2026: Trump Accounts

What was it like to arrive in this country as a teenager with only $80 in your pocket? To not speak a word of English? To live in the subway stations? To face near-death health crises and not know if you could afford the care? To keep going anyway, without a place to fall and without permission to look back?

These are the questions I’ve wondered about you my entire adult life. You never answered them with a speech. You answered them with a life, and with a bet that a kid who insisted on moving forward could still become someone.

This year I was deeply inspired by Michael & Susan Dell’s gift: $250 invested into Trump Accounts for 25 million American children. A small stake, locked and invested for the long haul, so that by the time those kids come of age they have something meaningful of their own growing in their name. A reason to believe the future might already have room for them.

Nothing feels more fitting than your name and story beside those planting that seed for children who are only just starting theirs. Today, on your 71st birthday, it is my honor to donate $25,000 in your name toward the same accounts for kids who need that head start most.

October 21, 2026