The Washington Post revealed that the administration of US President Donald Trump is seeking to print a $250 banknote with his image, in conjunction with the White House administration's plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding starting next July.
According to Fox News, Trump administration officials are pressuring the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to create experimental designs for a proposed $250 banknote with President Trump's image, even though federal law prohibits the appearance of living individuals on the U.S. currency.
The Washington Post reported that it would be the first time that a photo of a living person appeared on the U.S. currency in more than 150 years, as no one has appeared alive on the U.S. currency since 1866, when it was banned after the image of a mid-level Treasury Department employee appeared on a 5-cent banknote.
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Despite the legal and historical concerns the proposal has raised among government employees, Treasury officials justify the effort as tied to America's upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations, with supporters arguing that the commemorative coin would honor Trump and the nation's historic founding milestone.
Clinton mocks
Hillary Clinton scoffed at the high cost of printing the currency, writing on X: "The bill is worth $250: by the end of Trump's term, it will be enough to buy a gallon of gasoline and a can of eggs."
According to interviews conducted by The Washington Post with current and former employees of the agency in charge of the national currency, they confirmed that there have been repeated orders to this effect from senior Treasury Department political officials.
British illustrator Ian Alexander told The Washington Post that Trump had agreed to proposals, including adding the colors of the American flag and a logo commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Trump fires those who oppose him
A bill that would allow Donald Trump to implement his plan was introduced to Congress in 2025 as part of the multi-event anniversary celebrations in June and July, but it was not passed.
Patricia Suleiman, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printmaking, resisted the U.S. authorities' desire by raising legal questions and asserting that such a project would take years, but the Treasury Department fired her at the end of April.
In March, Suleiman was forced to authorize Trump's signature on future $100 banknotes, a precedent for a U.S. president in office; since 1861, only the signatures of the Treasury secretary and the Treasury secretary have appeared on U.S. banknotes.
Why are neighborhood photos banned on U.S. coins?
In the absence of any laws regulating the design of coins during the Civil War, banknotes featured images of living figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, until the incident of Bureau of Currency Director Spencer M. Clark in 1864, when he exploited the ambiguity of a congressional directive to honor explorer William Clark, putting his selfie on a 5-cent bill.
The move sparked widespread outrage in February 1866, prompting Rep. Russell Thayer to introduce a draconian legal amendment prohibiting the engraving or printing of the image of any living person on U.S. bonds, securities, or fractional currencies. Congress based on an old Republican philosophy dating back to George Washington, which was based on rejecting royal tradition and prohibiting the glorification of living leaders or the use of currency for political propaganda.
The ban remains in place today under federal law (31 U.S.C. 5114), with a narrow historical loophole related to coins that allowed for very rare exceptions, while the Presidential Coins Act of 2005 requires two years after the death of a president before a coin bearing his name can be issued.