Trump touts 401(k) growth; most don’t have one

Only 45% of private - sector workers participate in any form of employer-backed retirement plan

“As a political slogan, ‘How is your 401(k) doing?’ suggests (Trump’s) most interested in the one-third of people who have a 401(k).” AUSTAN GOOLSBEE ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL

President Donald Trump is trying out a new campaign slogan: “How’s your 401(k) doing?” The answer for more than half of Americans is that they don’t have one.

Trump has tested out the line this month at a fundraiser, a campaign rally and in a White House meeting, predicting that the rising U.S. stock market will help him win re-election. But only about 45 percent of private-sector workers participate in any employer-sponsored retirement plan, and the lower-income workers in Trump’s political base are the least likely to hold money in such an account, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Trump mentions the stock market almost daily in tweets or public remarks, taking direct credit for record highs by the Dow Jones Industrial Average and other indexes. But only about 14 percent of U.S. families directly own stocks, an asset class dominated by the country’s top earners, according to the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, the president also has rolled back efforts to expand retirement savings options to more middle-class and low-income workers.

For a president propelled into office in no small part by resentment that a broad swath of the country has been left behind while an entrenched establishment prospers, continual references to the stock market and 401(k) accounts risk alienating his supporters, said Austan Goolsbee, a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama.

“As a political slogan, ‘How is your 401(k) doing?’ suggests he’s most interested in the one-third of people who have a 401(k),” said Goolsbee, who teaches economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. “The more you highlight how great that group of financial winners is doing, you at least run the risk of angering and irritating the very people who revolted against what they perceived as the financial and political elites in the first place.”

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump’s statements reflect “a strong economy” that is “good news for everyone.”

“For the Americans that don’t have the opportunity to invest in a 401(k) plan or who choose not to, the Trump agenda of lower taxes, higher wages, and better jobs allows them to save more on their own, and potentially have a better chance of finding a job in the future that provides those benefits,” Walters added.