In his role as president and political gameshow host, Donald Trump loves to give away money (or at least pretend to) as he makes "amazing deals." As media scholar David Altheide explained to me, "President Trump’s relentless assault on American institutions, economic theory, and the world economy is front and center of the world’s media."
Trump’s faux daily press briefing and access is more akin to the established TV format of game show host. See 'Let’s Make a Deal.' The super game show host masquerading as a President is seeking ratings, approval and recognition….As it should be. Or not. Trump continues to play at being the star of the show, and in keeping with the entertainment format and media logic that got him his start, continues to strive to be the dominant personality of the world.
It is Trump’s understanding of “pocketbook voting” in the most literal sense (which includes turning the White House into a personal ATM for himself, his family, and inner circle) that may secure his and the MAGA movement’s hold over American politics for the foreseeable future.
During his first term in office, Donald Trump made sure to put his name on the COVID relief checks that were sent to the American people. In a country where most Americans do not have $1,000 in case of an emergency, these COVID relief checks were a literal lifeline. These checks also created a personal connection between Donald Trump and the tens of millions of low-information and undecided voters who ultimately decided the outcome of the 2024 election. In contrast, President Biden made a choice not to sign the COVID relief checks that were sent out during the first term of his presidency. Moreover, Biden promised the American people $2,000 in relief money and then reneged (the final check was $1,400). Biden was punished at the polls for this choice, which was one of many errors in that sunk his electoral fortunes and those of Kamala Harris and the Democrats.
Now Trump and his MAGA Republicans in Congress are continuing with the “Trump bucks” strategy. As part of Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” that is being forced through the Republican-controlled Congress (which is most certainly not “beautiful” for the American people as it takes hundreds of billions of dollars away from the neediest Americans and gives it to the very rich and corporations) the newest ploy is a proposed $1,000 in the form of “MAGA saving accounts” for children.
Business Insider reports:
The "big, beautiful bill" that aligns with President Donald Trump's broader economic agenda and was unveiled by House Republicans on Monday includes a so-called "MAGA" savings accounts for kids.
Within the bill's draft is the creation of "Money account for growth and advancement" accounts, or "MAGA accounts," laying out a pilot program to launch the accounts with $1,000 each.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas recently talked about the plan with Semafor after he pushed the idea to his fellow Republicans as they attended a party retreat earlier this month.
"The case I made to my colleagues is: We should ask ourselves in this bill, what will be the legacy that people will remember and talk about 10 years from now, 20, 30, 40 years from now?" Cruz said at the time.
In the House bill, the item is listed as the "MAGA Accounts Contribution Pilot Program." The plan would give parents with a qualifying child a "one-time credit of $1,000" that'd be payable into the child's account.
To be eligible for the program, the child must be a US citizen "at birth," possess a Social Security number, and have a birthdate after December 31, 2024, and prior to January 1, 2029.
In the House bill's draft, the MAGA accounts are specified as being "exempt from taxation."
If enacted beyond the pilot program, the MAGA savings accounts would be extended to children born before 2024 and who are under eight years old.
Trump and his MAGA Republicans’ “MAGA accounts” are a version of the “baby bond” program that Democrats, liberals and progressives have long supported in various forms. The right wing generally opposed such a program as “wasteful spending,” “socialism,” and “government handouts.”
That is just a government program, where this is very much designed to get the next generation to invest in the market.
You see a lot of young people who in public opinion surveys, say they have a negative view of capitalism and they embrace socialism....And what is powerful about this is, when every child has invested, it’s no longer an abstract idea.
We need your help to stay independent
It will be very difficult for an already ineffective and uncoordinated Democratic Party and its spokespeople to oppose these new “Trump bucks.” The most obvious challenge is that the Democrats will be accused of being “anti-family” and against “family values” and that they must hate children. The Republicans and the right-wing disinformation machine and echo chamber have spent decades branding the Democrats in that way.
Donald Trump and his Republican Party will also use “MAGA accounts” to summon up the zombie idea of “compassionate conservatism,” even though the American right has spent decades expanding and amplifying the culture of cruelty and a Terrordome that is now growing even faster under Trump’s direction.
