Trump Announces New Retirement Plan in State of the Union Speech

In President Donald Trump’s record-long State of the Union speech on Tuesday, he briefly mentioned a proposal to expand retirement account access to private sector workers.

Specifically, Trump took a few moments to announce a proposal to help millions of private sector workers who currently lack employer-sponsored retirement savings plans. Under the plan, these workers would gain access to new, tax-advantaged retirement accounts modeled after the federal Thrift Savings Plan—available to federal workers and members of the military—which is known for its low fees.

Trump highlighted the “gross disparity” between the roughly half of Americans with access to workplace retirement plans and those without. The proposed defined contribution program would allow eligible workers to receive government matching contributions of up to $1,000 per year, aimed to expand retirement savings opportunities for those who need them most.

The TSP reports on its website that, as of January, its expense levels are lower than all but 1% of the investment funds available on the FactSet market data platform.

A 2024 survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 67% of private sector workers and 39% of public sector workers had access to a defined contribution retirement savings account.

Trump did not elaborate on his plan, which seems similar to the Saver’s Match, established by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2027. The Saver’s Match program offers a government match of 50% on contributions to retirement accounts—up to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for couples below a certain income threshold.

Lawmakers from both parties have long supported expanding retirement savings options for workers without employer-sponsored plans. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has been a vocal advocate for creating a TSP-style retirement plan for private sector employees, even pushing for such legislation during the administration of former President Joe Biden. Secretary of State Marco Rubio championed similar policies while serving as a senator.

Another bipartisan effort, the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, which was reintroduced in 2025, would establish portable, tax-advantaged retirement accounts for eligible workers, with the federal government providing matching contributions for low- and middle-income savers.

Romi Savova, founder and CEO of PensionBee, says Trump’s proposal may have more staying power than previous iterations, such as former President Barack Obama’s myRA, which she says was more of a savings account.

MyRA was a Treasury-provided Roth individual retirement account invested in U.S. savings bonds, but Trump scrapped the program in 2017, insisting it had low uptake.

Mark Iwry, a former senior adviser to the secretary of the Treasury on retirement policy who is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says Trump’s proposal is “a potentially important step forward toward convergence.”

Iwry, who helped initiate the state auto-IRA movement, co-authored the Saver’s Match, and helped develop myRA, says the proposal shows the Trump administration endorses the principle of universal retirement coverage, building on the success of state auto-IRA legislation.

“In Contrast to other proposals, the federal Auto IRA legislation sponsored by Representative Richard Neal would deliver a breakthrough in coverage expansion carefully designed to enhance—not compete with or crowd out—the nation’s extensive, established private retirement saving system,” Iwry says.

Meanwhile, Savova says the success of Trump’s new proposal may hinge on how he leverages the private sector to provide the accounts.

“Feasibility and logistics aside, framing retirement as an investment in the S&P 500, rather than a savings account, is a move in the right direction both for policy traction and to bolster the policy’s goal of promoting long-term wealth building,” Savova says.