Trump’s name and face already adorn national park passes, U.S. passports, and federal buildings around Washington. This week he added the nation’s currency to that list: the $100 bill now carries his signature alongside the Treasury secretary’s, breaking with a 165-year-old tradition of pairing the treasurer’s signature with the secretary’s.
CNN reports:
President Donald Trump posted a new image Friday of a $100 bill bearing his signature, months after the Treasury Department announced that, for the first time, a sitting president’s signature would be featured on US paper currency.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Saturday touted the president’s economic achievements and said it is “only appropriate” that currency bearing Trump’s signature be issued in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday. “There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his signature, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial,” Bessent posted on X.
The image Trump posted shows the president’s signature above Bessent’s. Previously, the $100 bill featured the signatures of the Treasury secretary and the treasurer of the United States, but not the sitting president. …
Trump has made it a passion project to get his name and likeness on an array of US documents and landmarks. His administration also has put his image, name or both on a commemorative US passport, national parks passes, banners on various agency buildings in DC, cultural institutions like the US Institute of Peace and special investment accounts for babies. Florida also renamed Palm Beach International Airport after him. …
Some in Congress have wanted to go a step further and put Trump’s likeness on currency, introducing a bill to get his portrait on a $250 anniversary bill. That outcome is far less likely, given it would need the support of Democratic senators in Congress.
This isn’t, fundamentally, about currency design. It’s about self-aggrandizement. It is driven by the same instinct that has already seen him attach his name or likeness on passports, park passes, and federal buildings. As our own Andy Craig wrote in April, Julius Caesar putting his own image on coinage was seen as an outrage, associated with assuming the title of dictator for life. Polling conducted when the change was first announced found nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of Trump putting his signature on the bills. Of course, he did it anyway. No vote, no bill, no debate, no authorization from Congress. Treasury just changed the signature, and that was that.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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