Trump says Musk's SpaceX share giveaway will run through Trump Accounts

President Donald Trump said on Monday that Elon Musk’s pledge of one SpaceX share to every American child will be delivered through Trump Accounts.

“A BIG THANK YOU to our legendary friend, Elon Musk, for his incredible generosity in giving SpaceX Stock to millions of American children through TRUMP ACCOUNTS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling it “exactly what was envisioned” when the programme was created.

Musk had made the promise hours earlier on X: “Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” he wrote, calling it “the first of many”. It came a day after Anthropic said it planned to commit five per cent of its shares to a “public benefit fund”; Musk replied that Anthropic should give the shares directly to the public.

The economics are large: SpaceX shares closed Monday at $147.96 and, with roughly 73 million under-18s in the US per Census Bureau data, the giveaway could be worth nearly $11 billion. Musk owns up to 6.4 billion SpaceX shares, according to the company’s August SEC filing.

The Treasury has autoenrolled tens of millions of children in Trump Accounts, and new rules issued last month created a path for wealthy donors to contribute stock to children’s accounts — potentially with tax benefits, since stock gifts avoid capital-gains taxes and can create deductions against other income. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment, and finer details remain unclear.

More: SpaceX

Sources

• Wall Street Journal: “Musk Vows to Give Each U.S. Child a SpaceX Share” — https://www.wsj.com/business/musk-vows-to-give-each-u-s-child-a-spacex-share-273bc71c
• Washington Examiner: “Trump thanks ‘legendary friend’ Musk for pledging SpaceX stock to Trump Accounts” — https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4771527/trump-elon-musk-6-billion-shares-spacex-stock-trump-accounts/