On Monday, May 4, 2026, during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who said he wrote the Trump Accounts provision of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, described the accounts as a path toward Social Security personal accounts. “Here's the dirty little secret: Trump accounts are Social Security personal accounts,” Cruz said.
On the politics, Cruz said, “How did we get it done this time? Because we gave the money to babies and so the old people didn't get pissed.” He projected the next step: “Wouldn't you like to be able to keep a portion of your tax payments that you're paying already, and instead of sending it to Uncle Sam, wouldn't you like to have a Trump account just like your kid does?” He predicted, “within five years, that is going to have a really compelling constituency.” Fox Business reported that Cruz expects parents may support having their payroll taxes go into such accounts within five to 10 years.
The Trump Accounts in their current form: children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028 are eligible for $1,000 in federal seed money, and parents can contribute up to $5,000 a year. The White House has estimated that fully funded accounts could grow to as much as $1.9 million by the time a child turns 28. Social Security benefits are funded by workers currently paying payroll taxes, so, as Fortune noted, diverting today's tax payments would affect today's retirees.
Cruz's comments cut against the administration's public position. Trump has vowed not to touch Social Security benefits, and the White House describes the accounts as a way to build wealth. In July 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “In a way, it is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security,” but he clarified the same day that the accounts are “an additive benefit,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said they “will help supplement, not substitute, Social Security.” Linda Benesch of Social Security Works said Cruz laid bare a “two-pronged strategy to push Social Security privatization: Creating the Trump Accounts with one hand and gutting the Social Security Administration with the other.” Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare noted that a 2022 survey found just 15% of American voters back privatizing Social Security.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry previously dated Cruz's remarks to May 8-9, 2026; Fortune reported that he spoke at the Milken conference on Monday, and Common Dreams reported on May 8 that he spoke “this week,” so the date has been corrected to May 4. The entry said Bessent had “acknowledged” the accounts as a backdoor to privatization without noting that he clarified his remark the same day; it now does. It said the accounts went to newborns “precisely because that population can't yet vote”; Cruz's own explanation was to avoid upsetting older voters, and the entry now quotes him. The $1.9 million figure is the White House estimate for fully funded accounts. The title now quotes Cruz verbatim.