Donald Trump Issues Executive Order for ‘America’s Bank Account’
Ewan Palmer, Newsweek, 3/27/25
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to overhaul how the federal government tracks and manages trillions of dollars in transactions.
Trump aims to improve how transactions are processed through the General Fund, which the White House describes as “America’s bank account.”
Newsweek has contacted the Treasury for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Trump has made reducing federal spending and “waste” a main priority of his second term, with Elon Musk‘s Department of Efficiency (DOGE) overseeing major cuts and the dismantling of federal agencies.
According to government estimates, between $233 billion and $521 billion is lost annually to fraud and improper payments—an issue Trump hopes to address with his latest order.
What to Know
The General Fund essentially operates as a check balancer for the U.S. government. It processes the government’s cash activity—including deposits, tax collections, and withdrawals—that finance federal operations.
In fiscal 2024, the General Fund reported $33.9 trillion in cash inflows and $33.6 trillion in outflows, according to government figures.
Trump’s latest executive order, titled “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse,” aims to give the Treasury Department greater power and control to ensure these transactions are properly recorded and managed.
The order says the moves are necessary because the Treasury requires financial information from executive departments and agencies “beyond what they currently provide” in order to prevent fraud.
Under the plan, the Treasury will gain greater authority to monitor and screen payments for fraud and improper disbursement before funds are released.
All executive agencies will be required to provide more detailed financial data to the Treasury to ensure “traceability” of every transaction.
Agencies that currently disburse funds independently—known as non-Treasury disbursing offices (NTDOs)—will have that function returned to the Treasury to provide centralized oversight and reduce duplicate financial reporting.
In fiscal 2024, NTDOs were estimated to be responsible for 181 million payments totaling more than $1.5 trillion, accounting for 22 percent of all federal disbursements, according to the executive order.
Trump signed another executive order to modernize how the government handles money, transitioning from “old-fashioned paper-based payments to fast, secure electronic payments.”
Trump said the use of paper-based payments to and from the General Fund imposes “unnecessary costs, delays, and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies.”
The government said maintaining the infrastructure and technology for digitizing paper records costs taxpayers more than $657 million in fiscal 2024.
Speaking to reporters while signing the order, Trump said that moving to electronic payments for all federal disbursements and receipts should have taken place “25, 30 years ago.”
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump on the “Protecting America’s Bank Account Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse” order: “The Department of the Treasury is the largest financial payment manager of the federal government and is responsible for safeguarding the General Fund but lacks sufficient controls to track transactions flowing through the General Fund to determine if they were proper. To enforce sufficient controls and ensure accountability to American taxpayers, the Department of the Treasury requires financial information from executive departments and agencies beyond what they currently provide.
“Financial fraud threatens the integrity of federal programs and undermines trust in government. Agencies’ past underinvestment in technology and longstanding challenges with access to accurate data have prevented them from more fully safeguarding taxpayer dollars against fraud and improper payments.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, posting on X, formerly Twitter: “Thank you, Trump, for this crucial order to help us root out fraud, waste, and abuse at the Treasury Department. We are full steam ahead at the Treasury.”
Trump, speaking to reporters while signing the “Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account” order: “It’s basically modernization of equipment and methods. We could let somebody else—whoever’s next, whoever that may be—do it, but it’s something that should have been done 25, 30 years ago.”
What Happens Next
A timeline for executive agencies to provide greater transparency to the Treasury regarding financial screenings has not yet been released.
The Treasury will stop issuing paper checks for all federal disbursements effective September 30.