Almost anyone would have known this would be trouble

President Trump will force "Trump accounts" to own stock whether they want to or not.

Folks, teach your kids chess. Get them started at an early age and keep them playing. Games like chess will train them early to plan multiple moves ahead. "If I move my knight here, my opponent will move their rook here, and then I'll have to..." This is an invaluable skill for life.

If you want to see an example of what can happen to people who haven't learned to plan multiple moves ahead, look no further than the Trump administration. Earlier this year they launched a war against Iran without realizing that the Iranians could respond by strangling the world's oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

Now comes the news that they are making changes to so-called "Trump accounts" that could bring a whole host of problems that almost anyone could foresee.

The news, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is that the administration has decided donors can contribute company stock to Trump accounts, and those accounts can neither refuse the stock, nor sell them for five years. This follows the news that the administration is creating Trump accounts for 60 million American children whether the parents like it or not.

The U.S. Treasury press office declined to deny any of the details of the article.

To understand the possible issues, consider a socially conservative MAGA voter who is passionately anti-abortion and refuses to invest in companies that produce abortion pills, support abortions or Planned Parenthood, or that engage in stem-cell research. (This, incidentally, includes a lot of companies.)

Now imagine that MAGA voter wakes to discover that someone has donated stock in (say) a stem-cell research company to the Trump accounts of their children. They have no legal ability to stop the donation. They have no legal ability to sell the stock. There is nothing they can do.

To put in terms Team MAGA will understand: You lose. Tough cookies. Cry harder.

Naturally this can work the other way too. Environmentalists may wake to discover their children now own stock in, say, ExxonMobil (XOM) and there is nothing they can do. Liberals may find their children now own stock in gun makers like Sturm Ruger( GR) and Smith & Wesson $(SWBI)$ or weapons manufacturers.

You don't like it? Tough cookies. Cry harder.

Exaggeration? Not at all. Actually, some Trump accounts will soon receive donated stock in SpaceX (SPCX), run by trillionaire MAGA Bond villain Elon Musk.

Some of you may feel that such a government proposal is the very antithesis of "freedom." You may even wonder why or how such an idea could be proposed by a "Republican" administration.

If that's you, it suggests you may not be fully up with events of recent decades. Let alone the past 10 years. If you are still confused, I suggest you dig out a copy of the late James Thurber's famous fable, "The Bears and the Monkeys," in which a collection of bears in the forest are persuaded, by a smooth-talking monkey called Glib, to exchange the ring of freedom in their ears for a "ring of freedom" in their noses.

To capitalists, the idea of individual children owning stock is positive. A parent might give individual stock in a consumer company - Coca-Cola (KO), say, or Disney (DIS) or McDonald's (MCD) - to each child at an early age so they would grasp the idea of owning a part of a business.

The problem comes when the federal government tells you what stock to own. Actually, when it forces you to own a stock.

More amazingly, they are forcing your children to own individual stocks. So they are subverting both your personal freedom and your family. No, this is not your father's Republican Party.

Will everyone be forced to own Trump Media & Technology (DJT) stock? That would be good for five years' of laughs. What happens if, say, the New York Times Co. $(NYT)$ donates stock? The sound of MAGA outrage across the country would be deafening.

Tim Schwarz, the CEO of the conservative Roman Catholic-oriented Ave Maria mutual funds, agrees this could be a problem. "It seems overly restrictive if they are not allowed to sell the stock for five years," he tells MarketWatch. "The recipient should have the ability to sell the shares, if they object to the business practices of the company, from a moral standpoint."

The odds have to be strong that the administration, having launched this idea without thinking even two moves ahead, will now be forced into yet another awkward U-turn.

Meanwhile, parents, take this as a reminder to teach your kids early to think multiple moves ahead in life. Don't be like Donald Trump's parents.

-Brett Arends