John,
Trump just handed Wall Street the keys to the retirement savings of 100 million workers. His executive order, drafted after a years-long lobbying blitz, opens the door for private equity and other high-risk “alternative” firms to siphon fees, hide risks, and shove illiquid products into ordinary 401(k)s. This is a raid on the life savings of working people.
Instead of protecting retirees, Trump ordered regulators to lower legal safeguards, making it easier for employers to funnel workers’ money into the same private-market products that have already bankrupted hospitals, gutted housing, and loaded companies with crushing debt.
These products were once limited to sophisticated institutions for a reason, they are high-fee, high-risk, and designed to keep ordinary investors in the dark about what’s actually happening to their money.
If Congress doesn’t intervene, private equity firms will walk away with billions in fees while workers shoulder the losses. It’s the same playbook we’ve seen for decades: deregulate, mislead, extract, and leave working people holding the bag. Retirement should be secure, transparent, and protected, not a profit stream for Trump’s donors.
Tell Congress to block Trump’s retirement-raid scheme and protect America’s 401(k)s from Wall Street predators.
Private equity’s business model is built on secrecy and extraction. When these firms take over companies, jobs are cut, wages fall, and bankruptcy risk skyrockets. In nursing homes, hospitals, and housing, the consequences have been deadly. Now imagine that same model applied to the nest eggs of teachers, nurses, factory workers, and small-business employees.
These funds are notoriously illiquid, meaning workers could be locked into failing investments they can’t sell. The fees alone can swallow decades of returns. And because private equity disclosures are so vague, savers may never know the true level of debt, risk, or losses until it’s too late.
Wall Street sees trillions of dollars in retirement savings and wants a direct pipeline to it. Trump just gave them one. Congress must slam that door shut.
Tell Congress to act now before Trump’s order becomes a permanent green light for Wall Street to prey on workers’ retirement savings.
Together, we can stop this attack on retirement security and defend the future Americans have earned.
- DFA AF Team
