The Trump White House has updated its projections of how much money children could earn from newly launched Trump accounts after criticism that its previous calculations made no sense.
After the account launched on Wednesday, the Trump Account website showed that by investing $0 per year, potential Trump Account recipients would receive $200,000 by age 55.
However, according to the Trump administration’s calculations, by investing $250 per year over the same period, recipients would only get $192,000 less than they invested, The Daily Beast originally reported.
The Trump Accounts website shows that investing no money will give account holders more returns than investing $250 per year. /trumpaccounts.gov
After the Daily Beast report uncovered the discrepancies, the Trump Account website quietly updated its projections of how much a newborn could earn through the Trump Account over a 55-year period.
The website now says Trump account holders who don’t invest any money into the account for 55 years will earn $243,000.
It also states that investing $250 per year would earn you $878,000 now, and investing up to $5,000 per year would earn you $13 million over 55 years, a staggering increase from the original forecast of $2.7 million.
The White House quietly updated its forecast for 55-year-old Trump account holders. /trumpaccounts.gov
The numbers are “derived from historical averages for the S&P 500,” the website said.
The White House did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on the various discrepancies.
A fact sheet from the Council of Economic Advisers outlines various investment return scenarios for Trump’s accounts. Those numbers appear to be largely different from those currently on the Trump account website.
Parents of children born between 2025 and 2028 (the year Trump is expected to leave office) are eligible to register their children for these accounts. The accounts, which start with a $1,000 deposit, are funded by the federal government through the Big Beautiful Act, Trump’s signature tax and spending bill.
Parents can use new IRS Form 4547 to register an account for their children. When the child turns 18, these accounts are converted to a traditional Roth IRA.
Trump administration officials also seem unable to accurately tally the numbers.
At a forum during the launch of the Trump account, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said investing up to $5,000 a year in the account could generate $1.1 million by age 28.
Levitt’s numbers are far higher than those promoted by the White House. / Wyn McNamee/ Getty Images
But the website said Wednesday that by age 27, with the maximum investment, the account would have $377,800. By Thursday, that estimate suddenly jumped to $742,000.
The president himself claims that by the time a Trump account holder turns 18, “the value of the Trump account should be at least $50,000 for every small contribution.”
He also claimed that if “the donations were a little bit larger,” the average amount in Trump’s account “would grow to $100,000, $200,000, or even over $300,000 per child.”
However, the updated website for Trump’s account states that if he contributes $250 a year, the account will reach $19,000 by age 18.
The Trump White House quietly updated its forecast overnight. / Wyn McNamee/ Getty Images
Math has never been a strong suit in the Trump White House. The president often makes up numbers to exaggerate his economic agenda.
Trump often claims that gas prices are below $2 nationwide, and just this week the president was called out for that false claim.
On drug prices, Trump claimed his administration could lower prices “1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%” as he claimed to use “certain talent” to hit “numbers that were not even thought possible.”
