Donald Trump is once again trying to take credit for an idea that wasn’t his. Buried inside what he’s hyping as his “big beautiful bill” is a plan to give kids their own savings accounts— an idea first introduced years ago by Democratic Senator Cory Booker.
Trump’s version is called a MAGA Account, short for “Money Account for Growth and Advancement.” But this new branding is just that: a rebranding. In reality, Booker proposed nearly the exact same idea back in 2018 under the name “Baby Bonds.”
Booker’s original plan was straightforward: give every newborn in the U.S. a $1,000 government-funded savings account to help fight generational poverty and close the racial wealth gap. “This is about giving every child a fair shot,” Booker said at the time.
Now Trump has repackaged the idea with a red hat twist. The MAGA account is part of a larger Republican tax bill — officially titled “THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” — that includes nearly $5 trillion in tax cuts and deep slashes to safety net programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and green energy funding.
According to the proposal, children born between 2025 and 2028 would get $1,000 deposited into a MAGA account. Families could contribute up to $5,000 a year, and the money would be tax-free and locked away until the child turns 18, Newsweek noted. Only U.S. citizens “at birth” with a Social Security number would qualify.
Republicans are pitching this as a legacy policy. “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?” said Senator Ted Cruz, who is backing the savings account idea. He called it a way to help “every child born in America… benefit from the wonders of compound interest.”
But the legacy isn’t theirs. Booker already laid the groundwork, proposing that accounts be seeded based on family income and grow over time with additional government contributions. His plan was aimed at lifting kids out of poverty — not just scoring political points.
Trump, meanwhile, is promoting the MAGA account as a core part of his massive bill. “The Bill is GREAT. We have no alternative, WE MUST WIN!” he posted on Truth Social this week.
The bill also raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, imposes a harsh new tax on university endowments — potentially as high as 21% — and strips funding from elite institutions like Harvard, which Trump has repeatedly targeted.
Even members of Trump’s own party aren’t fully sold. “I sure hope House & Senate leadership are coming up with a backup plan,” wrote Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). “Because I’m not here to rack up an additional $20 trillion in debt over 10 years.”
So while Trump tries to rebrand an old Democratic idea with a MAGA logo and claim it as his own, the truth is simple: Cory Booker had the vision. Trump just slapped his name on it.
