Brad Gerstner on 'Trump Accounts' and the Travel Leaders He Still Calls First

Altimeter Capital CEO and travel industry veteran Brad Gerstner opened custodial investment accounts for his two sons at birth — but it was his son Lincoln’s question at the kitchen table that led to a national policy.

“Well this doesn’t seem fair,” Lincoln said. “Why do we get these and what about the other kids?”

Gerstner said that was the spark for the Invest America initiative and the creation of “Trump Accounts.”

Under the new law, every American under age 18 will be eligible to open a tax-deferred investment account starting around July 4, 2026, and those born after December 31, 2024 will get $1,000 in government seed funding.

Several corporations, including Uber, Zillow, T-Mobile, Nvidia, Salesforce, and iHeartMedia, have committed to giving $2,500 to employees’ kids as a tax-free benefit.

“Of course, less than 5% of kids in America currently have [investment] accounts,” Gerstner told Skift. “And not surprisingly, the kids who do have the accounts are kids whose parents are pretty affluent. And so I grew up poor in Indiana, in a poor town. I have a really strong belief that there’s a massive unlocked potential in the country.”

The Travel Industry Created Ties That Bind

Early in his career, Gerstner was co-CEO of National Leisure Group, which was a major cruise seller; he led a General Catalyst investment into Orbitz; was a prominent travel angel investor, and founded Room77.

These days, with his Altimeter Capital investing billions of dollars in tech companies like Nvidia, Meta, Uber and Microsoft, Gerstner is a frequent CNBC guest and co-hosts the BG2Pod with Bill Gurley. Gerstner has been interviewed on stage at past Skift Global Forums.

Although the travel industry isn’t currently his focus, Gerstner still has deep ties, particularly with Zillow co-founder and Expedia founder Rich Barton, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who is also a former Expedia CEO.

“I’ve worked on a lot of things over the years, and my first two calls are generally to Rich Barton and Dara,” Gerstner said. “You forge friendships in the travel business 25 years ago, and we support each other. No questions asked. And because we trust one another, and if we’re passionate about it, then we know, we’ve done the work. And those guys’ early support [for Invest America] was monumental.”

Why Silicon Valley Gets Along With Trump

Gerstner said that Silicon Valley’s relatively warm relationship with President Trump has little to do with politics.

“I think part of the reason that Silicon Valley has had some success with this president versus [former President] Biden isn’t really about the political agenda as much as it is he’s a business guy, and he kind of moves at an entrepreneurial speed,” Gerstner said. “And there’s not a bunch of layers.”

A case in point: A couple of months ago, Gerstner said he told Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell – a member of the Invest America CEO Council – that “we need to get the president on board.”

Dell texted Trump, who texted right back and invited them to the White House to pitch it. The White House also held an Invest America Roundtable with Gerstner and prominent supporters in early June.

The Trump Accounts Name

The original idea was to call them Invest America Accounts, but the name “Trump Accounts” helped the legislation ultimately become law.

And the idea received bipartisan support, Gerstner said, who added that several CEO supporters of Invest America are Democrats. He had previously tried to get then-President Biden to go for the idea but it didn’t get traction.

Gerstner said Congress would need to “re-up” the $1,000 per child government funding in 2028, which he doesn’t think will be much of an issue. “We’ll see what people call them after he’s [Trump’s] out of office,” he said.

65 Million Kids

The original plan was to include children up to age 10, but Gerstner said it expanded to include all Americans under age 18 – around 65 million will be eligible, he said.

Newborns born as of January 1, 2025 get automatically enrolled and funded, but older kids have to sign up. Invest America, Gerstner said, will be working to ensure that as many kids sign up as possible.

For those children who have accounts, but were born before January 1, 2025, anyone — parents, family, friends, and corporations — can contribute a maximum of $5,000 annually per child.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon, he said, is an enthusiastic supporter and Gerstner would like to see sign-up materials included with other documents on the first day of school.

“I absolutely believe this most important thing I’ve done in my career,” he said. “But it’s like when you start business, and the moment that we just got funded. All right, so now we’ve got to go execute our asses off and make sure it lives up to its promise.”

Gerstner said he’s committed to making the accounts as equitable and powerful as they can be.

The investment accounts are “making every kid a capitalist, making every kid a true owner in the upside of America. We need to evolve the social contract to include the 70% who currently feel left out and left behind. And I think this is a powerful way to do it.”