Imagine President Trump and former Australian Prime Minister Keating ending up on a “unity ticket” on the subject of superannuation!

Who would’ve thought that President Donald Trump and former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating would end up on a “unity ticket” on any subject? However, it looks like the US leader is looking for a Trump bump from Mr Keating’s ‘baby’ called superannuation!

This is the story from the Oval Office: the President recently was in high praise of our super system and is looking at adapting it for the US situation and his plan to raise his country’s birth rate.

This comes as US mega-wealthy entrepreneurs Michael and Susan Dell have gifted US$6.25 billion to under 11 years American children, who’ll receive US$250 if their family income is under $US150,000 and they live in specific zip codes. (Kids living on 5^th Avenue, New York, need not apply!)

This looks like a complementary piece to the President’s “Trump accounts”, where children born in his second term will get $1,000, which others can add up to $5,000 a year and must be left until the child reaches age 18.

Like super, the money will be in a broad stock market index-like exchange traded fund and should snowball into a decent sum over 18 years, especially if parents and others add money to it.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shown a lot of interest in our super system, with our ambassador, Kevin Rudd, recently hosting a session where our super system was on show.

The President said:

"We are looking at programs. There’s a certain Australian plan that people are liking and they’re talking about … not for children, necessarily, but it’s for people, working people," adding "we're looking at it very seriously, it has worked out very well.

"It's a good plan," he concluded.

While Americans have a kind of superannuation plan called 401K. It’s voluntary and you can select automatic payments and withdraw your money early. But before 59.5 years of age there could be a 10% penalty tax, though if you’re leaving a job it might not apply.

So, it’s like our super system but with less strict rules and it is voluntary, where ours is compulsory.

There are a number of reasons why the Trump team would be interested in our super system. Here are some of those reasons:

1. It boosts national savings
2. It reduces pensions and helps lower budget deficits.
3. It can reduce the need for government-funded social welfare.
4. It’s the fourth biggest pension pool in the world, which is impressive for a country that ranks 54^th in the world based on population! (We’re now around 28.2 million.)
5. Our super funds invest about US$400 billion and that’s expected to hit US$1 trillion over the next decade.

While it doesn’t look like the Trump team will do a wholesale copy of our super system (compulsion is very un-American), it looks like there could be a US adaption of our superannuation model.

I know it’s tempting to ‘judge’ Donald Trump on some of his more outlandish actions, such as his excessive Liberation Day tariffs and his brash American ways, but his entrepreneurial roots and respect of common sense solutions often make him look like the kind of politician many normal people want, when they see their own leaders look like time wasters and promise-breaking plonkers.

Like any human being, Trump is not without his shortcomings. But as a man of action, he does show up those politicians who are all talk.

One guy who’d like this Trump superannuation fascination and might be willing to cut the President some slack, would be another man of action, and that would be Paul Keating.