In a new essay at the LA Progressive, social theorist Henry Giroux warns, "We are not witnessing a temporary crisis. We are witnessing collapse: of public institutions, civic imagination, and the ethical vocabulary that once made collective life thinkable. Neoliberalism, far from dead, has mutated into a violent form of capitalist necropolitics or neoliberal fascism, one that celebrates greed, rewards cruelty, and administers violence and death in slow and spectacular forms."
The Democrats will likely make the correct intervention that “MAGA accounts” are a distraction and bait-and-switch trick because they are a paltry substitute as compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars that the Republicans are cutting away from healthcare, education, food and housing assistance, the social safety net, science, protecting the environment, and other investments in the country and its well-being that offer much larger tangible benefits for children and young people and the American people as a whole.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, decades of political science and other research show that the American voter is not sophisticated. Their political decision-making is largely made in response to emotions, messaging and storytelling, more than a sophisticated understanding of facts and public policy. In total, the average American voter tends to be imagistic, emotional and biased towards immediacy and the short-term in their political decision-making. “Trump bucks” in their various forms are a tangible incentive to support Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.
As seen with the right-wing lie that millions of “illegal aliens” are receiving Medicaid, MAGA savings accounts will also serve as another attack point in the Trump administration’s racist and nativist campaign to end birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment. Per this argument, “if we are going to give $1,000 to children and families, then we need to make sure it is going to 'real Americans' and not 'illegals!’”
The Democrats and others who correctly see these MAGA saving accounts and other examples of “Trump bucks” as a ploy and long con that takes advantage of the American’s people’s economic desperation (and shortsightedness and lack of political sophistication) will likely protest that “MAGA savings accounts” are divisive and polarizing because they are not named something “unifying” and “tasteful” like “baby bonds” or “a child saving’s bond”. As the Democrats should have learned in 2016, “When they go low, we go high!” is not a winning political strategy or messaging. Politeness, moral superiority, and principles are no substitute for $1,000 when so many Americans exist in such a financially precarious state.
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
The potential for more “Trump bucks” to do substantial damage to the Democrats is reinforced by political consultant Stanley B. Greenberg’s new article in The American Prospect about the Democratic Party’s doomed 2024 presidential campaign(s) and the role of message discipline and branding in that defeat:
It was emblematic of the entire campaign: unable to focus on the most obvious line of attack, switched between different campaigns, did not battle to win each day, and allowed the opponent to score many free hits. Harris did indeed benefit immensely from her launch, the Democratic convention, and debate. But then it fell apart. In my post-election poll, the top reasons to vote for Harris were to save democracy and stop fascism and to save the Affordable Care Act—not the issues that were at the top of voters’ minds.
And after she lost, Biden said he would have won.
For the past 15 years, the great working-class majority has heard Democratic presidents and nominees praise the American economy. Along with the mainstream media and economists, they cheer it as “the envy of the world.”
Did our leader notice that the great majority have been largely treading water or worse for 25 years? The top 0.1 percent and 1 percent and 5 percent are devouring a growing share of income and especially wealth. At the same time, the obscene wealth of billionaires gives them tremendous political influence….
Democrats can learn from that moment when Harris was poised to win. She was for the middle class, mainstream on cultural issues, and pushing clearly and consistently for economic and political change.
Whatever the state of the economy and the country’s political life in 2026 and 2028 (it is a huge assumption that there will even be “free and fair” elections as the Trump administration expands its autocratic reach), the American people will be asking the respective candidates “What have you done for me lately?” and then saying, “Show me the money!”
The New York Times reports that Wednesday night, House Republicans changed the name of these proposed "MAGA Accounts" to make the connection between Donald Trump and this money even more explicit and undeniable. In the most recent version of Trump's "big beautiful bill," the $1,000 will now be deposited in a "Trump account."
The Times adds, "Under the bill, children born between Jan., 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2029, would receive the money, which would be invested on their behalf in financial markets. Once they had grown up, they could withdraw the proceeds to pay for certain expenses, including going to college or buying a house. The child’s parents, or other third parties, could also contribute to the account. While the benefit of the $1,000 initial investment from the government is clear, the accounts have otherwise puzzled tax experts."
Democrats need a concrete plan with clear deliverables if they want to take back power and begin to do the extremely difficult work of slowing down and eventually stopping Trumpism and the larger American (and global) authoritarian movement.
Shares