Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added a new wrinkle to the debate over what to do about the future of Social Security, since experts have warned the social safety net will be depleted by 2033.
At a forum hosted by Breitbart News on Wednesday, Bessent claimed that the tax-deferred children’s investment accounts, called Trump Accounts in the Big Beautiful Bill, “is a back door for privatizing Social Security.”
The plan’s architect, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), claimed that giving $1,000 seed money from the Treasury to “every child born in America” will “help them begin the journey of savings and benefit from the wonders of compound interest.”
Bessent continued, “If, all of a sudden, these accounts grow and you have in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for your retirement, that’s a game-changer, too,” adding that Trump Accounts could make “everyone a shareholder in the success of the economy.“
The Associated Press called Bessent’s words “striking” because he used them to casually revive such a “polarizing issue.” In addition, Trump has long promised that he would never meddle with Social Security.
“Democrats quickly seized on the comment as a sign the GOP wants to revive a dormant but unpopular push to privatize the long-running retirement program,” the report said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee claimed, “Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security.”
As currently written, the “Big Beautiful Bill” provision does not “affect anyone’s Social Security benefits,” the report said.
The AP added that the White House did not immediately respond to questions about Bessent’s remarks.