The simple detail Bessent struggles to grasp about putting Trump’s face on a $250 bill
Though it seemed absurd even by 2026 standards, The Washington Post reported Thursday that Trump administration officials have privately pushed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to prepare prototypes of a $250 bill featuring Donald Trump’s face. Existing federal law prevents living people from appearing on U.S. currency, but two political appointees at the Treasury Department reportedly prioritized this anyway.
Hours after the report reached the public, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared in the White House press briefing room, where he effectively confirmed the story, held up a piece of paper showing a mock-up of a $250 bill with the president’s image and presented a curious two-part defense of the scheme.
The first part of the secretary’s pitch was that the Treasury Department was simply being prudent: There’s a Republican proposal pending in Congress to create a $250 bill featuring Trump’s portrait, Bessent noted, so administration officials decided to prepare for its possible passage.
“We prepare for everything,” he argued, adding, “We have to prepare in advance.”
It was a difficult argument to take seriously. There is legislation pending on Capitol Hill, but it was introduced 15 months ago; it has few co-sponsors; it has never received so much as a hearing; it hasn’t been endorsed by House GOP leaders; and even if it were to somehow pass the lower chamber, it would need to clear a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, which is obviously unrealistic.
For Bessent to “prepare” for this, as if the bill might soon become law, is plainly silly.
But even more important was the other part of the Cabinet secretary’s pitch.
When a reporter asked Bessent whether it makes sense for administration officials to work on a new $250 bill for Trump, given the hardships so many Americans are facing, he responded with a question of his own: “Do you think we should have a 250th anniversary celebration?”
When the reporter noted that the nation will celebrate its semiquincentennial whether Republicans put Trump’s face on a new bill or not, Bessent replied, “I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the person who was president of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill.”
The answer reflected a fundamental problem with the administration’s perspective.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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