Donald Trump wants his face on new $1 coins — Democrats are determined to stop him

Donald Trump is known to put his name and face on almost anything from steaks to airlines, even when he wasn't the U.S. President. But a group of Democratic senators won't let that happen anymore, as they have introduced a bill that would prevent the government from minting coins featuring President Trump's image. The bill, called the Change Corruption Act, was introduced by Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Nevada's Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, as per the official release. The U.S. Treasurer, Brandon Beach, confirmed that a coin with the president's likeness was set to be minted to commemorate 250 years to the day when the country was founded. The authors of the bill argued that “No United States currency may feature the likeness of a living or sitting President."

While the Treasury Department has the authority to mint the $1 collectible coins, the senators and the co-sponsors of the bill, lawmakers Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon, argued that there was a historical precedent of the U.S. not featuring a living or sitting president on a circulating coin. “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,” Senator Merkely said in a statement. “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,” he said. Furthermore, Senator Cortez suggested that the legislation was set to codify the country's tradition.

“Our legislation would codify this country’s long-standing tradition of not putting living presidents on American coins. Congress must pass it without delay,” she said. However, The Independent noted that with the GOP majority in both chambers of Congress, the bill faces a slim chance of becoming law. Given the GOP majority in both chambers of Congress and Trump’s firm control over his party, the bill faces a slim chance of becoming law.

Nevertheless, there are laws preventing living presidents from appearing on American currency that already exist. According to ABC News,  title 31 of the U.S. Code states, “Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities," and an amendment passed in 1866 also prohibits living individuals from appearing on currency. However, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which was signed into law by Trump in 2021, only banned living people from featuring on the reverse in a commemorative series. Thus, the coin with Trump's likeness can legally be minted if it follows the protocol.

Back in October, the U.S. Mint announced plans to create the commemorative $1 coins in honor of America's 250th anniversary. Confirming the news, Treasurer Beach shared two designs on X that could become final. The designs carried headshots of Trump, with phrases “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “1776 ~ 2026”. The draft image depicts the president in front of an American flag with his fist raised. 

If the proposed coin goes into minting, it wouldn't be the first time that a sitting American president got his face on American currency. As per the Independent, in 1926, a half-dollar coin was minted bearing the profile of President Calvin Coolidge in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being signed. 

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