’re supposed to call it family values.

Eat shit. A BlackRock feeder pipeline in a baby blanket is not a policy for working families. It’s a Christmas ornament for the donor class.

Source story: Trump Accounts launch with $1,000 for newborns as experts question reach.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-11
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: tax
Storylines: trump-accounts
Primary entities: Donald Trump, White House, Tax Foundation, Cato Institute, Edward Jones, BlackRock, Dell
Themes: child savings programs, tax policy, economic policy
Floor values engaged: Equality & fairness, Accountability of power, Informed citizenship