US President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library for its dedication, in Medora, North Dakota, US, July 1, 2026.
Evan Vucci | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s crypto-related income and holdings in companies like Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia netted him many millions, according to his annual financial disclosure report.
“You know why I make a profit? Because the stock market goes up, everybody benefits,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
To be sure, in the first six months of the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.9%, marking its best performance for the first half since 2021. The S&P 500 rose 9.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 13%. The small-cap Russell 2000 rose nearly 22%, seeing its best first-half performance since 1991.
But not everyone has a share in the rise of the market.
Stock wealth is largely amassed by the wealthiest US households, research shows.
According to a Gallup Poll often cited by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 38% of American households have no exposure to stocks at all.
For investors, stock ownership is concentrated among the nation’s highest earners.
A growing wealth gap
As of the first quarter of 2026, the top 1% owned half of corporate stocks and mutual fund shares, or about $27.64 billion, according to the latest Federal Reserve data, while the top 10% of Americans held more than 87%.
Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of households collectively hold just 1% — or $590 billion — of that stock and mutual fund wealth.
“Half of Americans don’t own stocks,” said Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody’s. And “to be in the top 1%, you need to make more than $750,000 a year.”
Those trends, along with the recent bull market, have widened the wealth gap, he said.
“The booming stock market is very profitable for source funds, but it means nothing to most Americans,” Zandi said.
Bessent and other proponents of the soon-to-be-launched Trump Accounts say investing in American stocks can help reduce the gap by creating more wealth-building opportunities for children at all income levels.
“We need to put money in the pockets of all the babies being born so they can put together at the top of SpaceX, at Alphabet, at all of our big companies, like everybody else in the market,” said Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, who helped lead the investment accounts, during a June 12 appearance on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”
According to a new analysis by the firm McKinsey, the Trump Accounts could generate $80 billion to more than $900 billion in long-term wealth accumulation for the poorest families over the next decade. However, participation, contribution patterns and ongoing engagement are key factors in those outcomes.
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