The Trump administration on Monday announced plans to open 401(k) retirement plans to investments like crypto and private equity that are subject to far fewer safeguards than publicly traded assets like stocks and bonds. Critics warn the move threatens the retirement savings of millions of Americans while delivering a massive windfall for crypto and private equity moguls. The stakes are enormous: If Americans collectively shifted just 1 percent of their 401(k) assets into crypto and private equity, those industries would be flooded with more than $100 billion in new capital.

Free-market zealots have long wanted to gamble with the retirement savings of Americans. Republicans regularly fantasize about privatizing Social Security, handing over a wildly popular pillar of the social safety net to the whims of Wall Street. But the public strongly opposes the idea, so the president has turned to the next best thing. It’s the latest brazen example of Trump socializing risk and privatizing profit through his own pitiless brand of market capitalism—and yet another opportunity for him to haul off with loot on the backs of the American people.