New dollar coin will have Trump’s scowling face on it

"President Trump’s self-celebrating maneuvers are authoritarian actions worthy of dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un," a Democrat said.

Out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shared the design for a new dollar coin featuring the president’s scowling face, making him the first living president to have his image imprinted on currency.

Bessent said the coin will “honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism” and that it “celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”

Related

Republicans are trying to print a $250 bill with Trump’s face on it

The coin has a more traditional eagle on the back, despite earlier rumors that Donald Trump wanted his face on both sides.

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The coin is unusual in that the faces of living political leaders generally don’t appear on money in democracies. The practice is usually reserved for monarchies like the U.K. or dictatorships, figures who want to show that their power is either absolute or ordained by God.

And U.S. law specifically bans living people’s faces from appearing on currency. The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 says a president must be deceased for at least two years before appearing on a dollar coin, and the 1866 Thayer Amendment bans any living person from appearing on U.S. currency, bonds, or other notes.

But the administration argues that the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which mandates that the Treasury create commemorative coins for the nation’s 250th anniversary, is a legal exception since it doesn’t explicitly ban a living president’s face from appearing on those coins.

U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said last year that the Treasury would mint a dollar coin with the president on both sides this year, and accused Democrats of being “triggered” for opposing it. The front would have a portrait of Trump on it, and the back would have a picture inspired by the image of Trump during an assassination attempt last year, Beach said.

In Congress, Democrats tried to pass a law to ban the Treasury from putting Trump’s face on the dollar coin. The “Change Corruption Act,” introduced by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), would ban the U.S. Mint from making any currency with “the likeness of a living or sitting president.”

“President Trump’s self-celebrating maneuvers are authoritarian actions worthy of dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, not the United States of America,”  Merkley said in a press release. “We must reject his efforts to dismantle our ‘We, The People’ republic and replace it with a strongman state by demanding strong accountability to prevent further abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

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