‘The richest entity’: Trump says he wanted to do this risky thing in 2016 with Social Security. Would it have paid off? Christy Bieber Tue, October 13, 2026 at 7:15 AM EDT 8 min read GC=F +0.45% Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.
Each time President Donald Trump has campaigned for the Oval Office, he has promised to keep Social Security safe and to avoid fundamental changes to the benefits program.
Recently, however, the President raised eyebrows during a discussion of Trump Accounts (1), the new savings accounts aimed at getting young people invested in the stock market. While praising Trump Accounts, the President revealed a secret Social Security plan he said he'd originally hoped to implement early in his first term.
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"You know, I wanted to ride with Social Security being fully invested in the stock market in the first month of my first year. So 2016. Had we done that, Social Security would right now be the richest entity in the world," the President said.
This news comes as a surprise. Of course, the President did not take office until January 2017, so the date may have been a misstatement. Further, while actuarial publications have evaluated the potential impact of investing a portion of the OASDI trust fund in equities (2), the President didn't explicitly endorse this policy in 2016 or 2017.
In fact, when prominent Democrats accused then-candidate Trump of wanting to gamble with Social Security funds by putting the money into the market in 2016, PolitiFact (3) found the claim was mostly false. Only now, years later, has the President said investing the trust fund was one of his goals at the time.
"I was met with tremendous criticism by the Democrats and some Republicans because, you know, they felt it was risky. But had we done that, literally, if you look back, you'll see I wanted to do it so badly; I just felt the country had such upward potential. We didn't do that. Can you imagine if we did? People wouldn't be talking about Social Security difficulties. It would have been great," the President said.
Of course, the stock market has had an incredible run since 2016 (4). However, the market has also experienced prolonged downturns, and investing in equities carries inherent risks. Exposing the Social Security trust fund to those risks has benefits and trade-offs worth considering.
The Center for Retirement Research (5) evaluated the pros and cons in 2023, and CRR researchers pointed out that the proposal was far from unprecedented. Canada has invested in actively managed funds, and within the U.S., the Railroad Retirement Program and the federal Thrift Savings Plan both have equity exposure.
The Brookings Institute (6) also found that if the trust fund had invested 40% in stocks and 60% in Treasuries starting in 1984 (shortly after 1983 reforms), the trust fund would have had about $1 trillion more in reserve by 2015.
However, CRR identified real concerns, including potential problems with the government owning and controlling a large share of the stock market, as well as questions about how investments would be selected and whether agencies should use expected returns or risk-adjusted returns to evaluate the impact of equities on the plan's finances.
CRR also pointed out that the biggest problem wasn't the logistics, as other plans had addressed similar issues. The real obstacle is that the government no longer has a sizable trust fund to invest.
This has become even more true in recent years. Now, with Social Security's trust fund expected to run short as early as 2032 (7), the opportunity to save the trust fund through investing alone has likely been lost, if it ever existed as a truly meaningful option in the first place.
While President Trump can celebrate the fact that "we're doing a version of [his proposed Social Security investment plan] with children, with young children; they're going to be riding the markets, and it's going to be a great thing for them," the fact remains that Social Security needs a real solution — not wishful thinking about how things might have turned out had the program been invested in the markets years ago.
As an acceptable fix gets harder to find, retirees may want to explore ways to shore up their finances so they stay financially secure, no matter how Social Security changes in the coming years because of the trust fund's financial issues. Fortunately, there are options.
In theory, investing the trust fund could help stabilize Social Security because equities can often provide better returns than the bonds the Social Security trust fund is currently invested in (8).
While it's an open question whether Social Security should be in the market, most experts believe that individuals saving for retirement do need equity exposure. The good news is, Acorns makes that exposure easy, even effortless.
With Acorns, you can invest automatically by simply signing up and linking your accounts. Acorns then rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar and invests the difference. For example, if you make a $3.50 purchase, $0.50 is invested.
Acorns lets you invest in dividend ETFs with just a $5 minimum, and with Acorns Later, you can open an IRA to get generous tax breaks for retirement savings. You even earn a 3% IRA match in your first year as an Acorns Gold investor (9).
Check out Acorns today to automate your investing and start building a secure future for yourself, even if Social Security doesn't play as big a role in supporting you as you may have hoped.
Read More: Vanguard reveals what's coming for U.S. stocks — and it could be bad news for this group of investors
One risk of investing the Social Security trust fund is that even sound investments can perform poorly under specific economic conditions. You face this same risk (on a smaller scale) while investing for your own retirement.
The good news is, you can mitigate the risk by building a diversified portfolio. And opening a gold IRA with the help of American Hartford Gold can help you do that. A gold IRA offers generous tax breaks, plus the added benefit of holding physical gold or gold-related assets in your retirement account.
Gold has historically served as an inflation hedge and can help cushion you against economic uncertainty. It can round out your portfolio so you aren't overexposed to equities.
Even better, you may be eligible to roll over existing 401(k) or IRA accounts into a gold IRA without tax penalties, which can make getting started easier.
To learn more, get your free information guide on investing in precious metals.
Qualifying purchases can also receive up to $25,000 in free silver.
While gold is one part of a diversified portfolio, you need a broad mix of assets to build financial security. And Moby can help you find the right ones.
Moby delivers stock and crypto reports directly to you, with research and recommendations guided by former hedge fund analysts and informed by hundreds of hours of reviewing financial news and data.
Moby's stock and crypto insights, plus its up-to-the-minute market news, can reduce the guesswork in choosing which assets deserve a place in your portfolio. And Moby's proven results speak for themselves, with its recommendations beating the S&P 500 by almost 12% on average. There's even a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Plus, because the reports are easy for beginners to understand, you can become a smarter investor in just five minutes, even if you're starting with little knowledge.
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We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
X (1); Social Security Administration (2), (7), (8); PolitiFact (3); Macrotrends (4); Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (5); Brookings Institution (6); Acorns (9)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
