President Donald Trump turned an ordinary Monday morning on Wall Street into a piece of political theater, ringing the opening bells for both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq from inside the Oval Office. Performing that double honor without stepping onto any trading floor made clear how closely Trump wants to bind his presidency to the direction of share prices.
A ceremony built around Trump Accounts
The Oval Office event doubled as a launch party for a program the administration calls Trump Accounts. The accounts are built for children, giving them a way to invest in stock indexes from an early age. Republicans wrote the idea into a 2025 tax and spending cuts bill, folding it into the broader package that reshaped fiscal policy for the year. As trading got under way, Trump predicted a boom. 'Its going to go up, I think the markets going to go through the roof,' he said, framing the moment as the beginning of something big for young savers.
Bessent says most families are shut out
Speaking before the bell ceremony, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out why the program matters. He argued that a large share of Americans never buy stocks at all, which narrows the group of people who actually benefit when markets climb. The rewards, he said, tend to flow to wealthier households, while other gains sit locked away for decades inside retirement plans that ordinary families cannot easily reach. '38% of American families do not have any exposure to our great equity markets,' Bessent said.
Weak approval on the economy
The choreography carried a political warning for Republicans. A June survey pointed to soft public support for Trump's handling of the economy. Conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, it found that just 33% of US adults approved of his economic leadership. That number underlines the risk in staging a celebration around rising markets: the gains simply do not reach many voters in their daily lives.
The market's recent run
The market's record looks strong on paper. The S&P 500 rose 17.9% in 2025, extending a stretch of powerful returns. The index gained 25% in 2024 and 26.3% in 2023, and both of those years fell under Democrat Joe Biden's presidency. So far this year the benchmark has advanced roughly 10%, keeping the upward trend intact even as the political ownership of those gains is disputed.
Inflation still clouds the picture
Inflation continues to shape how voters judge Trump's leadership. He won the 2024 election partly on a promise to bring costs down, yet prices have pushed higher since. Tariffs and the start of the war in Iran added fresh pressure on the cost of goods. The consumer price index climbed 4.2% over the past 12 months, up sharply from 3% when Trump began his second term in January 2025.
A pitch for wider ownership
Closing out the event, Trump argued that spreading share ownership more widely could help future generations build wealth. He highlighted the government support behind the new accounts and pointed to backing from several companies and billionaires. He also joked about how long it had taken to get the program going. 'We should have acted faster,' he said. The administration has continued to sell the plan as a way to pull more Americans into the market and widen who takes part in the economy.
