“This is an important day for our nation and for the first lady,” Marc Beckman, executive senior adviser to first lady Melania Trump, said on Breitbart News Daily, previewing a new foster care initiative aimed at giving foster youth financial resources as they enter adulthood.
Beckman said, telling host Mike Slater ahead of the 11 a.m. Eastern event at the Treasury Department, that the first lady is “producing measurable results for our country again” and describing her as “an action-oriented leader” focused on “protecting our American children.”
Beckman said the first lady is moving “back on the foster care front” as America launches the “Fostering the Future accounts,” calling the effort “her idea” and saying she “architected this new financial resource” to help foster youth become “fiscally autonomous upon reaching the age of majority.”
“We’re giving foster children the same chance for asset ownership and long-term wealth building that every other American child has,” Beckman said. He added that the broader goal is to “help strengthen America’s workforce, our communities, and our economic future.”
Asked how the accounts would function, Beckman said foster youth often “move around from home to home, from family to family,” and that the initiative creates an “ownership opportunity” through “a portable account” belonging to the young person. “It’s theirs, it’s their asset, it’s about ownership,” he said.
Beckman said “the United States is giving” states “the ability to set up an account” and said “23 states, all red states,” are “committed already” to funding the accounts. “Once they’re funded, then these individuals, upon reaching the age of maturity can access them and use them as they wish,” he said.
The senior adviser said the accounts complement the first lady’s education support for foster youth through “Fostering the Future scholarships.” Beckman said the combination of education assistance and a financial account “allows for these individuals to be independently wealthy, and they can go and take care of themselves.”
Slater asked about a separate artificial intelligence event hosted by the first lady. Beckman said Trump had launched the “Presidential AI Challenge nationwide” and called it “the single largest American youth AI initiative.”
“We had 20,000 students, mentors, teachers participate from all 50 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico,” Beckman said, explaining that six winners from the K-12 competition came to the White House on Tuesday to receive awards from the first lady.
Beckman said the AI initiative was also aimed at moving “the concept away from policy and discussion into empowerment,” allowing students to build artificial intelligence platforms. “Kids created apps,” he said, noting that projects touched on “health care,” “friendship,” and “public policy.”
“They function, they work, and as a result, these kids won all kinds of awards,” Beckman said, adding that students received “money awards” as well as awards from “Amazon and Dell.”
Beckman said the participation of thousands of young people in the AI initiative could help prepare the country for future competition. “Now we have this legion of 20,000 K through 12 future adults in America that are learning how to use AI,” he said, adding that such efforts could help put the nation “in the lead when it comes to economy,” “cultural issues,” and “defense and military.”
“With the Fostering the Future accounts, we need to fund these accounts now,” Beckman said. He added that the initiative “should not be an issue of partisanship.”
“We’re just talking about America’s future,” Beckman said. “These kids don’t even know from red versus blue.”
Beckman called for additional governors and private sector supporters to participate in the effort.
“We need every governor who’s listening to your show to sign on and participate if they haven’t done so yet, as well as the private sector,” he said, adding, “We can accept private sector monies to support our next generation.”
Asked how people could get in touch, Beckman said they could contact him directly on X, Linkedin, and Instagram.
