California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trumps most persistent critics, on Friday urged California families to take full advantage of the federal $1,000 seed deposits available through Trump Accounts.
He hailed the newborn investment initiative as one of the really outstanding things this administration has done during a San Francisco news conference celebrating 1 million claimed accounts in Californias own child savings program. According to the New York Post, Newsom told reporters the program deserved bipartisan credit and urged Californians to enroll regardless of party loyalty, specifically praising Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., for championing the effort.
Trump Accounts, created under Section 70204 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, provide a $1,000 federal contribution to a tax-advantaged investment account for every U.S. citizen child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028. Parents, relatives, and employers may add contributions up to a combined annual cap of $5,000, with the money placed in low-cost stock index funds until the child turns 18, reinforcing a market-based approach to long-term savings.
Newsom appeared with his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, San Francisco Treasurer Jose Cisneros, and venture capitalist Brad Gerstner, whose nonprofit, Invest America, helped design the accounts. The governors praise marked a notable departure from his running feud with the White House, as his administration has filed more than 40 lawsuits against the Trump administration and recently escalated clashes over immigration enforcement in San Francisco.
Private capital has poured into the initiative, underscoring how publicprivate partnerships can expand opportunity without expanding government bureaucracy. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, committed $6.25 billion to fund $250 charitable deposits for up to 25 million children age 10 or younger in ZIP codes with median annual incomes below $150,000.
The semiconductor manufacturer Micron pledged $250 million, including community deposits for children in Sacramento and Santa Clara counties and a dollar-for-dollar employee match. In February, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $3.5 million anonymous gift to add $500 per baby born in the city this year, further amplifying the impact of the federal seed money.
Gerstner said Treasury plans to begin automatic account creation in October, ending the requirement that parents apply first and making it harder for families to miss out on the benefit. Federal projections cited in state reporting estimate a single $1,000 deposit could grow to roughly $243,000 by age 55 with no further contributions, a powerful illustration of compound growth in a free-market system.
Newsom paired his endorsement of the federal program with a push for CalKIDS, the California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program, launched in 2022. The state initiative automatically deposits $100 for every California newborn and up to $1,500 for low-income public school students, and his office said 1 million CalKIDS accounts have been claimed, with many more still unclaimed statewide.
The governor closed with a quip about political optics, joking that had California called its own program Newsom Accounts, it too would have drawn partisan attention, even as he effectively validated a signature Trump-era policy that harnesses private investment and personal responsibility to build generational wealth.
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